In early 1778, midway between the The remedy was on its way. As
beginning of the American Revolu- early as 1776, the French had been
tion at Lexington and Concord and secretly supplying more than 90 per-
its military climax at the Battle of cent of the young American rebel
Yorktown, the American struggle army's gunpowder and many of its
was faltering. "Our affairs," wrote muskets, cannon, uniforms, and
General George Washington, "are in tents.
a more distressed, ruinous,...