While historians disagree as to the seriousness of the threat to Washington's leadership during the Valley Forge winter, the most organized of these threats (albeit loosely-organized) was the so-called Conway Cabal. The cabal consisted of a handful of military officers and American politicians who attempted to replace Washington with Major General Horatio Gates as the head of the Continental army. The movement was nominally led by Thomas Conway, a foreign Continental army general and critic of Washington's leadership. If the cabal ever posed any real threat to Washington's leadership, a series of leaks and embarrassing exposures in the fall and winter of 1777 and 1778 dissolved the threat. Thanks to the demise of the cabal, following the Valley Forge encampment George Washington's reputation in the American war effort improved.