Although he has been described as a tactful and competent administrator who improved the colonial postal service,[5] Tryon became unpopular first because he obeyed the instructions of his superiors prior to the war and then disobeyed them during the war by being overly harsh in his conduct of the war in the neutral ground in New York. For example, historian Thomas B. Allen notes on p. 202 of his book Tories that 'Tryon's desolation warfare shocked many British officers and outraged Patriots.' According to Allen, 'Joseph Galloway, a leading Tory, charged that marauding and even rape was officially tolerated by the British and the Loyalists.