Essay On Valley Forge

[Hildegard Lobach]

Provisionswere available during the early months of the encampment. For example, army records of the food shipped to camp in the month of January 1778 reveal that the men received an average daily ration of one-half pound of beef per man. The most serious food crisis occurred in February, when the men went without meat for several days at a stretch. Shortages of clothing did cause severe hardship for a number of men, but many soldiers had a full uniform. At the worst point in early March, the army listed 2,898 men as unfit for duty due to a lack of clothing. During this time, well-equipped units took the place of their poorly dressed comrades and patrolled, foraged, and defended the camp.

On December 19th, 1777, 12,000 soldiers and 400 women and children marched into Valley Forge and began to build what essentially became the fourth largest city in the colonies at the time, with 1,500 log huts and two miles of fortifications. Lasting six months, from December until June, the encampment was as diverse as any city, and was made up of free and enslaved African American soldiers and civillians, Indigenous people, wealthy officers, impoverished enlisted men, European immigrants, speakers of several languages, and adherents of multiple religions.

Concentrating the soldiers in one vast camp allowed the army to protect the countryside and be better able to resist a British attack, but it became costly when lack of supplies and hunger afflicted the inhabitants, and diseases like influenza and typhoid spread through the camp. While there was never a battle at Valley Forge, disease killed nearly 2,000 people during the encampment.

Through the duration the encampment, Washington inspired the soldiers through his own resilience and sense of duty. He persuaded Congress to reform the supply system and end the crippling shortages, and attracted experienced officers to the cause, including former Prussian officer Baron von Steuben, who was assigned the task of training the troops. Von Steuben taught the soldiers new military skills and to fight as a unified army. These reforms in supply systems and fighting tactics, along with reforms in military hygiene and army organization, became the foundation of the modern United States Army.

Indigenous Peoples occupied the area in and around what is now known as Valley Forge National Historical Park as early as 10,000-8,000 BP (before present), enjoying the abundance of food and shelter offered by the river valley environment. The last native people to inhabit the area were the Lenape, also known as the Delaware. Europeans began to settle the region in the late 17th century and pushed out the natives. By the time of the encampment in 1777, most of the land in the vicinity had been cleared for agriculture.

Within what is now the park, 18 landowners established fairly prosperous farms on the choice agricultural soils. Along Valley Creek, an iron works named Valley Forge was established, and a small industrial village including charcoal houses, a saw mill, grist mill, and company store grew up around it. The slopes of Mounts Joy and Misery were wooded and were frequently cut over to supply wood for making charcoal to fuel the iron forge.

On arrival in December 1777, a Continental soldier would have seen an open, rolling landscape divided into many small crop fields and pastures by fences and hedgerows; woodlands and charcoal hearths on the mountains; and the smattering of structures in the Village of Valley Forge, including the ruins of the forges themselves - burned during a raid by the British three months earlier.

The winter encampment at Valley Forge is one of the most famous episodes of the American Revolution. The significance of the encampment lies both in its fact-based history and also its storied myth. The mythical narrative is important in its own right for it reveals something about our character in the heroic way we wish the Revolution to be remembered. The popularity of the myth also speaks to its usefulness. Valley Forge remains a touchstone - always ready to minister to a generation in crisis.

To fully appreciate the significance of what occurred at Valley Forge, the event must be placed in the context of the entire American Revolution. Few Americans appreciate the scope of the war. Many do not realize that the war lasted for eight-and-a-half years, was international in scale, or that the American army campaigned in areas as far north as Canada, as far south as Georgia, and even west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The Valley Forge encampment occurred during the third year of the war. Early successes against a smaller British army had led some Revolutionary leaders to believe that the righteousness of their cause and a militia-type force composed of citizen soldiers would be enough to force the British from America. By the time of Valley Forge, however, most Americans realized that the Revolution would be a long, drawn-out affair.

In the two key battles of the Philadelphia campaign, Brandywine and Germantown, the Americans fought with skill and courage. Though they lost both battles, as well as the capital at Philadelphia, the Continental Army emerged from these experiences with a confidence like that of an underdog sports team that had thrown a scare into the champion:

With the British ensconced in Philadelphia, Washington and his general officers had to decide where to encamp for the winter. As he chose a site, Washington had to balance the congressional wish for a winter campaign to dislodge the British from the capital against the needs of his weary and poorly supplied army. By December 12, Washington made his decision to encamp at Valley Forge. From this location 18 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Washington was close enough to maintain pressure on the enemy dwelling in the captured patriot capital, yet far enough to prevent a surprise attack on his own troops. From here the Continental Army could protect the outlying parts of the state, with its wary citizens and precious military stores, as well as the Continental Congress, which had fled to York, Pennsylvania.

Perhaps the most notable suffering that occurred at Valley Forge came from a factor that has not been frequently mentioned in textbooks: disease was the true scourge of the camp. Men from far flung geographical areas were exposed to sicknesses from which they had little immunity. During the encampment, nearly 2,000 men died of disease. Dedicated surgeons, nurses, a smallpox inoculation program, and camp sanitation regulations limited the death tolls. The army kept monthly status reports that tracked the number of soldiers who had died or were too sick to perform their duties. These returns reveal that two-thirds of the men who perished died during the warmer months of March, April, and May, when supplies were more abundant. The most common killers were influenza, typhus, typhoid, and dysentery.

The army interred few, if any, of its soldiers who perished within the lines of the camp. Doctors dispatched the most serious cases to outlying hospitals, both to limit disease spread and also to cure those individuals who could be saved. The army buried the soldiers who died in these out-of-the-way care facilities in church graveyards adjacent to the hospitals. These scattered Southeastern Pennsylvania gravesites have never been systematically commemorated.

Valley Forge was demographically, militarily, and politically an important crossroads in the Revolutionary War. Recent scholarship shows that a mix of motives was at play, particularly in the minds of men who enlisted in early 1777. Some of these men served out of patriotism, but many served for profit or individual liberty (as in the case of enslaved, indentured, and apprenticed peoples), and many more were coerced, as most colonies, on the advice of Congress and pressure from General Washington, introduced conscription in 1777.

European recognition augmented congressional reforms. French assistance was crucial to the success of the Revolution. Starting in 1776, vital French aid in the form of military materiel flowed to America. The efforts of American agents in France and the strong performance of the continentals at the Battles of Saratoga and Germantown convinced the French to do more than provide covert aid. At Valley Forge in the spring of 1778, the army joyously celebrated the formal French recognition of the United States as a sovereign power and valuable alliance with this leading European nation. Though it would take years to bear fruit at Yorktown in 1781, the alliance provided Washington with assistance from the formidable French navy as well as additional troops he needed to counter British marine superiority.

At the Village of Valley Forge, a musket factory was established even before the revolution ended. In the 19th century, iron mills and later a steel mill were operated there, as well as textile factories; saw, paper, and grist mills; wharves and a towpath associated with the Schuylkill Navigation Canal; a rail line with freight and passenger stations; stone and sand quarries; a water bottling plant; and enterprises including a hotel, stores, blacksmiths, and a tannery. The thriving community included dwellings, religious institutions, and schools.

Discover more about the history and significance of Valley Forge National Historical Park by reading the park's Foundation Document. Learn more about the American Revolutionary War in the National Park Service Handbook of the American Revolution.

One of the legends or myths of Valley Forge is that Washington prayed for his country here. We do not say that he did not pray at Valley Forge, there simply is an open question as to how he did so and if he actually was witnessed in prayer. There are a number of artists who represent Washington kneeling in prayer, some in the snow, some in the grass of a glade in the woods. There are even separate versions of the story. There was a guide in the 1920's and 1930's who would give tours and show the "exact spot upon which the General kneeled in prayer." Washington offered a day of thanksgiving and supplication to his Maker for all of the troops on numerous occasions throughout the entirety of the war...whether his private time in prayer was witnessed by Isaac Potts or the Marquis de Lafayette and Peter Muhlenberg ... is open for debate. Check out the article below, written in 1945 for the publication printed by the Valley Forge Historical Society at the time.

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