The farms located on the north side provided forage for the Continental Army, the location of a camp market where farmers from this vicinity could sell their produce to the army, and the center for commissary operations. The bridge connection also made the camp more secure as patrols could range the country to the north and east to check British movements and intentions in that quarter.
Even though camp markets and the establishment of a center for commissary operations brought food and supplies into camp, the establishment of the winter camp so close to the British caused the men additional hardship. Instead of being able to focus on building the camp and obtaining much needed rest, the troops had to expend energy on security operations. The men spent extra-long hours on duty patrolling, standing guard, and manning dangerous outposts near the city and the enemy.
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, 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.
The scale of the Valley Forge encampment was impressive. The number of soldiers present ranged from 12, in December to nearly 20, in late spring as the army massed for the campaign season. The troops who came to camp included men from all 13 original colonies and regiments from all of them except South Carolina and Georgia.
The encampment brought together men, women, and children of nearly all ages, from all walks of life, of every occupation, from different ethnic backgrounds, and of various religions.
Although most soldiers came from a Protestant background, Catholic and Jewish personnel also were among those in camp.
Civilians played a key role in the encampment. The local community was largely Quaker. Most of the nearby prominent farm and industrial families were members of the Religious Society of Friends. These persons and their Scottish, Irish, and German neighbors assisted the army to varying extents as their sentiments ranged in degree from staunch patriot to fervent Tory.
Distressed and haughty New England officers in camp leveled their most impassioned complaints at the locals who did not appear to support the cause. In spite of the resentment leveled at them, it was often the Quakers and other religious societies such as the Bethlehem and Lititz Moravians and the Ephrata Cloister members who rendered valuable assistance to sick soldiers while many citizens stood aside.
Within this civilian climate, the army was able to stabilize its situation and concentrate on a much-needed training program. 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 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 As well, the participants had different values, and especially different ideas about what words such as liberty, equality, slavery, and freedom actually meant in practice.
Valley Forge provides a site for exploring this complicated story and examining the multiple perspectives of those involved there — from soldiers to citizens, officers to enslaved Americans, from women to American Indians — the encampment was a microcosm of a revolutionary society at war.
Also important, the ideas and ideals held dear by Americans today were not forged at Valley Forge, but rather contested — not just between patriots and the British — but also among different Americans.
Valley Forge and the Revolution put the United States on a long road to defining those ideals in ways satisfactory to all — a process still in the making. Despite the difficulties, there were a number of significant accomplishments and events during the encampment. Because of its far-reaching consequences, the single most noteworthy achievement was the maturation of the Continental Army into a professional force under the tutelage of Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Steuben.
At the same time he realized that American soldiers would not submit to harsh European-style regulation. Von Steuben did not try to introduce the entire system of drill, evolutions, maneuvers, discipline, tactics, and Prussian formation into the American army:.
I should have been pelted had I attempted it, and should inevitably have failed. The genius of this nation is not in the least to be compared with that of the Prussians, Austrians, or French.
Instead, von Steuben demonstrated to the men the positive results that would come from retraining. He provided hands-on lessons, and Washington's independent-minded combat veterans were willing to learn new military skills when they saw immediate results. These attempts to escape the cold unintentionally allowed a dampness that bred disease.
John B. Copious supplies of food were nearby. Gristmills abounded…the harvest had been abundant. General Thomas Mifflin, who was in charge of the transportation, also posed a problem. Mifflin preferred the glory of the battlefield to the tedium of logistics, so he ignored his job and the problems that came with it. By Christmas, General Washington was compelled to write:.
The Pennsylvania winter caused the soldiers to feel keenly the lack of clothing and food. It was not only the cold and the hunger that plagued the encampment, but also disease. The most common killers of the troops were typhus, dysentery, influenza, and typhoid. Although officers were ordered to check cabins twice daily for cleanliness, excavations at Valley Forge indicate that most soldiers simply threw the remains of their meals into the corners of their huts.
The combination of crowded cabins, unwashed bodies, and decaying refuse greatly contributed to the unsanitary conditions at camp. The soldiers who died were often stripped of their clothing, which was then passed on to other soldiers, spreading even more disease. He taught them to efficiently load, fire and reload weapons, charge with bayonets and march in compact columns of four instead of miles-long single file lines. While many historians consider the Battle of Monmouth a tactical draw, the Continental Army fought for the first time as a cohesive unit, showing a new level of confidence, according to the American Battlefield Trust.
The Americans used artillery to hold off British troops and even launched bayonet counterattacks—skills they had sharpened while drilling under von Steuben at Valley Forge.
Following British victories at the Battle of Brandywine September 11, and the Battle of the Clouds September 16 , on September 18 General Wilhelm von Knyphausen led British soldiers on a raid of Valley Forge, burning down several buildings and stealing supplies despite the best efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton and Captain Henry Lee to defend them.
Valley Forge: Overview of history and significance. National Park Service. Monmouth, American Battlefield Trust. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. By December , Washington was well aware that some members of the Continental Congress were questioning his leadership abilities.
December 23, dawned cold and dank over the hills of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the scent of snow in the air. When George Washington took command of the Continental Army in , America was fighting a war on two fronts: one for independence from the British, and a second for survival against smallpox. Because Washington knew the ravages of the disease firsthand, he understood that the This was truly a filthy, filthy mess.
We would still be a colony of Great Britain. It features historic sites north and west of Philadelphia with ties to events in the final four months of Decker, visitors bureau president.
Although a guide brochure with driving directions is available from the visitors bureau, no signs mark the tour route. I would not advise doing the entire tour in one weekend, as recommended. It features 11 places in five counties, including too many historic houses to enjoy on one trip.
It will open a Revolutionary War exhibit Sept. Hopewell made cannons for the American navy during the Revolutionary War, said ranger Steve Shore, plus thousands of rounds of shot and shell for the army and navy.
But I also enjoyed three other houses: Waynesborough, home of Revolutionary War hero Anthony Wayne; Pennypacker Mills, where Washington and his army camped; and Peter Wentz Farmstead, which Washington used as his headquarters before and after the battle of Germantown. The battle of Brandywine occurred because British Gen. William Howe intended to capture Philadelphia, capital of the rebellious American colonies. So in late July , he sailed from New York City with 18, men in more than ships.
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