Winter at Valley Forge
Washington's army wintered at Valley Forge from December 1777 to June 1778, and about 2,000 of some 12,000 men died there. The position was chosen for military reasons: twenty miles from Philadelphia, which the British held, close enough to watch it and far enough to be safe, on high ground behind a river. The suffering was a failure of supply rather than of weather. The winter was not exceptional; the commissary system had collapsed, Congress had no power to tax and was printing money that nobody would accept, and local farmers preferred to sell to the British for hard currency. Men built huts from logs, went without shoes, and ate firecake — flour and water baked on a stone. Disease did the killing: typhus, typhoid, dysentery and smallpox, and Washington had the whole army inoculated, which was a serious risk and probably saved the campaign. What also happened there is the reason the encampment is remembered as a making rather than only a suffering. Friedrich von Steuben arrived in February, a Prussian officer with an inflated résumé and a real command of drill, and trained a model company that trained the rest — a simplified manual of arms, the use of the bayonet, marching in column and deploying into line, and a system of inspection and accountability for equipment. Nathanael Greene took over the quartermaster's department and made it work. The army that came out in June fought the British to a standstill at Monmouth. Steuben's Blue Book, written that winter, remained the American army's drill manual until 1812. He spoke almost no English and swore in French and German through an interpreter, which the soldiers enjoyed enormously.
- Year: 1777 CE
- Category: Military
