Slept in a little bit this morning. Not surprising since both Sharla and I were really wasted after so many late nights and early mornings. So it was 11 a.m. when we finally hit the road for Philadelphia. We decided to stop in at Valley Forge, which is just west of Philadelphia, find someplace outside the city, and head into Philadelphia proper tomorrow morning.
We got to Valley Forge at about 4 p.m., about an hour before the visitor center closed. The visitor center is very nice – lots of very well thought out displays and informative stuff to read. We both found out that a lot of what we were taught in school about the winter at Valley Forge was incorrect. For one thing, even though the army personnel had to do without a lot of stuff, they ALWAYS had to do without that stuff, so none of them though it was anything extraordinary. They were all clothed (although their winter clothes were pretty pitiful for some of them), and they had shoes. Most of them had official uniforms! And there were a lot of them – about 12,000.
Valley Forge was named for the blacksmith shop on the north edge of the settlement, owned by a Mr. Potts. When the British took over Philadelphia in 1777 and the regular army headed for Troy, Washington’s detachment chose Valley Forge as a good place to keep an eye on the British encampment – close enough for good surveilance and the occasional raid, but far enough away to avoid a surprise attack. Oddly enough, Valley Forge was on pretty high ground, so there is good visibility all around. They arrived in mid-December, and General Washington took over the Potts house as his headquarters building. The rest of the troops built log houses – 2000 of them, arranged in rows, sectioned off by batallions. All very organized. Even though the army members had demonstrated thier abilities as skilled warriors, they had no formal training, so Washington took on a Prussian General, Baron von Steuben, who chose 100 of the best recruits and trained them in more rigorous military discipline and maneuvers, including bayonet drills. Those 100 then trained the others. By the end of the 7 months at Valley Forge, the soldiers had gained many valuable skills.
There is one HUGE grassy area (covered with lots of deer today) that they called the Grand Parade. It was the only place big enough and flat enough for all of the soldiers to hold drills. In May, they learned that the French had signed on to help the Americans, and they held a huge celebration there.
Out of the 12,000 soldiers, 2000 died during their stay at Valley Forge, but very few died from the cold or its complications. More than 2/3 of them died during the warmer months of April and May from influenza, dysentery, typhus, or some other disease that was common back then. (Interestingly, none of them died from smallpox, because Washington had them immunized while they were there!)
All in all, a very interesting day. We decided to stay the night in a town just west of Valley Forge, called King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Tomorrow we plan to get an early start in Philly.
Good night and God bless.