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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Videos: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message Icon:                             Message: Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by James N.[/i] [br]To finish out the story of the Philadelphia Campaign, we must at last arrive here at Valley Forge as did Washington's dispirited army of near 10,000 men in December, 1777. Valley Forge is probably THE best-known Revolutionary site in America, and rather than attempt to retell the familliar time-worn tale, I will instead share my impressions of the place. Though the story here is properly that of starvation amid snowdrifts in the depths of Winter, in fact it was a balmy and almost too-warm Indian Summer day when I visited here two hundred and twenty years after-the-fact. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/2012115134946_Valley ForgeA.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 60.96KB[/size=1] The Memorial Arch seems to me strangely out-of-place in what was essentially a campground, though its inscription stresses suffering and sacrifice rather than triumph and victory. The campground at Valley Forge was selected for several reasons: only about twenty miles from British-held Philadelphia, it was still near enough to allow harrassment of enemy foraging parties; there was high ground suitable for defense should General Howe decide to attack; stands of timber meant sufficient wood available for constructing winter quarters; and abundent water was provided by both Valley Creek and the nearby Schuylkill River. Unfortunately, each of those advantages was offset by corresponding disadvantages! [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/201211514617_Valley Forge 001A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 88.51KB[/size=1] Nearness to the British outposts also meant defense of the position was an important consideration, so various forts and redoubts planned by the Continental army's French military engineers also had to be erected. Redoubt #3 here on the Inner Defense Line wasn't completed until the following spring when need for it had passed. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/2012115141319_Valley Forge 002A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 36.42KB[/size=1] The most iconic images of Valley Forge concern the village of huts, like these reconstructions on the site of Gen. Muhlenberg's Pennsylvania Brigade camp, in the snowy landscape. Unfortunately, the poorly-supplied army lacked even the most basic tools with which to construct them: saws, axes, and even hatchets were in discouragingly short supply, prompting Washington to offer a reward of money to the brigade that was first to complete its huts. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/2012115142430_Valley Forge 006A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 87KB[/size=1] Also unfortunately for the soldiers of the army, concerns for the defense of the main camp placed it on a windswept plateau overlooking and at some distance from the Schuylkill and Valley Creek, seen here in the background; the wooden covered bridge dates from the 1860's. It was necessary for the men, exhausted from their labors building their huts and the fortifications to also have to haul their water and firewood over increasingly longer distances. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/201211514352_Valley Forge 003A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 59.36KB[/size=1] Though no battles took place here, Valley Forge is not without its heroic statuary. George Washington is strangely conspiciously absent, but local Pennsylvania hero Anthony Wayne shows above to fine advantage. Below, an ironic pre-WWI gift from Germany was the statue of Maj. Gen. Friedrich Whilhelm, Baron von Steuben, placed appropriately here at the edge of the Grand Parade. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/201211514453_Valley Forge 005A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 58.52KB[/size=1] [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/2012115144731_Valley Forge 008A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 76.82KB[/size=1] This line of reproduction cannon represents Gen. Henry Knox's Artillery Park near the grounds of the Grand Parade. In this large field Baron von Steuben became the "drillmaster" of the Continental Army, instructing it in his own manual of standardized tactics and battlefield maneuvers that would finally put to rest embarrassments like Sullivan's fumbling maneuvers at the start of the campaign at Brandywine. In the spring on a fine day in May the Grand Parade was the scene of a great [i]feu de joie[/i] celebrating news of the French Alliance as well as the survival of the army. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/201211515944_Valley Forge 004A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 89.04KB[/size=1] Background above, line of winter huts of Washington's Bodyguard near the Potts House; this became Headquarters in January, 1778, once all the army's huts were complete and the general felt it appropriate for him and his staff to move from their own tents into more substantial lodgings indoors. The winter of 1777 - 1778 spent here at Valley Forge was not especially severe by the standards of other years, especially that of the terrible winter at Morristown. N. J., 1780 - 81, the worst on contemporary record. Instead it was greed, corruption, indifference, and incompetence that caused the army's suffering here. Much of it can be laid directly at the door of Washington's inept Commissary General, Thomas Mifflin, who was ignoring his duties while engaged in political wrangling to unseat Washington and replace him as Commander-in-Chief with Horatio Gates, "The Hero of Saratoga". This overlooked sub-plot of Valley Forge, combined with an almost total break-down of the supply system, was responsible for numberless needless deaths amid the general starvation and suffering that eventually claimed at least 3,000 lives. Once Washington recieved the authority from a sluggish Congress to replace the craven Mifflin with the efficient Nathanael Greene things improved slowly-but-steadily. The gradual easing of winter, the return of shad to the Schuylkill in the spring, news of the French Alliance, von Steuben's improvements and reforms, and rumors that the British intended to abandon Philadelphia and return to New York all worked wonders to improve the army's condition and morale for the upcoming campaign season. When it marched from here in June, 1778, to contest the British retreat it was stronger and in better morale than it ever had been. [b]Image Insert:[/b][br][img]http://www.mohicanpress.com/messageboard/../uploads/James N/2012115153157_Valley Forge 009A.JPG[/img][br][size=1] 69.38KB[/size=1] [/quote]    Upload an Image File From Your PC For Insertion in Your Post    -  HTML is OFF | Forum Code is ON   Check here to include your profile signature. Check here to subscribe to this topic.