Valley Forge (1777–1778): The Continental Army's Hard Winter

Valley Forge was the winter encampment of George Washington’s Continental Army from 19 December 1777 to 19 June 1778, in south-eastern Pennsylvania about 18 miles north-west of British-occupied Philadelphia. Roughly 12,000 soldiers spent six months there in log huts, suffering severe shortages of food and clothing and outbreaks of disease that killed perhaps 1,700 to 2,000 men. Yet the army also reorganised and trained during the winter, and it left Valley Forge a more capable fighting force than when it arrived.

Background

The campaign of 1777 had gone badly for Washington’s main army. General William Howe sailed from New York, landed at the head of Chesapeake Bay and defeated Washington at the Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777. The British occupied Philadelphia, the seat of Congress, on 26 September. An American counter-attack at Germantown on 4 October came close to success but ended in another defeat.

In the north, by contrast, Horatio Gates had forced Burgoyne’s surrender at the Battles of Saratoga in October. The contrast led some officers and members of Congress to question Washington’s leadership, and the winter that followed was a test of both the army and its commander.

This criticism later became known as the Conway Cabal, after Thomas Conway, an Irish-born French officer serving in the Continental Army whose critical letter about Washington was passed on to the commander. Historians doubt that there was ever an organised plot to replace Washington with Gates, but the episode added to the strain of the winter. It faded by the spring of 1778, when Washington’s supporters in Congress and the army rallied behind him and Conway resigned.

Washington needed a winter camp that would let him watch the British in Philadelphia, shield the Pennsylvania countryside and the temporary seat of Congress at York, and still be safe from surprise. Valley Forge, a plateau where Valley Creek met the Schuylkill River, named after a small iron forge, met these needs.

Building the camp

The army marched in on 19 December 1777. Many of the men lacked shoes, blankets or proper coats, and some left bloody footprints on the frozen roads during the marches of that December. Washington ordered the soldiers to build log huts to a standard plan, about 14 by 16 feet, each to house twelve enlisted men. Within weeks some 1,500 to 2,000 huts stood in rows across the site, with earthworks and redoubts guarding the approaches.

Officers took over farmhouses. Washington made his headquarters in a stone house belonging to the Potts family, which still stands. The camp was, in effect, one of the largest towns in North America that winter, home to soldiers and to several hundred women and children who followed the army as cooks, washerwomen and nurses.

Hunger, disease and supply

The worst problem was supply. The army’s commissary and quartermaster departments, which were meant to feed, clothe and move the troops, had broken down after changes in their leadership and organisation earlier in 1777. Wagons were scarce, roads were poor, and many farmers preferred to sell to the British in Philadelphia, who paid in gold and silver rather than in Continental paper money.

At times the soldiers had nothing to eat for days but “firecake”, a paste of flour and water baked on hot stones. On 23 December 1777 Washington warned Congress in a letter that unless something changed, the army must “starve, dissolve, or disperse”. Some men deserted, and officers resigned in large numbers.

Disease killed far more soldiers than cold. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery and pneumonia spread through the crowded huts and hospitals. Of the estimated 1,700 to 2,000 deaths during the encampment, most were caused by illness, many of them in hospitals away from the camp itself. Washington also continued a programme of smallpox inoculation for soldiers who had not had the disease, a measure he had first ordered the previous winter.

Conditions improved from late winter. A committee of Congress visited the camp from January 1778 and agreed to reforms. In March Nathanael Greene reluctantly accepted the post of quartermaster general and greatly improved the supply system, and foraging expeditions under Greene and Anthony Wayne brought in cattle and other food from the surrounding country.

Steuben and the training of the army

The most lasting change came from Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a former captain in the Prussian army who arrived at Valley Forge on 23 February 1778, presenting himself, with some exaggeration, as a baron and a more senior officer than he had been. Washington put him to work as acting inspector general.

Until then, American regiments had used a confusing mix of British, French and Prussian drill. Steuben created a single, simplified system suited to American soldiers. He began by training a model company of about 100 men in person, using a mix of French, German and the few English words he knew, with officers translating. These men then trained others, and soon whole brigades were drilling together.

He taught the soldiers to march in step, to form lines and columns quickly, to load and fire in order and to use the bayonet effectively, a weapon many had previously used mainly for cooking. His rules were later written up as Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, published in 1779 and widely known as the “Blue Book”. Congress confirmed Steuben as inspector general with the rank of major general in May 1778.

Life in the camp

Washington’s wife, Martha, joined him at Valley Forge in February 1778, as she did in other winter camps, and helped organise visits and support for the troops. The young French volunteer the Marquis de Lafayette, who had been wounded at Brandywine, also spent much of the winter there, as did Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens on Washington’s staff.

The army at Valley Forge was more diverse than later images often suggest. Several hundred African American soldiers served in regiments from many states. In February 1778, while the army was in camp, Rhode Island also authorised the enlistment of enslaved men, who were promised their freedom, in what became the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. Oneida allies from New York brought corn to the camp and served as scouts.

News of the Franco-American alliance reached the camp in early May. On 6 May 1778 the army celebrated with a grand review, a ceremonial rolling musket fire known as a feu de joie, and cheers for the King of France, a public display of its new discipline.

Leaving Valley Forge

In June 1778 the British, now commanded by Sir Henry Clinton, evacuated Philadelphia and began marching across New Jersey towards New York. On 19 June, six months to the day after it had arrived, the army left Valley Forge in pursuit. Nine days later it fought the British at the Battle of Monmouth, where Steuben’s training showed in the steadiness of the American troops.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1777, 11 September: Washington is defeated at Brandywine.
• 1777, 26 September: The British occupy Philadelphia.
• 1777, 19 December: The Continental Army marches into Valley Forge.
• 1777, 23 December: Washington warns Congress the army may “starve, dissolve, or disperse”.
• 1778, 23 February: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrives at camp.
• 1778, 2 March: Nathanael Greene is appointed quartermaster general.
• 1778, 6 May: The army celebrates the French alliance with a grand review.
• 1778, 19 June: The army leaves Valley Forge in pursuit of the British.

Myths and facts

Valley Forge is often imagined as a camp buried in deep snow during the coldest winter of the war. In fact the winter of 1777–1778 was not unusually severe; the harshest winter of the war came two years later at Morristown, New Jersey. The real enemies at Valley Forge were poor supply, inadequate clothing and disease.

Another popular image, Washington kneeling in prayer in the snow, comes from a story first published by the biographer Mason Locke Weems in the early 19th century. It has no reliable contemporary source. Likewise, a later tale that a sudden run of shad fish in the Schuylkill saved the starving army in spring has not been confirmed by records from the time.

The site became a Pennsylvania state park in 1893 and Valley Forge National Historical Park in 1976. Its reconstructed huts, Washington’s headquarters and the National Memorial Arch draw visitors from around the world.

Why it matters

Valley Forge did not see a battle, yet it became one of the most powerful symbols of the American Revolution. The army held together through a winter of hunger and sickness, and Steuben’s training turned it into a more professional force. Together with the French alliance announced that spring, the camp marked the point at which the Continental Army became capable of meeting British regulars on more equal terms.