Washington's Army Enters Valley Forge: The Winter That Tests the Revolution
Twenty-five hundred men had no shoes. They tracked blood through December snow. Washington chose Valley Forge because it was defensible — close enough to watch the British in Philadelphia, far enough they couldn't be surprised. But defensible didn't mean survivable. No barracks existed. Soldiers built log huts while sleeping in tents, sometimes sixteen men crowding one canvas shelter in single-digit temperatures. Two thousand horses starved to death that winter. The men ate firecake: flour and water cooked on stones. Congress, forty miles away in York, sent almost nothing. And yet Baron von Steuben arrived in February and drilled this freezing, half-naked mob into an actual army. They entered Valley Forge as militiamen. They left as soldiers who could stand against British regulars.
December 19, 1777
249 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Continental Army
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American Revolutionary War
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George Washington
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Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
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Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
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American Revolutionary War
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George Washington
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Continental Army
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Valley Forge
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Pennsylvania
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American Revolution
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