Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-10-13
AT VALLEY FORCE
Famous Encampment Ground
Restored to Days Of rs.

was the stock question of the visitor
to Valley Forge a few years ago
Crude signs bore the legend, 'Tins
of intrenchments." but all the patri.
otto tourist could see that might pass
for a bulwark was mass OF dead
leaves. broken branches of trees. mis-
cellaneous rubbish and tumbled
rocks. 1t required strong imagi-
nation to transform this into the
trenches from which the soldiers OF
Washington kept watch and ward
with an eye ever turned toward
Philadelphia. AS for any solving OF
the plan Of the encampment, that
was impossible even with a map, for
the heights Of Valley Forge were
overgrown with trees. and landmarks
had been all but obliterated. Since
the Valley Forge commission got to
work, however. with an appropriation
from the state, all this has been
changed.
1t is not now necessary to toll up
the hill to the scene of the encamp-
ment. From Washington's headquar-
tiers. near the station. a road has
been built. A party can be driven
up the hill to the line of intrench-
ments. passing on the way the spot
where camped General Mcintosh and
his Georgia troops, alighting to take
look at Fort Huntington, and then
proceeding past the place where Gen
eral Maxwell and his New Jersey
troops rested to the Washington re-
doubt and the angle where General
Knox parked his artillery.
The Washington redoubt is at pres
ent the most interesting part of the
renovated intrenchments. for it has
been almost restored to its former
condition. 1t has been a long and
tedious job to make Fort Washington
look like its former formidable self
1t was not difficult to find the lines
Of the fort beneath the accumulated
rubbish Of generations, but to re-
move this mass of material and dig
out the bitches and restore the In
terror was herculean task. Now
the fort is taking such finished shape
that every corner of the structure
can be seen from the platform built
for the convenience Of visitors. In
the center Of the fort was the maya
zine. This has been left Just as it
was when used by the Colonial troops
The trenches around the fort have
been shaped and restored and sodded,
and the shelves of the interior made
trim and business like. so that now.
instead Of having to imagine fort
while actually looking at a mass Of
dead leaves and rubbish. the visitor
sees the redoubt before him. and
nothing is left to the imagination
except to picture the ill-clothed and
half-fed sentinel pacing the parapet
and the shivering patriots trying to
keep warm over a scanty wood fire
within the fort.
From the Washington redoubt the
road. when finished, will be driveway
through the part of the park where
General Scott and his Virginiahs
camped. where General Wayne and his
Pennsylvania patriots had their quar-
tiers. and where General Poor's New
York troops kept the line. From here
the visitor will be able to follow the
exterior line of intrenchments until he
successfully passes the encampnlents
Of General Glover's Massachusetts
troops, General Learned's New Hamp-
shire troops, General Patterson's YER
General Weedon's Virginians
ana OSneTal 8
MIA and Virginia troops.
Another road from WaShingtona
headquarters leads past the star re-
doubt to the spot where there is in
course of erection a chapel to mark
the spot where Washington is said to
have knelt in prayer. A temporary
structure is already on the ground,
and the stone chapel. which will be
structure. is being built as
rapidly as money can be procured. II
was in this chapel that President
attended service when on
visit to Attorney General Knox. The
services are popular. worshipcrs com
ing from miles around every Sunday
Close by the chapel is n loghouse
erected by the Colonial Chapter OF
in May last. The in
scription reads:
ION this spot stood one of the huts
{ coupled by soldiers OF Washington's
camp during the winter of 1777-7S.
This reproduction was erected by CO.
lonial Chapter of Philadelphia, May.
1905. Spot was preserved by 1. Hester
Todd
About stones throw from this log
buN 10 blNS CiCNhCu W
Daughters of the Revolution ito the
heroic dead of Valley Forge at the
grave of Captain John Waterman. OF
Rhode Island" This tall shaft rises
in the center of a mag
nificent landscape and can be seen
from any point of the intrenchments.
1t will in all probability be only one OF
many such memorials that will dot the
historic ground of Valley Forge when
the work of the Park Commission is
and the renovated camp
ground attracts national attention and
hosts of visitors. E
The ground to be reserved for the
Valley F'odge Park at present consists
of ia acres. acquired by the Commits
sion with the appropriation made by
the Legislature. Other land will De
acquired as money becomes available.
The most interesting building in the
OF Valley Forge. the pictur-
esque old house in which Washington
made his headquarters, has already
m Good IRON, tho control of the COnOliai