Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-02-13
BY W. IL.

ty-sixth anniversary of one of
the greatest crises In American
history, the encampment of the
Continental army during the terrible
winter of HTS. The hungry and for
lorn champions of a well nigh hopeless
cause. wasted by wounds, ~priyation
and disease. finished their distressing
campaign of the year and traced their
weary way up over the old Gulph and
Swedes' Ford roads to occupy a cold.
bleak hill and sleep under frost and
snow without clothes or blankets" at
Valley Forge,
Ii is said that in summer more pill
grims visit this historic spot every
week than Washington had in his
whole army then, but the real Valley
Forge is not seen in summer To get
the proper 'local color" one should go
there in the dead of winter. Under
the patronage of a great common.
wealth Valley Forge park of this age
presents an aspect of finely groomed
landscape gardening. with broad.
smooth highways leading to far and
fair vistas and with countless markers
bearing legends for the information of
the unhistoric wayfarer.
The very name of Valley Forge sug
gests dreariness of soul. Its contem-
porary literature is somber with
wretchedness and misery. 1t must not
be imagined for one that the
ragged and barefoot army went there
and found those snug little chinked
and chimneyed log huts. such as are
now artistieally spotted over the park.
waiting for them with cheerful fires
blazing on the hearths They were
details that took weeks to work out
with ak and adj in the snow and sleet
Valley Forge lies bnt twenty-five or
tw~enty-three miles north of Philadel-
phia on the west bank of the Schuyl-
kill river. Ii takes its name from an
iron working plant esta blished there
many years before the militant Amer
leans made 1t famous
Almost the first object to attract this
attention of the visitor npon disem-
barking from the railway train is the
old pointed stone house of the miller,
Isaac Potts. the structure which all
America cherishes today as the head
quarters of Washington for the half
year the army was eneamped upon the
hills to the south.
In 1t he wrestled with problems that
would have appalled, ordinary men
Here be confronted and c~onfounded the
malign conspiracy of Conway; the mis-
cry and wretchedness of his suffering
soldiers came home to him here. and
1t was here that be displayed a super
human strength and courage in keep
ing alive through the long winter the
feeble spark of a thing called the
American Revolution.
1t is amazing to contemplate the in
finite variety of matters that were put
up to the commander In chief. The
butchers who killed the beef brought
in by the foraging parties in the mid
die of January stung the soldiers by
extorting money for the "plncks." The
general settled that by stating definite
ly how the pluck" should be issued.
The number of courts martial was
p%rodigious. and 1t seems the general
reviewed the findings of the court in
some of the forty-eight hours he work
ed every day. "Lashes well laid IN
upon his bare back was the ordinary
punishment. and the stripes ranged In
number from 80 to as high as 500-if
a man wasted his ammunition by DIR
ing his piece unnecessarily. 80 lashes;
desertion, 100 for that: stealing. 100.
and so on. Twenty-four officers were
cashiered or dismissed from service.
A German officer attached to the
staff at Valley Forge, Frederick vii
liam Augustus Baron Won Steuben.
was appointed inspector general. This
Is from one of his accounts: 1.-THE
arms at Valley Forge were in a horri-
BILE condition-covered with rust, half
of them without b~ayonets, many from
which a single shot could not be fired.
The pouches were quite as bad as the
arms. A great many of the men had
tin boxes instead of pouches. Others
had COW horns, and muskets, carbines.
fowling pieces and rifles were to be
seen in the same company. The de.
scription of the dress Is most easily
given. The men were literally naked.
some Of them in the fullest extent of
the word. The officers who had coats
had them of every color and make. !
saw officers at a grand parade at Val
ley Forge mounting guard In a sort of
dressing gown, made of an old blanket
or a wooden bed cover. With regard
to their military discipline I may safe
ly say no such thing existed" SO
much for the organization and its
equipment.
June 10. 177S, the army evacuated
Valley Forge and started in haste
after Sir Henry Clinton's 1900 Brit
ish and his twelve mile supply train.
When the clash came at Monmouth
on the 2Sth this wonderful weapon
fashioned by the Prussian drillmaster
~ ~, 5.oa-r Do.-c-fuc-f hsIIrsIoI