today we're looking at the winter at valley forge
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questions down in the description valley forge was the winter camp of the continental army in
the winter of 1777-78 many consider this to be the darkest moment of the revolution for the americans
and george washington yet as the saying goes it's always darkest just before the dawn and that was
truly the case here for the continental army as they they transformed themselves while at valley
forge and things began to turn around in the spring of 1778 1777 had been a bad year for george
washington and the continental army uh one could argue that the army had never fully recovered
really from its terrible defeat and narrow escape at the battle of long island in august of 1776.
sure you know they had had some success late in 1776 at the battle of trenton and then
at princeton but much of 1777 had they had experienced one setback after another
much of their efforts had been spent trying to keep the british under general william howe out
of philadelphia the british had already secured new york city and now howe wanted to capture
philadelphia which of course was the seat of power with the continental congress located there
leading into the winter of 1777 the americans had lost two key battles
one at the battle of brandywine in september of 1777 which opened up philadelphia
to british occupation then another american loss at the battle of germantown in october
again many began to question george washington's leadership and the demoralized army began to
retreat now william howe and the british they decided to take up their winter camp
in philadelphia where they camped in relative comfort with all the amenities
of the city at their disposal as for george washington and the continental army though
washington wanted to stay relatively close to philadelphia as you know he had plans to
hopefully form some sort of counter-attack against the british coming in the spring so the americans
made their winter camp at valley forge which is located about 20 miles northwest of philadelphia
from here washington could keep an eye on british movements but the camp was far enough away and had
creeks and the schoolkill river to its back providing some sort of barrier to any possible
british attack as the continental army moved into the camp there were approximately 12 000 soldiers
along with approximately 400 women and children that were following the army they arrived at
valley forge on december 19 1777 only a few days before christmas the first task at the camp was
to begin to build shelters for the winter and all the army constructed close to 1500 log cabins at
valley forge but the continental army was in very bad shape there were hundreds of wounded soldiers
from the battle of germantown that were trying to recover and so they had to quickly try to throw
together some type of very primitive hospital at the same time they were running low on food
when they went into camp washington was told that they had over seven months worth of food but when
they checked the rations it turned out they barely had seven days worth of food to feed the army
so soldiers were dying of starvation they were freezing to death and then diseases such as
typhoid dysentery and pneumonia began to spread throughout the camp estimates are that there was
approximately 10 soldiers dying each day at valley forge soldiers were reduced to eating whatever
they could find their stories of men trying to eat leather or even the bark off of trees
eventually they had to eat their horses and other animals that pulled wagons and equipment
and it got to the point that men were having to tie themselves to wagons and pull supplies
and equipment from one part of the camp to the other george washington remained in the
camp the entire winter rather than returning home as many of the other officers did washington spent
his time checking on troops writing letters to the continental congress begging for more supplies
and then trying to basically beg borrow or steal whatever he could to keep his army alive
in february of 1778 frederick von steuben arrived at valley forge von steuben was a
prussian military officer who had offered his services to the french but they had directed
him to benjamin franklin of course was in paris and franklin quickly connected von steuben with
george washington von steuben began to train the continental army in new european military tactics
basically the continental army began to go through boot camp and receive true military training
although each of the units in the continental army had received training it was not consistent
or it wasn't really the same training so it made it difficult to conduct battles with each
unit having their own system of doing things now with von steuben in charge the continental troops
were getting consistent training and the entire army would finally be fighting on the same page
as the spring approached the continental army began to see the light at the end of the tunnel
word reached george washington that the french were on their way to aid the americans in the war
and new recruits began to arrive at valley forge to join the army the army marched out
of valley forge on june 19 1778 emerging a much better trained fighting force and now they were
absolutely committed to george washington because he had spent the entire winter there with them
fighting to keep them alive although the war was still years from being over
the winner at valley forge was really a turning point for the americans that eventually would lead
to their victory in the war so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching