Winter at Valley Forge

Valley Forge is where American Revolutionary leader George Washington kept his winter quarters, in Pennsylvania about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Valley Forge is where some 12,000 men under General George Washington encamped for the winter on December 19, 1777. After the American defeats at the battles of the Brandywine and Germantown and the subsequent British occupation of Philadelphia, Washington chose Valley Forge for his winter quarters because it was defensible and strategically located to enable him to protect Congress, then in session at York, Pennsylvania, from a sudden British attack. Because of lack of supplies from the commissary department of the Continental Army and the bareness of the surrounding countryside, the men were without adequate shelter, food, or clothing and lived in crude huts built by their own hands. Many died of starvation and cold, and at no time were more than half of them fit for active service. The period was one of the darkest of the American Revolution. It was at Valley Forge, however, in February 1778, that Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben trained, disciplined, and reorganized the army. On June 19, 1778, Washington abandoned his camp at Valley Forge in order to pursue the British across New Jersey.