Valley Forge

We drove to Valley Forge on a cool partly-cloudy fall day.  The leaves had mostly fallen off the trees, but a few remained.  And the wind played with the leaves, blowing them hither and yon and dropping the temperature another fifteen degrees as it blew any warmth from our skin.  Our first stop was an Episcopalian Church on the Park grounds that serves as a memorial to United States soldiers from the Revolutionary War through the World Wars.  The church was immense.  It had a list of fallen soldiers from the Revolutionary War, listed by state, a bell used in the women's suffrage movement, and several gargoyles that seemed almost anti-Christian.



                                        Across the road, in a field, stood a miniature Washington Monument.

                                              Even the cat was cold!

                    This floor has two different types of stone, one that wears more than the other.

 

Behind the church was a small gift store, that was well stocked with 18th Century cannons slowly wearing away in the weather.  They come in many shapes and sizes.

                                            The leaves were chasing us.

                                                    The last vestiges of fall leaves.

Next we stopped where some of Washington's troops had spent the winter of 1777-1778.  Washington brought close to 6000 men, and told them to build their own shelters.  The sight reminded me of the television show "Survivor" where the contestants use what is available to build a shelter.  The weather that winter was cold and snowy and the troops had a shortage of food and clothing.  Approximately 2000 men died of disease during the encampment.  When they arrived, they had lost Philadelphia to the British, and by camping here they were near enough to keep an eye on the British Army, but far enough away to avoid a surprise attack.  During the winter months, the Continental Army was trained by Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben who converted the recruited farmers into a trained army.  He believed that he couldn't use the European methods of demanding obedience from the troops, but instead had to explain why he wanted them to do something because of the American independent thinking.

                      These beds remind me of the ones we saw in  the Dachau concentration camp.

        We were able to walk through the home that George Washington stayed in during the winter, and Martha Washington stayed in part of that time.  It was eerily moving to look into the rooms where Washington sat with his officers planning the strategies to defeat the British.  Washington rented the house rather than just occupy it, believing that government should not requisition property from its citizens without compensation.

                                                George and Martha's bed.

       I do not understand this covered bed, and there was no explanation.  Maybe the cover helps keep the heat in.

                                                Dining area.

                                                      Parlor/meeting room.

                                                       The other parlor/meeting room.

                                              Servant's quarters.

                                               Walkway between the house and kitchen.

Kitchen

                                                           I love the wavy glass in the windows.

The soldiers food and equipment supplies improved in March and April, 1778 and in May they left Valley Forge.  It is interesting that many of the local farmers preferred to sell their goods to the British because the British money was more stable that the Colony money which was not uniform from state to state.  Not everyone supported the movement for independence.  We Americans probably will never all agree on politics.