"An Army of skeletons appeared before our eyes naked, starved, sick and
discouraged."
Gouverneur Morris recorded these words in his report to the Continental
Congress after a visit to the Continental Army encampment at Valley
Forge. Sent as part of a fact-finding mission, Morris and his fellow
congressmen arrived to conditions far worse than they had initially
expected.
After a campaigning season that saw the defeat at Brandywine, the loss
of Philadelphia, the capital of the rebellious British North American
colonies, and the reversal at Germantown, George Washington and his
harried army marched into Valley Forge on December 19, 1777.
What transpired in the next six months prior to the departure from the
winter cantonment on June 19, 1778 was truly remarkable. The stoic
Virginian, George Washington solidified his hold on the army and endured
political intrigue, the quartermaster department was revived with new
leadership from a former Rhode Island Quaker, and a German baron trained
the army in the rudiments of being a soldier and military maneuvers.
Valley Forge conjures up images of cold, desperation, and starvation.
Yet Valley Forge also became the winter of transformation and
improvement that set the Continental Army on the path to military
victory and the fledgling nation on the path to independence.
In The Winter that Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge,
1777-1778, historian Phillip S. Greenwalt takes the reader on campaign
in the year 1777 and through the winter encampment, detailing the
various changes that took place within Valley Forge that ultimately led
to the success of the American cause. Walk with the author through 1777
and into 1778 and see how these months truly were the winter that won
the war.
