THE MIRACLE OF VALLEY FORGE
Editorial by F. Lewis Smith, Camp Historian
Published previously in The McDuffie Progress
There is a crisis in Europe and America; you know it, you’ve been watching it. What I am most concerned about are the illegal aliens who have flooded our country. Maybe you believe that we should take in and support the whole world; I don’t. You may say, these poor people came here to get away from the terrible cruelty they suffered in their own country. But what if George Washington had fled to another country to escape British tyranny instead of staying to fight against it at Valley Forge? What if Washington hadn’t crossed the Delaware River in the dark of night because large chunks of ice made it too deadly? What if he had left Valley Forge because it was freezing and his men were starving? In December 1777, Christopher Marshall of Lancaster, PA wrote, “our affairs wear a very gloomy aspect. A great part of our army has gone into winter quarters. Those in camp are wanting for breeches, shoes, stockings, blankets and especially flour, while being in the land of plenty, with our farmers having their barns full of grain; hundreds of barrels of flour lying on the banks of the Susquehannah perishing for want of care. Our enemies are rioting and wantonly using our houses, and we endure numberless abuses from bandits of six or seven thousand men, headed by the monster of rapine, General Howe. They are destroying and burning what they please, pillaging, plundering, stealing boys above ten years old and deflowering virgins. But publish it not in the streets of London, lest they should rejoice, and shouting for joy say “America is ours, for the rebels are afraid to fight us any longer! O America, where is now your virtue? O Washington, where is your courage?”
But the man made one mistake: Washington was forced by Congress to camp at Valley Forge, according to Johann Kalb, the Baron DeKalb, who was killed at the Battle of Camden in August 1780. He wrote, “it is a pity that Washington has the worst of advisors in the men who enjoy his confidence. If they are not traitors, they are certainly gross ignoramuses. Half the army are naked, and almost the whole army go barefoot. Our men are also affected by the itch, a matter which attracts very little attention either at the hospitals or the camp. I have seen the poor fellows covered over and over with scabs. The men have had neither meat nor bread for four days, and our horses are often left for days without any fodder. My blacksmith is a captain! Our assistants are for the most part men of no military education whatever, in many cases ordinary hucksters, but always colonels.”
Our patriots during the American Revolution suffered more than the illegal aliens of today, and they stayed to fight for their freedom. And our freedom. Don’t you forget it! God bless them.
But the man made one mistake: Washington was forced by Congress to camp at Valley Forge, according to Johann Kalb, the Baron DeKalb, who was killed at the Battle of Camden in August 1780. He wrote, “it is a pity that Washington has the worst of advisors in the men who enjoy his confidence. If they are not traitors, they are certainly gross ignoramuses. Half the army are naked, and almost the whole army go barefoot. Our men are also affected by the itch, a matter which attracts very little attention either at the hospitals or the camp. I have seen the poor fellows covered over and over with scabs. The men have had neither meat nor bread for four days, and our horses are often left for days without any fodder. My blacksmith is a captain! Our assistants are for the most part men of no military education whatever, in many cases ordinary hucksters, but always colonels.”
Our patriots during the American Revolution suffered more than the illegal aliens of today, and they stayed to fight for their freedom. And our freedom. Don’t you forget it! God bless them.
Painting: Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, 1851
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
https://www.sevenktoday.com/george-washingtons-crossing-of-the-delaware-river/