American Minute with Bill Federer
Freezing Winter at Valley Forge, 1777-78
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Washington
lost the
Battle of Brandywine
on September 11, 1777, and was force to retreat toward
Philadelphia.
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At the same time, British General Burgoyne's
troops marched down from
Canada
through
New York, expecting British General William Howe to be marching up from New York City to help him.
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Instead, Howe
decided to set sail from New York City to capture
Philadelphia
--
America's largest city and busiest port.
Burgoyne soon lost the Battle of Saratoga,
having to surrender nearly 6,000 troops to the Americans. This persuaded
France
to enter the war.
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General Howe
landed and marched his troops toward
Philadelphia,
which was effectively the
capitol of the United States.
In
European warfare,
if you captured an
enemy's capitol,
the war was effectively over.
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Rather than surrender, the
Continental Congress
quickly
evacuated Philadelphia.
They even took the down
the Liberty Bell
and carried it with them so the British could not melt it into musket balls.
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Congress had written an order, December 12, 1776:
"... until Congress shall otherwise order,
General Washington
shall be possessed of
full power
to order and
direct all things relative to
... the operations of
the war."
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Washington
attempted to fight the
British,
but at the
Battle of the Clouds,
torrential
rains
drenched both sides,
rendering all firearms useless.
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Washington
then led his 11,000 American soldiers on a forced retreat to a place 25 miles distant from Philadelphia -
Valley Forge,
on DECEMBER 19, 1777.
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Meanwhile, another
11,000 Americans were dying
on
British starving ships
Scorpion, Hope, Falmouth, Stromboli, Hunter,
and
Jersey.
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Yale President Ezra Stiles
recounted May 8, 1783:
"'O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears,' that I might weep the thousands of our brethren that have perished in prison ships--
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... in one of which, the
Jersey,
then lying at New York,
perished above eleven thousand the last three years
-- while others have been barbarously exiled to the East Indies for life."
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The Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument
stands in Fort Greene Park, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
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Soldiers at
Valley Forge
were from every State in the new union, some as young as 12 and others as old as 60.
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Though most were of European descent, some were
African American
and
American Indian.
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Among them were:
- Marquis de Lafayette,
- Colonel "Mad Anthony" Wayne,
- future Chief Justice John Marshall,
- Lutheran pastor turned Major-General John Peter Muhlenberg, and
- George Washington's Jewish physician, Dr. Philip Moses Russell.
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Lacking food and supplies,
soldiers died at the rate of twelve per day.
Over
2,500 froze to death
in bitter cold, or perished from hunger, typhoid, jaundice, dysentery, and pneumonia.
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In addition, hundreds of horses perished in the freezing weather.
A Committee from Congress reported on the soldiers:
"Feet and legs froze
till they became
black
, and it was often necessary to
amputate them."
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Of the
wives and children
who followed the army,
mending clothes, doing laundry, scavenging for food,
and
caring for the sick,
an estimated
500 died.
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President Calvin Coolidge
told the
Daughters of the American Revolution,
April 19, 1926:
"We have been told of the
unselfish devotion of the women
who gave their own warm garments to
fashion clothing
for the suffering Continental Army during that
bitter winter at Valley Forge.
The burdens of the war were not all borne by the men."
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A surgeon from Connecticut,
Dr. Albigence Waldo,
wrote in his diary:
"December 25th — Christmas.
We are still in tents, when ought to be in huts — the poor sick, suffer much in tents this cold weather.
But we now treat them differently from what they used to be at home,
under the inspection of old women and Doct. Bolus Linctus.
We give them mutton and grogg — and a captial medicine once in a while — to start the disease from its foundation at once.
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We avoid piddling pills, powders, Babus's Linctus's cordials (cough lozenges) — and all such insignificant matters whose powers are only rendered important by causing the patient to vomit up his money instead of his disease."
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Two days before Christmas,
George
Washington
wrote:
"We have this day no less than 2,873 men in camp UNFIT FOR DUTY because they are barefooted and otherwise naked ..."
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Washington
added:
"... that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place ... this Army must inevitably ... starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can."
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The
Continental Congress
talked of
replacing General George Washington
with
General Horatio Gates
of Battle of Saratoga fame.
Maryland delegate
Charles Carroll,
the only Catholic to sign the Declaration,
helped persuade Congress not to.
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Hessian Major Carl Leopold Baurmeister noted the
only thing that kept the American army from disintegrating
was their
"spirit of liberty."
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A farmer reportedly observed
General Washington
kneeling in prayer in the snow.
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President Ronald Reagan
stated in a Radio Address, December 24, 1983:
"The image of
George Washington kneeling in prayer
in the snow is one of the most famous in American history."
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The Boy Scout Handbook,
5th edition (1948), in the section 'Duty to God':
"You worship God regularly with your family in your church or synagogue ... faithful to Almighty God's Commandments. Most great men in history have been men of deep religious faith.
Washington knelt in the snow
to pray at
Valley Forge."
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President Dwight Eisenhower
broadcast from the White House for the American Legion's Back-to-God Program, February 7, 1954:
"We remember the picture of
the Father of our Country, on his knees at Valley Forge
seeking divine guidance in the cold gloom of a bitter winter.
Thus
Washington
gained strength to lead to independence a nation dedicated to the belief that each of us is divinely endowed with indestructible rights."
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On April 21, 1778,
General Washington
wrote to Lt. Col. John Banister:
"No history ... can furnish an instance of an army's suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude --
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... To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions ...
marching through frost and snow, and
at Christmas
taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them
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... and submitting to it without a murmur, is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled."
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A Christmas carol
that would have lifted the country's spirits at this time was
"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,"
first published in 1760 on a broadsheet in London as a "New Christmas carol."
It was "the most common and generally popular of all carol tunes":
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"God rest ye merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
For Jesus Christ our Savior,
Was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan's power,
When we were gone astray. (Chorus)
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy."
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Despite the freezing conditions, soldiers prepared to fight.
In February, 1778, there arrived in the camp
Prussian drill master Baron Friedrich von Steuben,
who had been a member of the elite General Staff of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
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Baron von Steuben,
who was sent with the recommendation of Ben Franklin, drilled the soldiers daily, transforming them from volunteers into a disciplined army.
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Lutheran Pastor Henry Muhlenberg,
whose sons Peter and Frederick served in the First U.S. Congress, wrote in
The Notebook of a Colonial Clergyman:
"I heard a fine example today, namely that
His Excellency General Washington
rode around among his army yesterday and admonished each to fear God, to put away wickedness ... and to practice Christian virtues ..."
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Rev. Muhlenberg
continued:
"From all appearances
General Washington
does not belong to the so-called world of society, for he respects God's Word, believes in the atonement through Christ, and bears himself in humility and gentleness.
Therefore, the Lord God has also singularly, yea, marvelously preserved him from harm in the midst of countless perils, ambuscades, fatigues, etc., and has hitherto graciously held him in his hand as a chosen vessel."
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Washington
successfully kept the army intact through the devastating winter, and gave the order at
Valley Forge,
April 12, 1778:
"The Honorable Congress having thought proper to recommend to the United States of America to set apart Wednesday, the 22nd inst., to be observed as a day of
Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer,
that at one time, and with one voice, the righteous dispensations of
Providence
may be acknowledged, and His goodness and mercy towards our arms supplicated and implored:
The General directs that the day shall be
most religiously observed
in the Army; that no work shall be done thereon, and that the several
chaplains
do prepare discourses."
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On May 2, 1778,
Washington
ordered:
"The Commander-in-Chief directs that Divine service be performed every Sunday ...
While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion.
To the distinguished
character of Patriot,
it should be
our highest Glory to laud the more distinguished Character of Christian."
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President Dwight Eisenhower
stated December 24, 1953, lighting the
National Christmas Tree:
"George Washington
long ago rejected exclusive dependence upon mere materialistic values. In the
bitter and critical winter at Valley Forge,
when the cause of liberty was so near defeat, his recourse was sincere and earnest prayer ...
As religious faith is the foundation of free government, so is prayer an indispensable part of that faith."
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During the crisis of the Great Depression,
President Herbert Hoover
stated at
Valley Forge,
May 30, 1931:
"If, by the grace of God, we stand steadfast in our great traditions through this time of stress, we shall insure that we and our sons and daughters shall see these fruits increased many fold ...
If those few thousand men endured that long winter of privation and suffering
... held their countrymen to the faith, and by that holding held fast the freedom of America,
what right have we to be of little faith?"
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
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