Valley Forge

While we all celebrate our 1776 Declaration of Independence every 4th of July, our thoughts mostly turn to fireworks, barbecues and, of course, savoring a day off work in the heart of summer.

Those who understand the significance of the 4th of July may see our independence as having been a foregone conclusion from that date in 1776 forward.

By Christmas of 1776, however, America's independence had been almost entirely snuffed out by the most powerful military in the world.

"These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine in The Crisis, his follow-up pamphlet to Common Sense.  These pamphlets were carried by a new kind of soldiers willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause of freedoms barely dreamt of previously anywhere in the world.

I grew up believing that our country stood united to overthrow English rule, but in fact it would be far more accurate to think of there being three factions among American colonists.  As at any time, a large portion of people had no interest in government.  They just wanted to get on with their lives, far more concerned with bringing in the crops or getting married than whether King George III or someone else was the figurehead in charge.

  

Loyalists, on the other hand, considered themselves British, first and foremost. They settled in America to reap financial rewards but quite logically wanted to continue the protections afforded by fealty to the British Crown, which had the support of the most powerful navy and army the world had ever known.

Far less than the majority were Patriots who wanted full indepence from imperial powers of Europe. They understood that if they didn't have at least 13 colonies to stand against Great Britain that their cause would be lost before it began.  Beyond that, France and Spain still controlled much of what would eventually be the United States, and any one colony would be vulnerable to another imperial European powerplay without the colonial alliance.

Woman's Suffrage Justice Bell

Patriots were barely able to get all 13 colonies to go along with the Declaration of Independence, and even then, if it had been a democratic vote, it's doubtful that the populace would have approved in any given colony with a clear majority.  These representatives who committed their colonies to the cause literally put their own lives on the line, and their fellow citizens might have turned violently against them at any point in order to gain favor with King George, who could order their execution for treason. 

As Benjamin Franklyn said, "If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately."

And remember, these were distinguished men living comfortable lives, often with great wealth, who were putting their lives and livelihoods on the line in order to secure the truly revloutionary freedoms we now take for granted, including those later found in our Bill of Rights.

Without doubt, compromises on important principles were negotiated to bring together this confederacy which was destined to become the United States of America, but the foundations of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, rather than of one to control serfs subservient to royalty, was truly groundbreaking.

However, after months of lost skirmishes and retreat, the American cause was almost lost.  On Christmas Day in 1776, General George Washington began one of the most risky and unlikely military attacks in history to retake Trenton, New Jersey.  The novel "To Try Men's Souls" does an excellent job conveying exactly how significant and improbable winning this battle was.  The password code for the mission was "Victory or death."

Had the well-equipped, better-trained Hessian mercenaries under British command not been totally shocked and subsequently defeated by the surprise attack of desperate Patriots, many of whom didn't even have shoes for their long march on slushy roads, the American Revolution would have ended right there.

The Patriots had crossed the icy Deleware River in the dead of night in small boats before hiking several miles through snow to mount their sneak attack.

The second novel in that series, "Valley Forge," continues about a year after that monumental victory at the winter camp at Valley Forge, located 20 miles west of what had formerly been the capital of the united colonies, Philadelphia.

The comfortable, modern city of Philadelphia had been captured by the British.  The Brits chased the Continental Congress out of town.  British Loyalists jeered the leaders of the lost revolutionary cause as they unceremoniously fled.

Valley Forge was selected as a defensible site suitable for building a winter encampment, but the soldiers had to sleep in the elements until they had felled trees with which they built their own barracks. The small cabins had room for little more than primitive log bunk beds along the walls to accommodate 12 men.   A series of snafus included the Army's quartermaster, the man in charge of providing food and other supplies for the troops, resigning without informing General Washington. By this point, the Colonial dollars paid to soldiers and which were supposed to be used for supplies had become almost entirely worthless. Most farmers and merchants naturally chose to sell their goods to the British in Philadelphia for hard currency instead.

Insufficient food and clothing resulted in great suffering among the troops.  Disease swept through the camp, killing 2,500 out of a total of 12,000 men who entered the camp.  Many enlistments expired, and those men chose to return home to families, depleting the ranks further.

This would have been a logical point to give up and go home, but instead, Valley Forge became the crucible in which ragtag militias were trained into a disciplined fighting force.

In fact, the name of the encampment itself was the perfect metaphor for the metamorphosis.  Briefly, a forge is the hearth in which crude metal is heated so that a smith can then hammer it into something useful.  By extension, a forge also designates the facilities where the smith performs this work.

Valley Forge was such a place, and there, General George Washington with the help of Baron Friedrich von Steuben,  a German volunteer, forged an American Army.  George Washington often referred to "providence," literally the protective care of God, as the reason for the success of the American revolution, and the arrival of von Steuben seems to make his point. Von Steuben fled Europe under allegations of homosexuality which had shut down his Prussian military career and threatened his very freedom by the time he met American ambassador Benjamin Franklyn in Paris.

With apparently exaggerated claims of being a Lieutenant General in the Prussian Army and a letter of introduction from Ben Franklin, von Steuben was named Inspector General by General Washington.  The position gave him the authority necessary to successfully train the American Army.  It's said that before Valley Forge, George Washington's military knew almost nothing but defeat, and after Valley Forge America knew almost nothing but victory.

While our education system increasingly chooses to demonize American flaws rather than celebrating our shared heritage, it is important to visit places like Valley Forge National Historic Park, which Julie and I enjoyed seeing with Gina and Laszlo on Columbus Day.  It's too bad Columbus Day is no longer a school holiday at granddaughter Emma's elementary school.

Artifacts at Valley Forge's Revolutionary War Museum

George Washington's Headquarters at Valey Forge

Washington Memorial Chapel