Winter at Valley Forge: Washington's Darkest Hour?

Don Wildman (0:03)

We're in rural Pennsylvania in December 1777 After more than two years of fighting, the Revolutionary War is at a crisis point for the Americans. Earlier this fall, British forces occupied Philadelphia, forcing the Continental Congress there to flee. While to the north, there has been notable success at Saratoga. Here, George Washington's Army has suffered a beating at Brandywine, and then a depressing string of skirmishes has gone wrong. And now, with winter again closing in, the soldiers must encamp on a desolate stretch of Pennsylvania countryside 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Valley Forge. Over the next six months, thousands of people, men and women, will endure severe deprivations, freezing temperatures and disease, their crude huts offering little in the way of protection from the elements, while shortages of food, clothing and supplies leave soldiers fighting a desperate battle simply to survive. At the center of it all, of course, is Washington himself. With his army exhausted and depleted, and his officers frustrated, over the ensuing months he will face perhaps the greatest test of his command. Not to defeat the British, but to hold his army together long enough to fight another day.

As the freeze sets in, the cause of American Independence hangs in the balance.

I'm Don Wildman and you are listening to American History Hit, so glad you're here. There might be no more legendary phase of the American Revolution than the winter George Washington and the Continental Army spent at Valley Forge. So to bring us back to its harsher reality, we are joined today by Dr. Ricardo Herrera. Dr. Herrera is Professor Emeritus at the US. Army War College and Senior Historian at the George Washington Leadership Institute. Long before he began teaching military leaders, he served on the ground as a US. Army Armor and Cavalry Officer. His award-winning book, Feeding Washington's Army, Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778, pulls the myth back of Valley Forge to reveal its more illogical desperation of those days.

Professor Herrera, Rick, welcome to American History Hit. Nice to have you here.

Ricardo Herrera (2:38)

It's great to be with you, Don. Thank you.

Don Wildman (2:40)

Before we talk about what life was like at Valley Forge, let's discuss how the Patriots found themselves in this mess to begin with. What's been happening prior to this? Give me some context on why these guys are in such dire straits.

Ricardo Herrera (2:55)

One of the constants for the Continental Army during the War for Independence was the quite frankly shambolic, staggering mess of a logistical system. The days that it worked well were few and far between, but quite often, the system simply staggered under the restrictions put upon it by the Congress. But other things such as the worthlessness of Continental currency, the unwillingness of some people to supply the Army, and of course the British going for the same supplies. At this point, the British, to take us back a few months, in August of 1777, the British Army landed at Head of Elk, Maryland. This was part of General Sir William Howe's larger plan to destroy the Continental Army, to take the American capital at Philadelphia, and he hoped to bring about peace. This was part of a much larger strategy that involved a British column moving southward from Canada that was intended to cut off New England and then launch raids into New England to devastate what the British frankly saw as the cancer of rebellion, the New Englanders. This in their minds was the place where it all started, and so if they can excise this problem that's emanating out of New England, it will cause the rest of the colonies to fall in line. And this is something of a fantasy. It's a repeat of what they had tried to do in 1776 and did not succeed in doing. So the British land at Head of Elk.

They've had a miserable voyage from New York. They've been hit by wretched storms, terrible weather. They've had to dump, I have no idea, how many hundreds of horses overboard that have died during the voyage. Soldiers need to get their land legs back. They will land and then as quickly as possible, how sets the army in motion?

He's looking for a fight, an open field fight with George Washington and the Continental Army.

They begin opening skirmishes at Ironbound Hill. This is the only fight, by the way, that takes place in Delaware throughout the war. All three counties, it's only battle.

And they will skirmish there, fall back, on the 11th of September, 1777 They will fight one of the largest land battles, not the largest, but one of the largest battles at Brandywine. Washington is defeated.