“Valley Forge Of Winter 1777 And 1778”

472 Words2 Pages
The days were shorter, nights were longer, freezing temperature, and not enough cloths for everybody: the winter in Valley Forge. General George Washington said, we would camp in Valley Forge for winter, and wait for the warm weather to prepare for battle. He ordered us to build a bridge over the Schuylkill so that it would be easy to get re-supply of the army, and also defensive trenches to protect the encampment. We built huts under the direction of army’s engineers, but because we were from different part of the colony, huts were different. Living in the hut was difficult, and uncomfortable because it was damp, smoky, drafty, and very unhealthy. As winter approaches transportation became harder, and supplies were irregular. Due to shortage of food, we were forced to eat food in the forests and farm fields. Our shoes were destroyed as a result of long marches we had, blankets were scarce, and because of this shortages nearly 4000 of our friends were listed as “unfit for duty.” Thanks to shortage of food, clothes and living in crowded damp quarters, as many as 2000 of us were killed because of diseases like typhus, typhoid, dysentery, and pneumonia. We couldn’t help other soldiers who were sick nor give a proper funeral to other soldiers died because of diseases. We count ourselves as lucky to survive in that harsh condition. Even though Washington was a quick tempered man, we (the soldiers) liked him and his ability to hold together the army. He always cared about the soldiers first and asked support from congress even though it was tough because there were threats to his leadership. He also recruit Native Americans to fight against British. We were happy to get general George Washington as our leader because of him we gained confident to fight against British soldiers. For our training Baron Friedrich von Steuben helped to upgraded our army’s efficiency,
Open Document