The Great Republic by the Master Historians Washington at Valley Forge byBancroft, Hubert H.
[The winter passed by the American army at Valley Forge was servere one. The
troops were worn out with hard service, and greatly needed rest. They were
poorly clad, and almost destitute of blankets, and needed more than tents to
protect them from the inclemency of the weather, while it was of great
importance to remain within reaching distance of Philadelphia and the enemy. The
plan adopted by Washington was to build huts for the army at Valley Forge, near
the Schuylkill, and about twenty miles from Philadelphia. Here he could keep a
vigilant eye on the city, and protect a wide stretch of country. It was a sad
and dreary march to Valley Forge. The men were cold and hungry, provisions were
scanty, clothing was worn out, while the exposed feet of many tracked the ground
with blood. Yet quantities of stores were lying at various points, perishing for
want of teams and of money to pay teamsters. Huts were rapidly constructed, and
a military village was formed, in which the soldiers were to some degree
protected from the wintry weather. But they continued to suffer severely from
want of all the other necessaries of life. Irving's "Life of Washington"
furnishes us a graphic story of life in this winter camp, and of the winter life
of the British in Philadelphia.]
During the winter's encampment in Valley Forge, Washington sedulously applied
himself to the formation of a new system for the army. At his earnest
solicitation Congress appointed a committee of five, called the Committee of
Arrangement, to repair to the camp and assist him in the task. Before their
arrival he had collected the written opinions and suggestions of his officers on
the subject, and from these, and his own observations and experience, had
prepared a document exhibiting the actual state of the army, the defects of
previous systems, and the alterations and reforms that were necessary. The
committee remained three months with him in camp, and then made a report to
Congress founded on his statement. The reforms therein recommended were
generally adopted. On one point, however, there was much debate. Washington had
urged that the pay of the officers was insufficient for their decent
subsistence, especially during the actual depreciation of the currency, and that
many resignations were the consequence. He recommended not only that their pay
should be increased, but that there should be a provision made for their future
support, by half-pay and a pensionary establishment, so as to secure them from
being absolutely impoverished in the service of their country.
This last recommendation had to encounter a great jealousy of the army on the
part of Congress, and all that Washington could effect by strenuous and
unremitted exertions was a kind of compromise, according to which officers were
to receive half-pay for seven years after the war, and non-commissioned officers
and privates eighty dollars each.
The reforms adopted were slow in going into operation. In the mean time, the
distresses of the army continued to increase. The surrounding country for a
great distance was exhausted, and had the appearance of having been pillaged. In
some places where the inhabitants had provisions and cattle they denied it,
intending to take them to Philadelphia, where they could obtain greater prices.
The undisturbed communication with the city had corrupted the minds of the
people in its vicinage. "This State is sick even unto death," said Gouverneur
Morris.
The parties sent out to forage too often returned empty-handed. "For some days
past there has been little less than a famine in the camp," writes Washington,
on one occasion. "A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh,
and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot
enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that thy
have not been, ere this, excited by their suffering to a general mutiny and
desertion."
The committee, in their report, declared that the want of straw had cost the
lives of many of the troops. "Unprovided with this, or materials to raise them
from the cold and wet earth, sickness and mortality have spread through their
quarters in an astonishing degree. Nothing can equal their sufferings, except
the patience and fortitude with which the faithful part of the army endure
them." A British historian cites as a proof of the great ascendency of
Washington over his "raw and undisciplined troops," that so many remained with
him throughout the winter in this wretched situation and still more wretched
plight, almost naked, often on short allowance, with great sickness and
mortality, and a scarcity of medicines, their horses perishing by hundreds from
hunger and the severity of the season.
He gives a striking picture of the maorence and luxury which reigned at the same
time in the British army in Philadelphia. It is true, the investment of the city
by the Americans rendered provisions dear and fuel scanty; but the consequent
privations were felt by the inhabitants, not by their invaders. The latter
revelled as if in a conquered place. Private houses were occupied without
rendering compensation; the officers were quartered on the principal
inhabitants, many of whom were of the Society of "Friends;" some even
transgressed so far against propriety as to introduce their mistresses into the
quarters thus oppressively obtained. The quiet habits of the city were outraged
by the dissolute habits of a camp. Gaming prevailed to a shameless degree. A
foreign officer kept a faro-bank, at which he made a fortune and some of the
young officers ruined themselves.
"During the whole of this long winter of riot and dissipation," continues the
same writer, "Washington was suffered to remain undisturbed at Valley Forge,
with an army not exceeding five thousand effective men, and his cannon frozen up
and immovable. A nocturnal attack might have forced him to a disadvantageous
action or compelled him to a disastrous retreat, leaving behind him his sick,
cannon, ammunition, and heavy baggage. It might have opened the way for supplies
to the city, and shaken off the lethargy of the British army. In a word," adds
he, "had General Howe led on his troops to action, victory was in his power and
conquest in his train."
Without assenting to the probability of such a result, it is certain that the
army for a part of the winter while it held Philadelphia in siege was in as
perilous a situation as that which kept a bold front before Boston without
ammunition to serve its cannon.
On one occasion there was a flurry at the most advanced post, where Captain
Henry Lee (Light-Horse Harry) with a few of his troops was stationed. He made
himself formidable to the enemy by harassing their foraging-parties. An attempt
was made to surprise him. A party of about two hundred dragoons, taking a
circuitous route in the night, came upon him by daybreak. He had but a few men
with him at the time, and took post in a large store-house. His scanty force did
not allow a soldier for each window. The dragoons attempted to force their way
into the house. There was a warm contest. The dragoons were bravely repulsed,
and sheered off, leaving two killed and four wounded. "So well directed was the
opposition," writes Lee to Washington, "that we drove them from the stables, and
saved every horse. We have got the arms, some cloaks, etc., of their wounded.
The enterprise was certainly daring, though the issue of it very ignominious. I
had not a soldier for each. Window."..
In the month of February, Mrs. Washington rejoined the general at Valley Forge,
and took up her residence at head-quarters. The arrangements consequent to her
arrival bespeak the simplicity of style in this rude encampment. "The general's
apartment is very small," writes she to a friend; "he has a log cabin built to
dine in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were at
first."
Lady Stirling, Mrs. Knox, the wife of the general, and the wives of other of the
officers were also in the camp. The reforms in the commissariat had begun to
operate. Provisions arrived in considerable quantities; supplies on their way to
the Philadelphia market to load the British tables were intercepted and diverted
into the hungry camp of the patriots; magazines were formed in Valley Forge; the
threatened famine was averted; "grim-visaged War" gradually relaxed his
features, and affairs in the encampment began to assume a more cheering aspect..
The most important arrival in the camp was that of the Baron Steuben, towards
the latter part of February. He was a seasoned soldier from the old battle-
fields of Europe, having served in the Seven Years' War, been aide-de-camp to
the great Frederick, and connected with the quartermaster-general's department.
Honors had been heaped upon him in Germany. After leaving the Prussian army he
had been grand marshal of the court of the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen,
colonel in the circle of Suabia, lieutenant-general under the Prince Margrave of
Baden, and knight of the Order of Fidelity; and he had declined liberal offers
from the King of Sardinia and the Emperor of Austria. With an income of about
three thousand dollars, chiefly arising from various appointments, he was living
pleasantly in distinguished society at the German courts, and making occasional
visits to Paris, when he was persuaded by the Count de St.-Germain, French
Minister of War, and others of the French cabinet, to come out to America and
engage in the cause they were preparing to defend. Their object was to secure
for the American armies the services of an officer of experience and a thorough
disciplinarian. Through their persuasions he resigned his several offices, and
came out at forty-eight years of age, a soldier of fortune, to the rude
fighting-grounds of America, to aid a half-disciplined people in their struggle
for liberty. No certainty of remuneration was held out to him, but there was an
opportunity for acquiring military glory; the probability of adequate reward
should the young republic be successful; and it was hinted that, at all events,
the French court would not suffer him to be a loser. As his means, on resigning
his offices, were small, Beaumarchais furnished funds for his immediate
expenses.
The baron had brought strong letters from Dr. Franklin and Mr. Deane, our envoys
at Paris, and from the Count St.-Germain. Landing at Portsmouth in New
Hampshire, December 1, he had forwarded copies of his letters to Washington.
"The object of my greatest ambition," writes he, "is to render your country all
the service in my power, and to deserve the title of a citizen of America by
fighting for the cause of your liberty. If the distinguished ranks in which I
have served in Europe should be an obstacle, I had rather serve under your
Excellency as a volunteer, than to be an object of discontent among such
deserving officers as have already distinguished themselves among you.
"I would say, moreover," adds he, "were it not for the fear of offending your
modesty, that your Excellency is the only person under whom, after having served
under the King of Prussia, I could wish to pursue an art to which I have wholly
given myself up."
By Washington's direction, the baron had proceeded direct to Congress. His
letters procured him a distinguished reception from the President. A committee
was appointed to confer with him. He offered his services as a volunteer, making
no condition for rank or pay, but trusting, should he prove himself worthy and
the cause be crowned with success, he would be indemnified for the sacrifices he
had made, and receive such further compensation as he might be thought to merit.
The committee having made their report, the baron's proffered services were
accepted, with a vote of thanks for his disinterestedness, and he was ordered to
join the army at Valley Forge. That army, in its ragged condition and squalid
quarters, presented a sorry aspect to a strict disciplinarian from Germany,
accustomed to the order and appointments of European camps; and the baron often
declared that under such circumstances no army in Europe could be kept together
for a single month. The liberal mind of Steuben, however, made every allowance;
and Washington soon found in him a consummate soldier, free from pedantry or
pretension.
The evils arising from a want of uniformity in discipline and manceuvres
throughout the army had long caused Washington to desire a well-organized
inspectorship. He knew that the same desire was felt by Congress. Conway had
been appointed to that office, but had never entered upon its duties. The baron
appeared to be peculiarly well qualified for such a department. Washington
determined, therefore, to set on foot a temporary institution of the kind.
Accordingly he proposed to the baron to undertake the office of inspector-
general. The latter cheerfully agreed, Two ranks of inspectors were appointed
under him,--the lowest to inspect brigades, the highest to superintend several
of these. Among the inspectors was a French gentleman of the name of Ternant,
chosen not only for his intrinsic merit and abilities, but on account of his
being well versed in the English as well as the French language, which made him
a necessary assistant to the baron, who, at times, needed an interpreter. The
gallant Fleury, to whom Congress had given the rank and pay of lieutenant-
colonel, and who had exercised the office of aide-major in France, was soon
after employed likewise as an inspector.
In a little while the whole army was under drill; for a great part, made up of
raw militia, scarcely knew the manual exercise. Many of the officers, too, knew
little of manceuvring, and the best of them had much to learn. The baron
furnished his sub-inspectors with written instructions relative to their several
functions. He took a company of soldiers under his immediate training, and,
after he had sufficiently schooled it, made it a model for the others,
exhibiting the manceuvres they had to practise.
It was a severe task at first for the aide-de-camp of the great Frederick to
operate upon such raw materials. His ignorance of the language, too, increased
the difficulty, where manceuvres were to be explained or rectified. He was in
despair, until an officer of a New York regiment, Captain Walker, who spoke
French, stepped forward and offered to act as interpreter. "Had I seen an angel
from heaven," says the baron, "I could not have been more rejoiced." He made
Walker his aide-de-camp, and from that time had him always at hand.
For a time there was nothing but drills throughout the camp; then gradually came
evolutions of every kind. The officers were schooled as well as the men. The
troops, says a person who was present in the camp, were paraded in a single line
with shouldered arms, every officer in his place. The baron passed in front,
then took the musket of each soldier in hand, to see whether it was clean and
well polished, and examined whether the men's accoutrements were in good order.
He was sadly worried for a time with the militia; especially when any manceuvre
was to be performed. The men blundered in their exercise; the baron blundered in
his English; his French and German were of no avail; he lost his temper, which
was rather warm, swore in all three languages at once, which made the matter
worse, and at length called his aide to his assistance to help him curse the
blockheads, as it was pretended, but, no doubt, to explain the manceuvre. (On
one occasion, having exhausted all his German and French oaths, he vociferated
to his aide-de-camp, Major Walker, "Viens, mon ami Walker,--viens, mon bon ami.
Sacre--G--dam de gaucherie of dese badauts--je ne puis plus--I can curse dem no
more." --Carden, "Anecdotes of the American War," p.341.)
Still the grand marshal of the court of Hohenzollern mingled with the veteran
soldier of Frederick and tempered his occasional bursts of impatience; and he
had a kind, generous heart, that soon made him a favorite with the men. His
discipline extended to their comforts. He inquired into their treatment by the
officers. He examined the doctors' reports, visited the sick, and saw that they
were well lodged and attended.
He was an example, too, of the regularity and system he exacted. One of the most
alert and indefatigable men in the camp, up at daybreak, if not before, whenever
there were to be any important manceuvres, he took his cup of coffee and smoked
his pipe while the servant dressed his hair, and by sunrise he was in the
saddle, equipped at all points, with the star of his order of knighthood
glittering on his breast, and was off to the parade alone, if his suite were not
ready to attend him.
The good strong sense of the baron was evinced in the manner in which he adapted
his tactics to the nature of the army and the situation of the country, instead
of adhering with bigotry to the systems of Europe. His instructions were
appreciated by all. The officers received them gladly and conformed to them. The
men soon became active and adroit. The army gradually acquired a proper
organization, and began to operate like a great machine; and Washington found in
the baron an intelligent, disinterested, truthful coadjutor, well worthy of the
badge he wore as a knight of the Order of Fidelity.
