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VALLEY FORGE

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 864 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VALLEY FORGE , a small See also:

village in See also:Chester See also:county, See also:Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the S. See also:bank of the Schuylkill See also:river, about 20 M. N.W. of See also:Philadelphia. It is served by the Philadelphia & See also:Reading railway. The village lies in See also:part of the See also:tract occupied in the See also:winter of 1777–1778 by the See also:American See also:army (under See also:General See also:Washington), whose sufferings from See also:cold, See also:starvation and sickness made the See also:place historic. On the 19th of See also:December (after the battles of See also:Brandywine and See also:Germantown and the occupation of Philadelphia by the See also:British) the army, numbering about ro,000, went into See also:camp here, the site having been selected by Washington partly because the hilly ground was favourable for See also:defence, and partly because the army was thus placed between the British forces and See also:York, Pennsylvania (about 65 m. W. of Valley Forge), where See also:Congress was in session. The camp was almost unapproachable from the See also:west by See also:reason of the precipitous hillsides and Valley See also:Creek, a small stream flowing northward at their See also:base into the Schuylkill river which afforded a barrier on the See also:north; on the See also:east a See also:series of intrenchments and See also:rifle-pits were built. In this vicinity the army remained encamped until the See also:middle of See also:June. As a result of the mismanagement and general incapacity of the See also:Commissary See also:Department, the army received little See also:food or clothing during the winter months; in the latter part of December nearly 2900 men were unfit for See also:duty on See also:account of sickness or the lack of clothing, and by the 1st of See also:February this number had increased by nearly See also:I000, a See also:state of affairs which Washington said was due to " an eternal See also:round of the most stupid mismanagement [by which] the public treasure is expended to no See also:kind of purpose, while the men have been See also:left to perish by inches with cold and nakedness." There were many desertions and occasional symptoms of See also:mutiny, but for the most part the soldiers See also:bore their suffering with heroic fortitude. On the 27th of February See also:Baron See also:Steuben (q.v.) reached the camp, where he drilled and reorganized the army. In 1893 the state of Pennsylvania created a See also:commission of ten members, which (with $365,000 appropriated up to 1911) bought about 475 acres (in Chester and See also:Montgomery counties) of the See also:original camp ground, now known as the Valley Forge See also:Park, preserved Washington's headquarters (built in about the See also:year 1758) and other historic buildings, and reproduced several See also:bake-ovens and huts of the kind used by the army. The state has also erected (1908) a See also:fine equestrian statue by See also:Henry K.

See also:

Bush-See also:Brown to General See also:Anthony See also:Wayne, and a number of See also:granite markers which indicate the situation of the camps of the different brigades. The state of See also:Maine erected in 1907 a granite memorial to the soldiers from Maine who camped here, and in 1910 See also:Massachusetts appropriated $5000 for a memorial to her troops. Valley Forge took its name from an See also:iron forge (also called " See also:Mountjoy forge ") built on the east See also:side of Valley Creek, near its mouth, in about 1250, and destroyed by the British in 1777.

End of Article: VALLEY FORGE

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