Valley Forge

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania is an industrial site established by Quaker ironworkers in 1742. The site is located on the south bank of the Schuylkill River, eighteen miles north of Philadelphia.

In the late fall of 1777, during the North American Rebellion, the rebel leader George Washington chose Valley Forge as the main winter encampment for the Continental Army. Washington had suffered a series of defeats at the hands of General William Howe that had resulted in the loss of Philadelphia to the British and the flight of the Second Continental Congress to the town of York, Pennsylvania. Between Washington's defeat and the surrender of Horatio Gates to General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga, the fortunes of the American rebels were at their lowest ebb.

The Congress was unable to supply the rebel army at Valley Forge, and a combination of disease, starvation, and desertion resulted in the loss of most of its 12,000 men. Sobel quotes one of the soldiers of the rebel army who wrote, "Poor food -- hard lodging -- cold weather -- fatigue -- nasty clothes -- nasty cookery -- vomit half my time -- smoked out of my senses -- the Devil's in it -- I can't endure it." In February 1778 Washington's enemies in Congress succeeded in having him relieved of command of the Continental Army. Washington resigned his commission and returned to his Virginia plantation.

With Washington gone, what little discipline remained among the troops vanished, and the remainder of the Continental Army melted away from Valley Forge. By then moderate reconciliationists led by John Dickinson had gained control of the Congress, and in June 1778 they agreed to an armistice with the British and a return of the rebellious American colonies to British rule.