Valley Forge Thesis

Most people remember Valley Forge as just a rough winter for our American soldiers, but Valley Forge is much more than that. Valley Forge is a village found near Valley Creek and the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania, United States. Our American troops were sent to settle there for the winter. After the winter they would prepare for battle with the return of warm weather. Valley Forge was both a suspenseful and brave story, containing a memorable historic event.

During 1777, Patriot forces under the command of General George Washington suffered major defeats against the British at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown; Philadelphia, the capital of the United States, was then under British control. Washington decided to retreat with his 11,000 men and make winter quarters at Valley Forge, located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River. Washington chose Valley Forge as the winter encampment for

Disease, along with the cold and the starvation, was one of the many struggles of the camp. Devoted surgeons, talented nurses, a smallpox injection program, and camp sanitation regulations narrowed the death. One of the most important results of the campsite was the army’s progression into a more professional force. The Continental Army was prepared to go the next level, just as a former Prussian army officer, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben, came to the camp on February 1778. Von Steuben’s direct training program helped the army become a better army. On May 6, 1778, the army celebrated France’s alliance with and formal agreement of the United States as an independent power. The expected coming of the French greatly altered British war plans and caused their withdrawal of Philadelphia in June. Washington quickly set troops in motion to bring on a general engagement with the