Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: July 1939 Volume 2 Number 3, Page 51

New light on the encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge:
December 19, 1777-June 21, 1778

Franklin L. Burns

Page 51

Part I. Foreword

The attraction to Valley Forge in the year of 1938 of 1,300,000 visitors from over almost all of the civilized world, attests to an ever growing appreciation of its historic interest and natural beauty.

To some the Park is one of the most holy of the National shrines to Liberty, the place where so many gave their lives uncomplainingly without the exaltation which the thunder and rattle of battle inspires. To others it is nature in her most lovely mood that attracts and charms.

Much has been written of the encampment. Its cold and starving period has been stressed in our text books, studied by millions of the Nation's school children and in more detail by their elders. Few, however, really know its full history since no accurate or authenticated work has over been published. No nation has ever become mighty or long remained great without giving heed to the lessons of the past.

Let us continue to regard patriotism as a National virtue and to resist, as the opening wedge of deleterious isms, any attempt to cheapen the glorious achievements or emphasize the comparatively insignificant faults and foibles of our general officers of the Revolution.

Fortunately, there is little to debunk of the Continental Army while at Valley Forge, yet we would know more of our great and good Commander and his loyal officers as they planned far into the night that the Army might continue and become invincible and as they toiled by day to make their dreams come true.

The papers to follow aim to reveal something of the forethought, activity, and enterprise of a very busy camp; the practical, not the romantic side of the story; a cross-section of the incidentals of which the general student of history knows so little, but which really mark the difference between success and failure of a campaign.

The achievements of Potter's Pennsylvania militia, Morgan's riflemen, and of other heroic outposts, may never be fully told, but the traditional stories handed down to us, and history itself, prove that they strove valiantly and well to confine the enemy within the narrow limits of the fallen metropolis. Franklin was right, Philadelphia had taken Howe.

The compiler is indebted to R. Brognard Okie for the fine and accurate sketches of the historic buildings; to Professor S. Paul Teamer for drawing the maps, without which the narrative would lose much of its historical value; to Mr. Manus McMonagle for important information and traditional lore; to Miss Fannie Nixon for the loan of photograph and sketches of Lee's quarters in its original state; to Mrs. John P. Croasdale and Mr. Howard S. Okie for criticism of the text and other assistance; to Mr. Burton H. Shainline for his guidance over the more difficult part of the terrain, and to the Chester County Historical Society for permission to examine valuable records and books.