dered army was marching to Boston and
Cambridge, to be shut up as prisoners, Washington was taking into
consideration the best place in which to pass the winter. Several were
suggested, Wilmington, Delaware, and Valley Forge--about twenty-five
miles from Philadelphia--being especially urged upon him. Washington
preferred the latter, chiefly because it was near enough to
Philadelphia to enable him to keep watch on the movements of the
British troops in that city. Valley Forge! One of the names in human
history associated with the maximum of suffering and distress, with
magnificent patience, sacrifice, and glory.

The surrounding hills were covered with woods and presented an
inhospitable appearance. The choice was severely criticised, and
de Kalb described it as a wilderness. But the position was central
and easily defended. The army arrived there about the middle of
December, and the erection of huts began. They were built of logs
and were 14 by 15 feet each. The windows were covered with oiled
paper, and the openings between the logs were closed with clay.
The huts were arranged in streets, giving the place the appearance
of a city. It was the first of the year, however, before they
were occupied, and previous to that the suffering of the army had
become great. Although the weather was intensely cold, the men
were obliged to work at the buildings, with nothing to support
life but flour unmixed with water, which they baked into cakes at
the open fires ... the horses died of starvation by hundreds, and
the men were obliged to haul their own provisions and firewood. As
straw could not be found to protect the men from the cold ground,
sickness spread through their quarters with fearful rapidity. "The
unfortunate soldiers," wrote Lafayette in after years, "they were
in want of everything; they had neither coats, hats, shirts nor
shoes; their feet and their legs froze till they became black, and
it was often necessary to amputate them." ... The army frequently
remained whole days without provisions, and the patient endurance
of the soldiers and officers was a miracle which each moment
served to renew ... while the country around Valley Forge was so
impoverished by the military operations of the previous summer as
to make it impossible for it to support the army. The sufferings
of the latter were chiefly owing to the in