8 Chapter 7 Hard Times

Chapter 7 Hard Times Most of the battles in the war were fought in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In late fall of 1778, the Continental Army won an important victory in Saratoga, New York. After receiving the good news, Washington led ten thousand of his men westward in Pennsylvania. They would set up camp until spring, when battles would resume. He picked a place called Valley Forge. It was easy to defend. Also his spies could keep an eye on British troops in nearby Philadelphia.

The months at Valley Forge should have been a time for the troops to rest up, regain their strength. However, the weather turned bitter cold. The huts the soldiers built had no heat. (The snow made all the wood too damp to burn.) In letters to the Continental Congress, Washington kept begging for help. He needed uniforms, shoes, and food. Washington was told to stop his "whining complaints." How bad was it for the soldiers? Many were dressed only in rags. Some had no clothes at all, just a tattered blanket. Sometimes a soldier had to borrow someone else's rags to go on

duty. Officers who had shoes poured whiskey in them to prevent frostbite. Common soldiers often went barefoot. Washington reported seeing "blood from their feet" in the snow. Some soldiers' frozen feet turned black and had to be amputated. There was no food for the horses. Most fell down dead. There wasn't enough food for the

soldiers, either. They would go for days without even so much as a bite of meat. They were near starvation. As always, Martha came to stay with her husband and the troops at winter camp. Everyone called her Lady Washington. She couldn't stand the sight of blood and was known for saying that she shuddered at the sound of a gunshot. Yet she knew being there meant a lot to the soldiers as well as her husband. At Valley Forge, she cared for the sick and would leave small gifts for them. Still, a quarter of the troops (2,500) died from disease. What is even more terrible is that the suffering at Valley Forge was unnecessary. Pennsylvania farmers had recently harvested their crops. It had been a very good year. They could have supplied the troops with food and clothes but chose instead to reap bigger profits by selling to the British. Terrible as the time was at Valley Forge, conditions at the winter camp in Morristown the following year were worse. Soldiers were

deserting. Sick soldiers were dying in huge numbers. Washington's army was down to eight thousand men, and of those, fewer than three thousand were well enough to fight. More bad news came that summer. The city of Charleston, South Carolina, fell to the British. After that, there was an American defeat in Savannah, Georgia. And then in the fall, Washington learned that Benedict Arnold, a daring and trusted general, had gone over to the British side. (Arnold did it for money, and to this day is considered the worst traitor in American history.)

TORIES LOOKING BACK TO A LONG-AGO TIME, IT IS EASY TO THINK THAT EVERYONE IN THE COLONIES WAS FIGHTING TOGETHER, THAT THEY ALL BELIEVED IN THE SAME CAUSE. BUT THAT ISN'T SO. NOT ALL AMERICANS SHARED IN "THE SPIRIT OF '76." JOHN ADAMS, WHO BECAME