Of the many dramatic episodes of the American Revolution, perhaps none is more steeped in legend than the Valley Forge winter. Paintings show Continentals huddled around campfires and Washington kneeling in the frozen woods, praying for his army's deliverance. To this day schoolchildren are taught that Valley Forge was the "turning point of the Revolution" -- the event that transformed a ragged group of soldiers into a fighting army. But was Valley Forge really the "crucible of victory" it has come to represent in American history? Now, two hundred and twenty-five years later, Wayne Bodle has written the first comprehensive history of the winter encampment of 1777-78.
The traditional account portrays Valley Forge in the 1770s as a desolate wilderness far removed from civilian society. Washington's army was forced to endure one of the coldest winters in memory with inadequate food and supplies, despite appeals to the Continental Congress. When the mild weather of spring finally arrived, the Prussian baron Friedrich von Steuben drilled the demoralized soldiers into a first-rate army that would go on to stunning victories at Monmouth and, eventually, at Yorktown.
Bodle presents a very different picture of Valley Forge -- one that revises both popular and scholarly perceptions. Far from being set in a wilderness, the Continental Army's quarters were deliberately located in a settled area. And although there was a provisions crisis, Washington overstated the case in order to secure additional support. (A shrewd man, Washington mostly succeeded at keeping his army supplied with food, clothing, and munitions. Farmers from the interior provided food that ensured that the army didn'tstarve.) As for Steuben's role in training the soldiers, Bodle argues that it was not the decisive factor others have seen in the army's later victories.
The freshness of Bodle's approach is that he offers a complete picture of e
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This important study challenges most of the accepted views of Valley Forge. It opens by tracing the American Revolution from the British capture of New York City through the failed attempt by the Continental Army to defend Philadelphia. Bodle (Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania) shows that Valley Forge was chosen for the army's winter encampment as much for political as for military reasons, and that Valley Forge was neither remote nor virtually uninhabited, as it is often depicted. Key sections of the book focus on the interaction between encamped soldiers and area civilians, on divisions within the army, on George Washington's relations with political leaders, and, especially, on the supply crisis of February 1778, which Washington overstated in order to extract reforms from Congress. These changes, including pensions for officers and changes in rank structure and in the commissary system, proved to be more important to the future success of the Continental Army than the drill and discipline introduced by Baron Friedrich Von Steuben during the same period. Historians of the American Revolution will have to take into account the findings and implications of this fine study, the first in-depth account of the winter encampment of 1777-78. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All public and academic levels and collections. J. C. Bradford Texas A&M University
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Wayne Bodle is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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