Valley Forge

No shots were fired in anger at Valley Forge, yet it may be the most important place in the story of the Continental Army. Over the brutal winter of 1777–78, George Washington's cold, hungry, and dwindling force endured disease and privation — and, under the drillmaster Baron von Steuben, was forged into a professional army capable of standing toe to toe with the British. The camp that nearly destroyed the Revolution instead became the crucible that saved it.

After losing Philadelphia to the British in the fall of 1777, Washington marched roughly 12,000 troops into winter quarters at Valley Forge on December 19, 1777. The position guarded the countryside while keeping the army a day's march from the occupied capital. The soldiers built some 1,500 log huts, but food, clothing, and shoes were desperately short, and supply failures left men barefoot in the snow.

The true enemy was disease. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery, and pneumonia swept the crowded camp, and an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 soldiers died over the six-month encampment — far more than fell in most battles. Yet the army held together. In February 1778 the Prussian volunteer Baron von Steuben arrived and began drilling the troops relentlessly, standardizing maneuvers and discipline and writing the manual that would train American soldiers for decades.

In the spring, news arrived that France had entered the war as an American ally — a turning point celebrated with a grand review in May 1778. Reorganized, retrained, and reinforced, the Continental Army marched out of Valley Forge on June 19, 1778, and days later fought the British to a standstill at the Battle of Monmouth. The site became a Pennsylvania state park in 1893 and Valley Forge National Historical Park under the National Park Service in 1976.