Valley Forge

Well, the summer is coming to an end.  I did most of my traveling during the first three weeks of summer (Houston, England, Seattle, Atlanta).  I haven't done a lot since then, but I wanted to finish strong.  I was able to take some small trips to enjoy my last two weekends without football.  I'll get to the trip I just got back from a little later, but first I'll finish the trip I took last weekend.

I already blogged about seeing Clayton Kershaw in Philadelphia, but I didn't talk about the first part of my day.  My brother picked me up when I got to Philadelphia and we went to Valley Forge.  When I was in London, I was struck by the history of the city.  It was the place where Winston Churchill had to stay underground as the British fought for their lives.  If they hadn't succeeded, perhaps nobody would have stopped Hitler.  The Battle of Saratoga (fall 1777) is widely considered the turning point of the Revolution.  But the Revolution could have easily died at Valley Forge (winter 1777-78).  George Washington kept his army together through a terrible winter (although it was not their worst winter encampment).  There were some politicians and other military leaders that wanted Washington out at the time.  Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben trained the army and made them into a legitimate fighting force that could go head to head with the British.  If not for that, maybe we don't win the Revolution.

What I didn't really expect was how huge Valley Forge is.  I guess there were thousands of soldiers that needed a place to stay.  They picked Valley Forge for its elevation in case the British attacked and they also wanted to stay somewhere that they could keep an eye on the British in Philadelphia.  The first thing we saw was the Visitor Center, which is a small museum.  That was our first stop.  There were some cool artifacts in there.  Right by the Visitor Center you can watch a short film about the winter at Valley Forge.  From there, we walked and saw some recreations of the huts the soldiers built when they arrived in December 1777.  None of the originals exist anymore, but the recreations give you an idea of how terrible the conditions must have been.

It was a beautiful summer day.  You have to imagine these huts in the dead of winter.

God Bless our military.  This is what it was like at Valley Forge and I'm sure things are pretty crappy in Afghanistan.

After that, we got back in the car and drove to General Washington's Headquarters.  Before you get to Washington's Headquarters, you walk through a former train station that now serves as another little museum.  I learned something there.  I was wondering why von Steuben was not an honorary American citizen like the Marquis de Lafayette (my favorite Frenchman of all time, he was with Washington at Valley Forge).  The reason is that von Steuben later became an actual American citizen.  Washington's Headquarters were a house that already stood at Valley Forge.  The house still stands today.  It has changed over the years, but they've tried to restore it to what it was probably like when Washington was there.

General Washington's Headquarters

Washington's bedroom

Apparently this statue is one of the most accurate representations of what Washington looked like.

We got back into the car and went to our last stop, the statue of von Steuben.  It was right by where he drilled the army.  The former Prussian army officer arrived at Valley Forge in February 1778 and Washington made him the Acting Inspector General.  He spoke little English at first.  He wrote a training manual in French, which was then translated into English.  Despite the obstacles, he succeeded and the army was ready to defeat the British when the winter was over.  It took a few years, but surviving the winter at Valley Forge helped the Americans defeat the British.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.  Easily my favorite German of all time.

I've already said that I believe George Washington is the greatest American ever.  It was really cool to be somewhere that Washington was during one of the most challenging times of his life.  George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben are American heroes.  And they all spent a winter at Valley Forge.  It's definitely worth visiting if you love history and America.  God Bless America!