ModXjLu JcruVi^ /\JiAruiiAAji^ . IBB 904 Glass E ^^ 3 f Book '£ ^5 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/valleyforgerevisOOewin Valk}^ Forge Revisited. BY WM. a EWING, A. M., YONKERS. N. Y. :Reprinted from the Wooster Quarterly , July, igo^. Valley Forge Revisited. Wm. C. EwING, a. M., '78, YONKERS, N. Y Ensign George Ewing marched to the Vallev Forge with MaxwelTs Brigade of the Jersey Conti- nental line. I am now revisiting it, if a man's identity can be reckoned back through several generations. It is worth visiting under any circum- stances and an increasing swarm of the sons and daughters of the American Revolution pays annual tribute to this new Mecca of American patriotism. Valley Forge is five miles from the King of Prussia; four and a half from Berwyn; seven from Norristown, eight from Bryn Mawr — all wagon roads. It is on the "Skookl" river, generally spelled Schuylkill, and the encampment extended one mile up the Valley Creek from which the iron forge took its name. It was the iron foundry in the Valley Creek. There was an early tavern called The King of Prussia, but it was in German- town, and was the meeting place of commissioners from the British and American forces. 2 Y alley Forge Revisited There will be some disappointment in attempting to read history on the ground, at least until the historical societies have much more fully marked the spots already identified and have thus given a basis for conjecture as to the location of the points still unsettled. Valley Forge's historical discovery came too late to rescue the log huts of the soldiers, the marquee of the commander and the headquarters of the various brigades and the quarters of other general officers. The very exist- ence of the redoubts and pickets on the north bank of Valley Creek is hardly admitted on the ground; or, to speak more correctly, is generally stoutly denied. The lines of intrenchment on the south side are not quite intact, though the outer line is still partly visible and the inner one is fairly well preserved, especialty the part in the woodland portion of the camp grounds. The forge is no more, except as a matter of hot dispute. Later dams have almost obliterated the memory of the most ancient one, which has slight traditional evidence of its location. But all that jj^ave the place its value in Wash- ington's eyes still remains. Two bluffs fronting a river, that is here too deep to ford, flank a creek that will readily supply an army with water. One ridge running nearly parallel with the creek sweeps around with gradually increasing elevation to a high hill one mile from the river. The bluff on the other bank is the face of a broad upland that extends back to a ridge terminating in a hill opposite that first mentioned and making with it a canyon less than one hundred feet in width and Valley Forge Revisited 3 half a mile long, through which the Valley Creek runs. The slopes of the canyon make an angle of forty-five degrees, and are formed of loose shaly sand-stone, broken from the top of the strata on the south bank and still in place on the other. Both slopes are covered with a fine forest grow^th that reaches the hill-tops and makes a picturesque setting for this part of the camp ground. The appearance today is probably much the same as it was in the Revolution. General Weeden recites the orders issued to the soldiers engaged in cutting firewood to preserve the larger timbers for building the soldiers' huts and the journal of Ensign George Ewing, which is now in the possession of his great grandson, Hon. George Ewing, member of the Board of Pardons of the state of Ohio, has an entry under date of April 20th, 1788: "Last . evening about sunset we had a most violent gust of wind which continued to blow very hard all night. A fire broke out on the heights just to the right of the camp and burned the most furious I ever beheld during the whole night, but luckily no damage was done either to the camp or forti- fications." At the head of the canyon is a bowl one- third of a mile wide, whose low brim overlooks the great Chester Valley. General Knox, with his artillery, and General Lord Stirling occupied this bowl. The two summits were fortified, occasional pickets marked the ridge and upland on the north bank, and a double line of intrenchments, with outlying redoubts, stretched to the river on the other bank, where lay most of the encampment and 4 Valley Forge Revisited which was most exposed to attack by a force coming up from the Delaware. Inside of the intrenchments were the log hut quarters of the various commands. A little more of the detail of the fortification is given in the journal above, mentioned. "Mr. [Eli] Elmer and I took a walk along the lines in front of the Camp. There is no ground in front that by any means could command them, but, in my opinion, the chief dependence is on the second line, which is picketed from end tc end in front of the huts, and abutted in front of them, besides breastworks and redoubts on several heights on the flanks and in the rear." The camp at Valley Forge invited attack, as it was within striking distance of Philadelphia, where General Howe lay all the winter of 1777-8 with an army superior to Washington's in its solidarity and equipment, if not at all times in numbers. There was mooted, indeed, a project of investment of his whole force to starve him into surrender, when it became known from deserters how much suffering there was in the camp from insuf^ciency of supplies. The journal of Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe speaks of this project with disparagement. He had raided the settlement with his Queen's Rangers prior to Washington's occupation of the ground and knew of the difficulty of maintaining an effective siege, but did believe it possible to carry the camp by assault. Nothing was ever attempted, however, and the force was left to face the difficulties natural to its situation, which were at no time greater than in this terrible winter. Fort- Washington, near the head of the Valley Forge Revisited 5 intrench ments, has still the embrasure of its battery, and pits mark the location of magazine and huts. Fort Huntington has a pretty grove of trees telHng its age and the star redoubt is still found near the river bank. Maxwell's brigade, with which my ancestor served in the beginning of the encamp- ment, was in the, center of the line and in front of the marquee which General Washington occupied until the completion of the huts early in January, 1778. Here he made daily visits during the long siege of starvation, sickness and rough weather. The soldiers formed an estimate of his character which they never forgot and their loyalty to the person of Washington was an important element in determining the final success of the war. They knew the truth of his statement, formally expressed in general orders: "Your general unceasingly employs his thoughts on the means of relieving your distresses, supplying your wants, and bringing your labors to a speedy and prosperous issue." He was never heard to swear but often to pray. Isaac Potts told no mythical tale of the terrible winter when he described to his daughter his coming over the hill from the forge and, hearing a voice in the woods, on stealing in, he saw the General praying for his men. "Wasliington was never seen to smile but once," I quote Ensign Ewing's statement to his daughter dictated by her in 1854. "An Irishman had come on six Hessians washing potatoes in a creek, and, taking possession of their guns, ordered them to march to the camp. Washington asked how he could have taken them prisoners. He said a Valley Forge Revisited that he SLirrounded them. "This disposes of the similar McClellan anecdote of the civil war, unless the same Irishman participated in both wars and repealed his exploit. As arranged for two companies, the huts were in three rows, four deep, holding twelve men each, one hundred and forty-four men. The enlistment of General Maxwell's brigade was on a basis of sixty men to a company. In the rear was one hut for the officers of the two companies. It had been intended that all without distinction of rank should be so housed, but it is probable that most of the higher officers found quarters in the stone farm houses in the neighborhood oi their commands. The huts were built of logs, roofed with staves, and were i8xi6 feet, outside, with chimne}- in the east end on the south side. The height to the eaves was six feet or a little more. The journal gives these particulars of Maxwell's brigade. Washington's orderly bcok must give the inside dimensions when it directs the huts to be made 14x16, for General Weeden's orderly book directs the reservation of logs 16 and 18 feet in length for building the huts. The walls were a foot thick, chinked and plastered with clay. There was a hut for each general officer^ one for the staff of each brigade and one for the field officer of each regiment. I found on the north bank of Valley Creek, in the woods beyond the first run, the ruins of a building having the dimensions of the huts, as far as the ground plan would show. The charred fragments of the staves were all that remained of the building. Valley Forge Revisited 7 Washington's life guard was composed origi- nall)' of Virginians but he added one hundred men selected from all the commands at the Forge, under the command of Caleb Gibbs of Rhode Island, Captain-Commandant. These were picked men, five feet eight to ten inches tall, and they were drilled by Baron Steuben in the new drill and maneuvers introduced by him as inspector general. *'He appears to be much of a gentleman" says Washington, of Baron Steuben, "and as far as I have had an opportunity of judging, a man of military knowledge and acquainted with the world." This was the Baron's introduction to Valley Forge, February 27, 1778. On the 7th of April he was drilling Maxwell's brigade. "This forenoon the brigade went through the maneuvers under the direction of Baron Steuben. The step is about half way betwixt slow and quick time, an easy and natural step, and I think", writes Ensign Ewing, "much better than the former. The manual also is altered by his direction. There are but ten words of command which are as follows: i. Poise firelock; 2. Shoulder firelock; 3. Present arms; 4. Fix bayonet; 5. Unfix bayonet; 6. Load firelock; 7. Make ready; 8. Present; g. Fire; 10. Order fire- lock". The position of Generals Knox and Sterling has been given. Gen. Mcintosh was at the redoubt now called Ft. Washington; then came Huntington, Conway, Maxwell and Varnum, the last occupying the Stevens homestead, which has been in one family for seven generations. Towards Valley Creek were Generals Muhlenburg, Weeden, Pater- 8 Valley Forge Revisited son, Learned, Glover, Parr, Wayne, Scott and Woodford. The artificers were across the creek, perhaps at the stone-crushing mill, and a bake- house was built near the cotton-factory of later days. The bake-house must have been of some size, for it was used for courts- martial and for enter- tainment when occasinn rose for such novel revel at the camp. There was also a bake-house near Fort Washington and it still is in some sort of existence. A stone slab at Fort Huntington marks the grave of an American soldier killed by a neighbor- ing farmer, who had complained to General Wayne of the depredation of the soldiers and had been told impatiently to shoot them if they trespassed again. The arm}- lost, says Dr. Benjamin Rusk, 1500 head of horses for want of forage. A week's rations for a soldier were three ounces of meat and three pounds of flour. Rations were sometimes two days overdue when issued. Men were left 24 hours on picket. There was not money enough in February to pay the November roll in full. General Wayne said that Falstaff's company was comparatively well clad, for Falstaff had one shirt in his company, while he did not have one whole shirt to a brigade. In February, General Varnum wrote to General Greene: "The army must soon dissolve. Many of the troops are destitute of meat and are several days in arrear. The horses are dying for want of forage. The country in the vicinity of the camp is exhausted. There cannot be a moral certainty of bettering their condition while we remain here. We cannot reconcile their sufferings to the sentiments of honest men. No political conditions can justify it." Valley Forge Revisited 9 The condition of the men in their Homeric camp was better than it had been in the preceding months of marching and countermarching. They were somehow fed and occasionally an allowance of drink was served out, and the bake-house saw an occasional play, and there was preaching in the regiments, the hospitals were visited. The Rev, James Sproat, recording his visit, was very highly pleased with the situation of the camp. On the recepcion of the news of the ratification of the treaties of alliance with France and Spain the soldiers held a jollification, as they had previously celebrated May-day with honors to King Tammany. General Washington would dine with an officer and play at cricket with the staff. Life was not alto- gether gloomy at the camp and the army came from its long period of inaction improved in discipline, new modeled in organization and with some uni- formity in drill established throughout its ranks. When General Lafayette returned to the United States, he revisited Valley Forge and pointed out the location of a rifle pit, which has i\ow found a place upon the chart through the memory of a boy who witnessed the aged Frenchman's pleasure in viewing the scenes of his youthful exploits, the most distin- guished in his eventful life. In various ways parts of the ground-record have been recovered. In 1877 a group of citizens were proposing a monument in connection with the centennial about to be celebrated. William Hol- stein struck the right chord when he said the mon- ument is built; it is Washington's headquarters, and assured of the support of his associates he paid that lO Valley Forf^e Revisited evening half the purchase price of the Isaac Potts liouse; the Sons of the American Revolution later contributing the other half, and the first reservation at the camp was made. The centennial attracted some 60,000 people and disclosed Valley Forge to the world. This was in 1879, occurring a year late^ as most of our centennials do. The late Dr. Francis' M. Brooke, by his labor- ious and costly researches paved the way for the acquisition by the the state of a tract of land at the Forge, including the line of intrench- ments and the principal redoubts. This is now the Valley Forge Park with handsome drives and walks leading to the principal points of interest. The fields lately under cultivation, or in meadows, have a light iron fence around them and are bright with spring beauties, buttercups and other flowers of the season. The hills have a varied growth of timber^ mostly deciduous, with a sprinkling of pines and cedars, and rising to the older woods of the summit. Bright azaleas lighten the brushy margin of the woods. Horse-chestnut blooms are found here and there and weeping w'illows mark some of the camps, while cherry trees are found that far exceed their usual girth and take on in their old age the rougher habit of the oak. A fine drive is making along the outer intrehchment, which has but lately been bought by the state. Unfortunately, the roads and drives have long since cut off Fort Washington from its unmarked outworks, possibly not even included in the reservation and likely to be overlooked b}* the historical student. A military engineer is needed to trace out the lines which only a practiced Valley Forge Revisited II eye can find or a martial training appreciate. The next step should be the marking of the various commands, as nearly as may be determined; especially the locating of the redoubts and pickets on the north side of the creek, which are now altogether forgotten, and for which it is said that Governor S. W. Pennypacker has found very valuable data abroad. Governor Pennypacker has much more than the ordinar}^ student's historical interest in this matter, for he has lived on a farm on the upland embraced within the line of pickets north of Valley Forge, and his family has owned for generations the mills where Washington's army encamped after the Germantown fight, also known as Pawling's Mills and owned successively by Joost Heydt, their builder, Paaling, and Samuel Pennypacker. The only claimant for distinction on the north or west bank of the creek is the military hospital, now a fine stone building, kept as an inn which, with the commodious Washington Inn near head- quarters, guarantees that the public will not be so hungry, so thirsty, nor so ill-lodged as the soldiers were during the famous encampment. Near the supposed place of the artificers quarters is a stone- crushing mill which shares with the automobile factory the manufacturing glories of the village. There is a post office store, and a public library has been established in a building fifty years old, belonging to the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America. The church and school complete the general story. The central point of interest is Washington's 12 Valley For^e Revisitffd headquarters, the Isaac Potts honie, the main build- \n^^ of which is pretty much as Washington found it and left it, a two-story house of dressed stone, pointed, 24 x 33 feet. A frame additiim was built for Washington's use, one story and a half high. This is n )w replaced by stone, uniform with the original building; and a log cabin dining room is now recalled by an ornamental log cabin, which covers a stairway leading to an underground vault, from which originally a tunnel led to the river bank. The interior wood work is in a fine state of preservation. The house and grounds are kept up b\' the Valley Forge Association, in which is a representative of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, the association having developed from the Montgomery County historical society, and it pro- vides in Mr. Ellis R. Hampton an intelligent cura- tor of the relics of the camp and the skirmishes in its neighborhood. There are many curios, Indian relics, a Washington hatchet, the flintlock musket of the guide that led the night march on German- town, a British Royal George cannon, a small brass howitzer, charts of the ground and photographs. Two of the rooms are furnished in colonial style, one with furniture that Washington might have had at Mount Vernon, but certainly did not have at Valley Forge, the other having the plain country furniture of the northern farm house, a truer picture of Washington's actual degree of comfort during the encampment. The walls are hung with por- traits of Washington's generals and with a fine col- lection of various engravings of Washington, the Vnlley Voi'frf Rf>visitffl IH most interesting of which is that picturing him reading the Duche' letter, where the ex-chaplain to Congress advises him to ''Negotiate for America at the Head of his Army" and secure the repeal of the Declaration of Independence. Of another portrait Mrs. Washington could well say the artist "is not altogether mistaken with respect to the languor of the general's eye, for although his countenance when affected by joy or anger is full of expression, yet when the muscles are in a state. of repose his eye certainly wants animation;" but of this particular portrait no such apology is needed. There is in the attitude, the expression of the face, and in the look, an intensity of feeling in harmony with the mental picture of Washington at Valley Forge. That Washington dismissed the Duche suggestion with a brief reference to Congress, a curt message to the writer and kindly taken advice to Duche's relative was no indication that he did not feel the stab, though he gave no sign. In one of my brief visits to headquarters the little son of the guardian of the nation's past informed me of a book his father had "where the Good Man tells us not to kill people nor to steal apples," two crimes that seemed to him of equal magnitude. There seems to be a general readiness at the camp to give information to inquirers, but a committee of investigation would have as many minority reports as it had members, for the local testimony is very conflicting. Aside from the points mentioned, there are marks of an old dam, supposed to belong to the Forge, with an old road leading to it, two other J4 Valley Forfff' W'visitfd dams in plain evidence, ruins of a flour mill and cotton factory, the headquarters of General Knox on the farm now belonging to Attorney General Knox, and General Varnum's headquarters on the Stevens homestead. The foundations of the hut occupied by Baron Steuben were still pointed out a half century ago on the farm of William Henry on the road to Port Kennedy, and the Jacob Massey. farm had a triangular redoubt measuring forty rods to a side. One monument has been erected at the camp. A memorial chapel has now been proposed and will undoubtedly be erected. The President's recent address at the Forge will bear that much material fruit as it will perform the more ethical function of impressing, as the lesson of Valley Forge, the high value of patient endurance, more difficult to learn than the virtue of supreme effort, the lesson of Gettysburg. From the summit of the ridge can be seen Barren Hill, or as it was and is more commonly called Barn Hill, the scene of Lafayette's camp where he was hedged in by ten thousand of the British and his escape by a skillful maneuver was watched by Washington with great interest. Gen- eral Lafayette had been sent by Washington to make a reconnoissance in force to ascertain the movements of the British troops, whose inaction could not be expected to continue much longer. The utmost care was exercised to prevent General Howe learning the detachment of this force, but the orders were issued on Friday , May loth, 1778. to prepare for a march the next day and the move- ment was delayed one week. On the i8th, Lafayette Vcilley Foige Revisited 15 left Valley Forge with 2,500 men, fifty Indiad scouts sent by Col. Willetts, and five pieces ()f artillery under Capt. Lee. They marched to Barren Hill on the east side of tiie Schuylkill river and encamped in a large field on the summit, the Indian scouts across the road, and General Lafayette occupied the Lutheran church on a lower knob to the north. Tliey lay the next day in camp and Lafayette summoned Capt. Allen McLane, the famous light rider, to arrange for obtaining information from the city. Gen. Howe had been informed by a spy of the dispatch of this force and, desirous of performing some brilliant exploit before his departure for England, deter- mined to capture Lafayette and all his hjrce. He dispatched General Grant with 5,000 selected men to sieze the foro in the rear of the American troops by a forced march by night. Marching out of Philadelphia on the Germantown road lie turned off at the Rising Sun tavern, passed Lafayette's left, completely hidden by the forest, and gained Ply- mouth meeting house, one mile beyond him and nearer the forb, and by daybreak his advance under Major Simcoe was pushing on to the for^. He had made a march of twenty miles and passed from the front to the rear of the American troops witliout discovery. General Gray moving in concert with General Grant occupied the Ridge Road, between the American forces and the river, and ought to have effected a junction with General Grant at the for^. General Howe was in German- town on the morning of the 20th and in\ ited a party of ladies and gentlemen to ejftve with him 16 Valley Forge lie visited that evening to meet the Marquis de Lafayette when he would bring him back with him to the city. A miHtiaman on the line of Giant's march was routed out of bed and fled to warn the Americans. Capt. McLane was informed of the movements of General Gray in the Ridge road and sent Capt. Parr across the country to take possession of Van- devin's hill and hold it all hazard, while he himself posted to Lafayette. It was at 8 o'clock in the morning of the 20th, that Lafayette received the various reports of the British advance from Ply- mouth meetinghouse, Germantown and Whitewash-^TiA^^ hills. The British force was also seen from Valley Forge and signal guns were fired. Lafayette paraded his men, fronted Gen. Grant, now within a half mile of him, and sending a force to check Gen. Gray, withdrew his main force by a forest road to Mattson's ford, passing the British advance party unhindered, for, perplexed at a cross road, this party had delayed advancing until too late to reach the river. When Grant found the line of battle was only a blind, he hurried on a bodv of cavalry in pursuit and these saw the heads of the Americans bobbing in the river like the corks of a fishing seine. Once across the Schuylkill Lafayette avoided, it is said, the open valley and went up stream to the Gulph, in whose narrow canyon he was safe from flank attack and Washington could meet the British pursuit at the head of the valley. Spending the night at Swede's ford on the 21st he re-crossed the Schuylkill, marched to Barren Hill and took post on the old camp ground. At midnight he re- Valley Forge Re visited. 1 7 tired to Swede's ford and the next day returned to Valley Forge. In the course of the action, a party of red-coat dragoons came upon the Indian sc^>uts and were received with such yells that they rode off in one direction and the Indians equally terrified ran away in the other. Not only was General Howe disap- pointed of his guests, he was late for dinner and had but raillery for sauce. Lafayette's success in extricating his force from the midst of armies four times his strength earned him the confidence of his soldiers and the respect of his superiors. It was called by Simcoe another instance of Washington's luck, to save a force that by all the rules of war was sacrificed. It secured him the command at Monmouth that General Charles Lee unfortunately was not content to let him retain, and later war- ranied his designation to the campaign in Virginia that sealed his honors in the final surrender of Yorktown. As a happy coincidence he returned to V^alley Forge t(^ receive an appointment as dele- gate to Congress. From the star redoubt is pointed out a group of buildings across the Schuyl- kill where cannon balls from the redoubt had dropped into a group of British marauders and interrupted their raid. Such balls were found there some years ago, and some one recalled the fact that Lafayette had described the incident when revisit- ing Valle) Forge. An old soldier of the camp named Woodman bought a farm near the Forge and one day in 1796 was plowing in the field as a gentleman rode up 18 Valley FofgH Rt^vhitrd accompanied by a netyro servant. He was an elderly man of dignified appearance, dressed in a plain suit of black. He lighted from his horse, climbed the fence, and coming up to Mr. Woodman shook his hand and began to ask about the people in the neighborhood, the state of the crops and farm pros- pects. Woodman said he could tell him little about the people as he was a newcomer but he had been at the Forge during the encampment. "So was 1", was the answer, "1 am George Washington". Mr. Woodman apologized for not recognizing his old commander and for treating the President with so little respect. There was no time for ceremony, however, as an imperative engagement demanded an immediate return to Philadelphia, and the greeting of an old soldier was Washington's last reception at Valley Forge. REFERENCE LIST. The histories of the Revolutionary war, biographies of Washington and Lafayette, letters of Washington and of Lafayette, will of course, give much on this subject. From citations and examin- ations I suggest also the following, some of which are mentioned above; Address of the President, June 19, 1904; Valley Forge Orderly Book of General George Weedon, xN. Y., Dodd, Mead & Co.; West Virginia Histor- ical Magazine, Jan. 1903; Reports of Committees on Valley Forge Reservation, 1894, 1902; Sketches, Historical Society of Montgomery County, 1895; Penna. Hist. Magazine, Vol. 27, p. 441; Allen M. Lane's .lournal; Henry Lee's Memoirs; North American Review , 1825; Lafayette en Amerique, YiiUry Forage I\'rr]s'iiffj Iff Levasseur; History of Montgomery County, Buck; The Duche Letter, Wortliington C. Ford; Oificers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War, Styker: Journal of George Ewing, Gen. Hugh Pawing in Family Record. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS