July 9, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, bestselling authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin share the story of the Continental Army’s six-month transformation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; one of the most inspiring —and under-appreciated — chapters in American history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
And you've heard Bob Drury and Tom Claven share their
story about Red Cloud from their number one New York
Times bestseller The Heart of Everything That Is. They're back
now with one of the most interesting and inspiring and
(00:31):
underappreciated chapters in American history, the story of the Continental
Army six month Transformation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Although no
battle was fought at Valley Forge, it was the turning
point of the Revolutionary War. Here's Bob and Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tom and I contend in Valley Forge that the characters
who inhabit this book and their sharecore of values which
we were pretty much much blown away by, we're part
of the most productive generation of statesmen in the history
of the United States. We say this well aware of
FDR's kitchen cabinet and Abraham Lincoln's team of rivals. What
(01:15):
we hope we have accomplished with Valley Forge is, as
the anthropologists say, is to make the familiar strange and
the strange familiar. When Tom and I were writing this book,
we had, I guess I would call what friendly arguments
with historians about Valley Fortune, now Trenton, the Battle of Trent,
(01:37):
the surprise attack on Trenton and the subsequent victory of
Prince that was the key to the Revolutionary War, and
other historians would tell us no, no, no, no, it's
when the French got into the war. And others would say, now, no,
of course, On it was your town that was the key,
that was the turning point. Others it was showgates is
(02:00):
victory at Saratoga. When the Pulitzer Prize winning for his
Washington biography Joseph Ellis and his National Book Award waiting
for his book on Thomas Jefferson came out and said
bally Fords was the existential moment in the War for Independence.
I said, yeah, go argue with Joe Ellis, don't argue
(02:21):
with us. All right, Tom, what do you think You're
ready for a story?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Tell him a story.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
As Bob alluded to, our contention from the very beginning
we started working on this book was Valley Forge became
the most important part of the Revolutionary War. It was
the turning point. And we found it out because we
started to do our research and get deeply into it.
The social studies class portrait of Valley Forge is guys,
(02:53):
you know, in the snow, starving and freezing, and then
you had George Washington on a horse looking down and
watching guys in the snow, starving and freezing. And that's
the social Studi's portrait. We found out is that so
much war was happening. A big part of it was
George Washington himself during the Valley Forge encampment, which lasted
from December seventeen seventy seven in June seventeen seventy eight,
(03:17):
George Washington went from being a he was already a
revered figure, but he went from that to being the
American icon, a hero, an action figure, and that happened
during the course of Valley Forge. One of the things
he was having to deal with was a two front war.
There was the war itself against the British, but during
(03:37):
the encampment of Valley Forge, there were conspiracies that included
his sub senior officers and members of the Continental Congress
who tried to get him fired, who tried to get
him replaced, and they came very close to doing that.
So that was something that was very important about Valley Forge.
Washington was surrounded and I think this is a very
(03:58):
poignant part of the story. Washington was surrounded by a
loyal group of young surrogate sons. But these were Alexander Hamilton,
Marquis de Lafayette, and a character named John Lawrence. And
John Lawrence is sort of like the founding father you
never knew. But he's also had with him these generals
(04:21):
that were totally loyal to him, Nathaniel Greene. There was
another general named Lord Sterling, who he called himself, that
insisted he'd be called Lawrence Sterling because he claimed to
be descended from Scottish aristocracy and royalty. Washington's position was,
keep fighting. You can call yourself whatever you want, Lord Sterling, whatever,
(04:41):
you're a great general, keep doing it. The situation one
of the things that people don't know about Valley Forge,
which we found out and again now what you saw
in social studies, it was not the worst winter of
the Revolutionary War. There were worst winters, but Valley Forge,
the winter was bad. I mean, it wasn't terrible, it
was bad. But what happened was the several systems had
(05:03):
broken down in the United States. One system was the government.
When the British took Philadelphia. They kicked the Continental Congress out,
and they pretty much spread out. Some of them went
to York, Pennsylvania, some of them simply went home, some
of them disappeared. There was no functioning government for the
most part of the United States anymore. So George Washington
(05:24):
at Valley Forge was the United States government. When Valley
Forge began in December nineteenth, seventeen seventy seven, the Army
went in there with twelve thousand soldiers and they built huts,
and there's also like about four or five hundred camp followers.
These are women and children that followed the army whenever
they went Suddenly, Valley Forge became the seventh largest city
in the United States, and it became the capital of
(05:47):
the United States. And I think that's something most people
would never realize from social studies that because of the
Philadelphia the capital of the United States being occupied by
the British, because there was pretty much no Continental Congress,
because every thing else in the political system was complete disarray,
Valley Forge was the capital the United States, and George
Washington was the leader, de facto leader of the United States.
(06:09):
If they if he had suddenly been lost for whatever reason,
if He's suddenly decided I've had enough, I'm getting out
of here. I'm going back to Mount Vernon. They even
the British government, as a persuasion even ordered offered to
make him a duke, so he would have been the
Duke of Mount Vernon, something like that. You know, if
you just give up. So there was that the idea
politically that Valley Forge was at the center of the
(06:32):
of the revolutions universe. The other thing that was happening
is that George Washington realized he cared about two things,
the cause of liberty and independence and his men, and
the anguish he was going through was absolutely awful because
every day his men were dying. There were some who
were deserting. Okay, they had they had to get out
of there, but there was they were dying. The very
(06:55):
first man who died at Valley Forge was Christmas Eve,
and Washington found out about it Chris this morning. It
was a black soldier from Connecticut named Jethro. He was
the first one to die. He died basically of exposure
and malnutrition. Two thousand men died at Valley Forge during
the course of those six months. That's more by far
(07:16):
than any battle in the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And that's a remarkable number. The story of Valley Forge
told by Bob Drury and Tom claven. It continues here
on our American Stories. Plee Habibe here the host of
our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
(07:40):
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
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the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give and we continue
(08:09):
with our American Stories. In the story of Valley Forge,
two thousand men died at Valley Forge, more than in
any other battle in the war. Let's continue with his
mostly unknown story.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Valley Forge was a struggle for survival, not just of
the army, but of the revolution. Because of the Continental
Army had ceased to exist, which Washington expected almost every day.
December twenty third, he wrote a letter to whatever is
left of Congress, saying, I expect any day for my
army to dissolve and disperse. He expected every morning to
(08:45):
wake up and look out, and they be gone. And
if they left, if there was no more Continental Army,
there was no more war for Independence. It was over.
Washington anguished over this. He was constantly begging the governors
of the individual states, send me some food, send me
some clothing. I mean literally. You might think it's a cliche,
(09:05):
but he literally. They were blood in the snow because
of all the men that had no shoes, the open sores.
They were dying of starving, literally dying of starvation. And
Washington had to try and keep them together. Why did
this army stay together? Because it ultimately did. I don't
think we're giving away too much that you know, we did.
We did win the War of Independence. That's where we
come to the central figure of this book, George Washington.
(09:28):
There were such admirations, such caring for him, that many
of the soldiers, just despite the suffering, they could not
abandon George Washington. They saw in him the war for
American independence, the ideal that they that America was going
to be.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Washington was he kept himself in check. He was an aggressive,
emotional man who never let anyone see it, except for
at times Martha. His wife. And when we discovered one
of the main themes of Valley Forge is Washington was
(10:07):
fighting a two front war at Valley Forge. One was
a war militarily against the British, and the second was
a political war against a faction of Congress who had
been displaced from Philadelphia when the British captured it, and
they were they had taken over the York Pennsylvania Courthouse,
and especially the New Englanders, who never really wanted Washington
(10:31):
to lead the Continental army anyway, but they figured, we're
going to fight the greatest, the great British Empire, we
need Virginia in the fold. So that's how he got
the job. And after he lost New York, after the
the stuttering Pennsylvania campaign, where he was beaten at Brandywine Creek,
he was beaten at Paoli, he was beat at Germantown,
(10:53):
there was more than whispers to usurp this man. Let's
replace him with Horatio Gates, who won the Great Battle
of Saratoga. But Washington had this inner steely quality, and
not only his officers, but his NCOs and his enlisted men,
they recognized it. They would not as shodily as they
(11:17):
were shorn I'll tell you just one silly example. When
foreign officers would come over to either volunteer to fight
for the Americans or to observe, they were shocked, shocked
to see the American centuries at Valley Forge in these
tattered blankets, naked underneath, not ripped uniforms, naked underneath, with
(11:40):
no shoes, standing on their hats in the snow to
keep their feet as warm as possible. Washington is the
reason that these men remained at Valley Forge, and I
think he emanated that kind of steely will. He was wounded,
he was wounded by the attempts to usurp his position,
(12:02):
but he never let it show.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Washington had gotten his first experience as a leader of
men in battle in the French and Indian War. He
never rose above the rank of colonel. He had hoped
to be brought into actually made an officer in the
British Army. They wouldn't have him then. Between that war
and the Revolutionary War, he was back on his farm.
I mean, even as the British derisively referred to him,
(12:28):
he was a Virginia planter. He was a farmer. No really,
I would say, very formal training. So there was that insecurity.
And I think also you have to look at Washington especially.
I think during Valley Forge was in such a difficult
position because he was very much alone.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
By this time, Washington had become some He didn't start
out this way, but he was a canny politician by
this time. Now there was no doubt that the Continental
Army was and dire straits. But Washington also recognized that
he was throwing the gauntlet to the Continental Congress. Okay,
I hear the whispers, I see the anonymous greeds against me.
(13:14):
I know Horatio Gates is triumphed in Saratoga, and you
want to replace me with him. Well, I'll tell you what,
go ahead and try it. And if you do try it,
this was he didn't come out and say this, but
the underlying, the undertone was if you do try this,
this army will dissolve and disperse. And one thing you
(13:37):
have to remember. To the politicians in York, some eighty
miles inland, an army dissolving or dispersing, this was you know,
eight to twelve to thirteen thousand men. But all they
could division was we're gonna have soldiers just scavenging in
the countryside, taking our own farms and taking our own cattle,
(13:59):
and so, yes, Washington was being a bit of a cynic.
But on the other hand, he was being perfectly truthful.
Because if they didn't get food, if they didn't get shoes,
if they didn't get medicine, the army would have fallen apart.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I mean, that's why something in some cases they vinegar.
In some cases they were eating if they could, if
there was a cow that had been that had died,
or a horse that had died, they'd eat the hide,
whatever they can find. Uh, there are stories. There's something
called fire cakes they would make. There was that ashes
from the fire, and.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Well what it was it was they would put They
had no leavening agent, they had no yease, so they
would put this goopy, goopy oat thing together and they
would just throw it on a rock in the campfire
and it wouldn't rise at all, and it would be
filled with maggots and ashes. And that's where it got
the name firecakes. And it was this hard, you know,
(14:54):
teeth breaking biscuit.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And obviously obvious question is if this was what they
had to eat, how did they survive? And I can
only point out again that of the estimated twelve thousand
men that went into Valley Forge in December seventeen seventy seven,
two thousand died. So they literally, on a daily basis,
were dying of starvation, exposure to the elements, disease. So
(15:19):
it was really it really was as horrific as that's
what we're making it seem, was their daily existence.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
At one point or not. At one point early on,
these soldiers figured, okay, Washington ordered these flying hospitals set
up around the countryside, but they had no idea of
you know, modern medicine. They did not know bacteria, germs,
and so somebody would die in one of these hospitals
and they just dumped the next guy on the same straw,
(15:48):
the same vermin infested straw. And finally the soldiers, of course,
not knowing the science of it, saying these are abatoires,
so they would just not tell anyone they're sick, and
they die in their hunts. UH.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
General Howe was the U There were two brothers, Richard
and William Howe were the two commanders of the British
forces in North America, and they were they were mostly
enjoying the pleasures of Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
UH.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
In the winter. Uh they they would send out some
foraging parties. This one event we talked about in the
book that one of the hows That was personally leading
a group of British brigade or regiment out into the
field to collect supplies. And Washington was enraged by this
because he said, they can't do this. They're coming right
in our faces. And he said, let's let's get an army,
(16:42):
let's get a force together and go and go attack them,
so we show them, we teach them a lesson. He
couldn't get enough men fit for duty. They either were naked,
or they were starving, or they were too weak to
get up off their cuts. And British just went about
their business, took some of the food that was around,
the came back. They were having parties, they were putting
(17:03):
on plays. Andre a major captain. Andre again was romancing
Benedict Donald's future wife. One of the Howe brothers had
a mistress. They had the British Office had numerous mistresses.
They were just having a really good time. And the
idea and the reason why they could do that there
was no insecurity on the part of the British because
(17:23):
they assumed that as soon as the spring came and
the fighting season began, A there'd be no American Army
left or b what was left could be easily wiped
off the map. So why not enjoy enjoy it? Go ahead,
have a good time.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And while they were having a good time, my goodness again,
two thousand died at Valley Forge. And this is the
period between December seventeen seventy seven and June seventeen seventy eight,
when we come back more of this great American story
and untold an unknown story here on our American stories.
(18:08):
And we're back with our American stories, and the story
of Valley Forge is told by Bob Drury and Tom claven.
Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Throughout the book, there's all these footnotes in it about
little tidbits that we found out during research. One of
which was that it was during the Valley Forge encampment
that the term father of his country was first used.
It was actually in a German magazine referring to the
American Revolution that George Washington was the father of his
country the Pennsylvania German. Yeah. But I think, yes, I
(18:44):
think Washington had probably some paternal instincts already from helping
to raise Martha's children, and then he found himself, which
is a really central part of this book. He found
himself with these relationships with the Marquis de Lafayette, with
John Lawrence, with Alexander Hamilton. That I think one of
(19:08):
the reasons why he could stand. They were a tremendous
burden he was under because these men were unabashedly supportive
of him and adoring of him, and they believed in him,
and that, you know, it's kind of it had to
make him feel like, we have to stay the course
to borrow something from George hw Bus, we have to
(19:28):
stay what we're doing and persevere. And they supported him enormously,
totally devoted to him. They would have instantly taken a
bullet for him, and that's a big part of our story.
Alexander Hamilton, who was twenty two years old, he was
Washington's right hand man. He wrote many of Washington's letters.
Washington would finish his thoughts. Washington could tell Hamilton, this
(19:49):
is what I think about, and Hamilton knew how to
translate that into a thousand page letter to some governor
of New York or the governor of Pennsylvania. There was
Marquis de Lafayette. He was a major general at twenty
led one of Washington's divisions. When he was wounded at
the Battle of Brandywine. Washington sent a surgeon to find
him and said to the surgeon, treat him as if
(20:11):
he were my son, totally devoted to him. And then
John Laurens was also twenty two and became great friends
with Hamilton and the Marquis de la Fayette, and he
worshiped Washington. He was from South Carolina, and among the
things he tried to do during the Valley Forging encampment,
he kept trying to raise a brigade of black soldiers.
(20:34):
He thought one of the ways that the Continlar Army
could be a more effective fighting force is get it
more integrated, and in fact he did in the sense
that there were hundreds of black soldiers part of the
Continental Army. It would be the last time America had
a fighting force in the field that was integrated until
the Korean War. So the rest of the army too,
has made up so much of immigrants Irish, German, Italians, Poland.
(21:00):
There was a turning point at February. In February was
probably the lowest point for Washington. There's a famous painting
and story about him kneeling in the snow and praying.
We discussed that in the book. It probably didn't happen.
The painting happened, but he probably didn't kneel in the snow.
But it was at his lowest point, and a couple
of things started to turn the tide. One thing is
on a personal level, is Martha Washington showed up And
(21:24):
you might think, well, so what. George and Martha Washington
were totally devoted to each other. And when she came
from Mount the comfortence of Mount Vernon to go in
the snow and the freezing cold with her husband. For
George personally, that was a big turning point. The other
point turning point was one of our favorite characters in
the book, Baron von Steuben. What you have probably don't
(21:47):
know is the real story of Baron von Stewben. We
mostly think of him, Oh yeah, he was a Prussian
general that came over and train the troops. Well, that
is true to it up to a point. He was
not a Prussian general. He was a captain. He was
a con man spy. He had met Ben Franklin in Paris,
and Franklin had completely given him a new resume, made
(22:08):
him a major general in the Prussian Army, gave him
Wallace background and everything, and said go over there, and
why don't you see things, how bad things are, and
report back to me. He gets over there, all said
to be. You know, he's got this resume that's totally doctored,
and Washington buys it. So he thinks, okay, great, I'm
gonna get paid a lot of money to be a
spy for the French and Franklin he falls in love
(22:29):
with the Continental Army. He says, my God, for the
first time, I believe in something, and he spends the
next two or three months training the Continental Army. There's
so many other characters who were in this book that
their stories are in the other people might not even
know about this. James monrou is a young officer who
becomes the sixth President of the United States or fifth.
(22:51):
John Quincy Andams is the sixth. There's even sidebar stories
about Captain John Andre, the British debonair theatrical officer, and
he's romancing Peggy Shimpin, which might not seem like a
big deal, but she's gonna marry benefit Arnold and with
her lover convince him to turn over West Point. This
is all happening at the same time. What happens is
(23:12):
that the army at the end of Valley Forge. You're
getting too the end the Valley Forge. It's going to
be time for the British, who have been relaxing and
partying and having a great time in Philadelphia. It's going
to be time as soon as the spring comes to
wipe out the American army. That's what they expected. They
saw an army back in the fall that had barely
(23:32):
staggered into a winter encampment and probably starved to death.
They expected when the winter was over there was either
going to be no army left, or whatever was left
was going to be low hanging fruit, easy pickings. And
so the two armies met at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse.
And what the British discovered is that whatever doesn't kill
you makes you stronger.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, I'm backing up because I paid clave In a
hundred bucks to let me talk about the Baron Friedrich
Wilhelm Ludolph Gerhardt Augustin von Steuben von Steuben. To you
and me, the Baron von Steuben arrived in Valley Forge
(24:14):
at the end of February as ostentatiously as he could.
He was in a sleigh adorned with twenty four jingle bells,
pulled by a team of percheron on horses. He had
purchased in France Cole Black to make a good entrance
(24:34):
into Valley Forge, and he had borrowed the money to
purchase the arches because he was dead flat broke. This guy,
he's my favorite. Well, Tom mentioned John Lawrence, the founding
father you never heard of because he died too young.
There's Matt Anthony Wayne. I have so many favorite characters
(24:55):
in this book, but the Baron von Steuben von Stuben
is my favorite. When he arrived at Valley Forge, not
only in the sleigh with the horses and the jingle bells,
he had his pocket greyhound Azor in his lap. He
was decked out in a silk uniform with these two
big horse pistols, and in his wake was a retinue
(25:19):
of aids and servants and assistance, and even a French
chef he had brought along, who, by the way, quit
forty eight hours after Eyeball, and the conditions at Valley Forge,
he said, no way, I'm staying here. And as Tom
alluded to, this guy arrived in Valley Forge with a
(25:41):
resume more doctored up than the Mayo clinic he had met.
He was a soldier of fortune. The one thing that
is true is that he had fought in Frederick the
Great's Prussian army. Now Frederick the Great and his army.
In fact, his army was known as an army with
a country, as opposed to a country with an army.
Frederick the Great was renowned throughout the Western world as
(26:05):
the most feared military leader in the world. And Von
Steuben had risen to captain in his army. But when
the European wars stopped, he kind of wandered around looking
for a job as a soldier of fortune.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
And you've been listening to Bob Drury and Tom Claven
telling this story, the remarkable story of Valley Forge, and
my goodness, that moment where Martha leaves the comfort of
Mount Vernon in February of seventy eight to visit her
husband at Valley Forge again in February, It's unbelievable. And
(26:41):
this was no duckwalk taking that ride. There was no
mass transit folks. And also this character von Steuben, who
if you grew up where I grew up in northern
New Jersey, there are Von Steuben houses all over the place,
because he really did become the man he'd never been
and actually became a man well superior to his phony
(27:01):
doctored up resume, doctored up like the Mayo clinic. I'll
remember that one and use it when we come back
more of this remarkable story Valley Forge. Here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories, and
(27:40):
the story of Valley Forge is told to us by
Bob Drury and Tom cleaven. Let's return to the final
installment of Vale Forge.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And Von Steuben eventually ended up in Paris, and the
French foreign minister, who is a big American supporter and
of eventually worked and worked and worked Louis the sixteenth
so much that that's what made the French come into
the war. But Verjean di Verjean, he saw someing in
(28:11):
von Steuben, and he introduced them to Franklin and Franklin's
associate diplomat Silas team. Now these two guys, they were
oh Man Washington has written so many letters to us
don't send me any more of these deadbeats, these these
soldiers of fortune, these and this is a quote from
(28:33):
what I read over two thousand of George Washington's memos,
private correspondents, official proclamations. I personally read these general orders,
the correspondence between Congress, and this is my favorite word.
Who said send me no more popinjays. We don't use
(28:54):
that word anymore, but von Steuben, he sits down. Within
three interviews with Franklin and Silas Dean, they realized this
guy's the real deal. Because Frederick the Great had one
rule in his army that no other Western army had,
and this was every officer would get down and work
(29:17):
and live with the enlisted men. Everyone else thought this
was beneath them, including the Continental Army. Every other army
bequeathed this job to noncommissioned officer, sergeants and corporals. And
when Von Steuben started telling Franklin, this is how I'll
drill them, this is how i'll train them, this is
what I'll do, they realized Washington, as strong as his
(29:42):
will was in keeping this army together. As Tom elucidated,
it was really a collection of disparate malitias, shoemakers, farmers, sailors, miners, shopkeepers.
They had no idea how to fight as one well
oiled machine. So Franklin and Silas Dean and they said,
(30:08):
all right, okay, we got to send Von Steuben. Oh,
but he's only a captain. So suddenly those captain bars disappeared,
and he had stars on his shoulder, and suddenly he
was not only an inspector general of the Prussian Army,
the vaunted Prussian Army, but an aid to Frederick the
Great himself. This is how he arrives in Valley Forge.
(30:29):
Now George Washington has no clue he knows Frederick the Great. Oh,
this is one of his inspector generals. Okay, let's go
on Von Steuben's first day in camp. He decides to
take an unofficial inspection tour. Here's this guy showing up
in his fancy pants European uniform with all the medals,
and he's walking into these filthy, dirty huts and he
(30:51):
starts interviewing continental soldiers about their sanitary habits, about do
you know how what the difference is became between an
ordinary march and a quick march? Do you he within
a week, he had issued a series of memos to Washington.
This is where you must take the latrines. These latrines,
you have, Doug, no wonder, there's so much disease in
(31:13):
this camp. You got to put them on the downhill
slope on the other side, away from the ovens that
are baking bread, you know what. And let's grade these
little paths in front of the huts, and let's make
them regimental roots to make this army feel more professional.
So Washington's all into this, and so he gives von
(31:34):
Steuben one hundred men his own personal guard to fifty
and fifty other men taken from the States equally, and
he said, you are going to be von Steuben's subtrainers.
Von Steuben takes them out on the parade ground of
Valley Forge the very first day. There's one hundred men,
there's thousands of other Continental soldiers. They have nothing else
(31:55):
to do. But as Tom said, starve and freeze to down.
They're all wide. Von Steuben spends the very first morning,
the entire morning, teaching them the correct way to stand
at attention. He goes on, he teaches them how to wheel.
You know, one of the great myths of the American
Revolution is the minute man, you know, slinking through the
(32:20):
cops of trees or hiding behind a boulder and picking
off the squared British Red coats in their battle formation.
And yes, there were times when this gorilla, when this
Indian fighting techniques that the Americans had, that it worked.
But for the most part, these people needed how to learn,
how to march quick step into battle, how to wheel,
(32:43):
how to stand when the cannonball or grape shot was
taking off the head of the guy next to you,
how to not fire until you were ordered to fire.
Von Steuben starts teaching the Continental Army how to do this,
how to become a professional army. And my favorite thing
about Von Steuben. If I could go back, I wouldn't
(33:04):
go back. They said, you go back to Valleyford, you
meet one person. It wouldn't be Washington, although he is
the protagonist and the hero of our book. It would
be Von Steuben because he's this Falstaffian character. He spoke
He had no English, so Washington assigned John Lawrence and
Alexander Hamilton. Von Steuben spoke French and German. Hamilton and
(33:25):
Lawrence both spoke French, and they were his translators, and
von Steuben was such a stickler for detail. He had
one word in English, goddamn. And when someone would make
a mistake during the training, his face would turn. And
he was a portly man with a double chin, and
(33:46):
he was in his mid forties, younger than most of
the generals in the American continent's alarm, and he would
his face would read. He'd flail his arms, spittle coming
out of his mouth, and he'd yell over at Alexander Hamilton,
whoever's transferring, get over here and swear for me. And
Alexander Hamilton would scurry up as von Steuben is unleashing
a string of oaths and curses. And by the time
(34:08):
Hamilton translated them into English, the Continental troops were doubled
over and laughter at this guy. But they understood that
he was not afraid. Like Frederick the Great. His mentor
to get down on his knees, on his belly in
the muck. And this is the way you this is
the way you put a bait at your bayonet is
(34:29):
not for cooking bifstick. It is for stabbing an enemy
in the gut. So von Steuben also know that sooner
or later the charade of his resume was gonna the
jig was gonna be up. But by the time the
jig was up, and von Steuben had a lot of
umph in kind of putting it up himself. He was
(34:50):
so he had become so enamored of not only the infantrymen,
but of the junior officers. Well, first, let me say
one thing. It's kind of really skipping ahead. But the
very last letter George Washington wrote before resigning his commission
as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in seventeen
(35:11):
eighty three was to the Baron von Steuben, thanking him
for turning his disparate militias into a professional army. So
that June of seventeen seventy eight, five years earlier, as
the Continental Army is marching out of Valley Forge to
meet the British on the sandy plains of New Jersey
(35:34):
near the small village of Mammoth Courthouse. And it was
what Tom and I like to call a Butcher sun
Dance moment. For the Brits. They looked at this army
wheeling and marching and like, who are these guys? These
are not the guys that we brushed off, like Lint
at the Battle of Brandywine before Christmas, at the Battle
(35:57):
of Germantown before Christmas, the massacre at Paoli before Christmas.
These guys look like they know what they're doing. As
it turned out, that day, Washington made the initial mistake
of putting another general in charge of the attack on
the British. He was bringing up the rear corps. When
(36:18):
he got to the front lines, he saw his Continental
Army retreating, retreating orderly thanks to Baron von Steuben, but
still retreating, and for the first time in front of
his age, in front of the entire he lost his temper.
He went galloping up and down the front lines until
(36:39):
he found the general he had put in charge, and
he dressed him down. And it was a blistering hot
June day, a heat wave with over one hundred degrees.
Washington up and down miles and miles, spurring the troops
to turn around, so much so that the horse he
was riding collect beneath him and dropped out of his exhaustion.
(37:03):
He was handed the reins of another horse, and he
got up. Finally he stood on a ridge, and about
a mile and a half away the entire Continental Army
could see a sea of red, ten thousand red coats
Cornwallis's best doing a slow bayonet charge. By this time,
the British artillery had moved into range. As Washington is
(37:26):
pointing his sword and saying to his troops, who will
fight with me? Who will stand with me? Grape shot
is whizzing by his head. A cannon ball lands feet
from his horse, splatters mud all over him, and he
is looking at those British and he's saying, who will
stand with me? Who will fight with me?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
And you've been listening to Bob Drury and Tom Claven
tell the story of Valley Forge and again an underappreciated story,
and will as again the great Joseph Ellis said it
was the existential moment in the Revolutionary War. You've heard
just a part of this great story. And if you
want to learn more, of course, Bally Forge is the
(38:08):
book and the writers are Bob Drurian Tom Claven the
story of Vallely Forge. Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
And you've heard Bob Drury and Tom Claven share their
story about Red Cloud from their number one New York
Times bestseller The Heart of Everything That Is. They're back
now with one of the most interesting and inspiring and
(00:31):
underappreciated chapters in American history, the story of the Continental
Army six month Transformation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Although no
battle was fought at Valley Forge, it was the turning
point of the Revolutionary War. Here's Bob and Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tom and I contend in Valley Forge that the characters
who inhabit this book and their sharecore of values which
we were pretty much much blown away by, we're part
of the most productive generation of statesmen in the history
of the United States. We say this well aware of
FDR's kitchen cabinet and Abraham Lincoln's team of rivals. What
(01:15):
we hope we have accomplished with Valley Forge is, as
the anthropologists say, is to make the familiar strange and
the strange familiar. When Tom and I were writing this book,
we had, I guess I would call what friendly arguments
with historians about Valley Fortune, now Trenton, the Battle of Trent,
(01:37):
the surprise attack on Trenton and the subsequent victory of
Prince that was the key to the Revolutionary War, and
other historians would tell us no, no, no, no, it's
when the French got into the war. And others would say, now, no,
of course, On it was your town that was the key,
that was the turning point. Others it was showgates is
(02:00):
victory at Saratoga. When the Pulitzer Prize winning for his
Washington biography Joseph Ellis and his National Book Award waiting
for his book on Thomas Jefferson came out and said
bally Fords was the existential moment in the War for Independence.
I said, yeah, go argue with Joe Ellis, don't argue
(02:21):
with us. All right, Tom, what do you think You're
ready for a story?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Tell him a story.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
As Bob alluded to, our contention from the very beginning
we started working on this book was Valley Forge became
the most important part of the Revolutionary War. It was
the turning point. And we found it out because we
started to do our research and get deeply into it.
The social studies class portrait of Valley Forge is guys,
(02:53):
you know, in the snow, starving and freezing, and then
you had George Washington on a horse looking down and
watching guys in the snow, starving and freezing. And that's
the social Studi's portrait. We found out is that so
much war was happening. A big part of it was
George Washington himself during the Valley Forge encampment, which lasted
from December seventeen seventy seven in June seventeen seventy eight,
(03:17):
George Washington went from being a he was already a
revered figure, but he went from that to being the
American icon, a hero, an action figure, and that happened
during the course of Valley Forge. One of the things
he was having to deal with was a two front war.
There was the war itself against the British, but during
(03:37):
the encampment of Valley Forge, there were conspiracies that included
his sub senior officers and members of the Continental Congress
who tried to get him fired, who tried to get
him replaced, and they came very close to doing that.
So that was something that was very important about Valley Forge.
Washington was surrounded and I think this is a very
(03:58):
poignant part of the story. Washington was surrounded by a
loyal group of young surrogate sons. But these were Alexander Hamilton,
Marquis de Lafayette, and a character named John Lawrence. And
John Lawrence is sort of like the founding father you
never knew. But he's also had with him these generals
(04:21):
that were totally loyal to him, Nathaniel Greene. There was
another general named Lord Sterling, who he called himself, that
insisted he'd be called Lawrence Sterling because he claimed to
be descended from Scottish aristocracy and royalty. Washington's position was,
keep fighting. You can call yourself whatever you want, Lord Sterling, whatever,
(04:41):
you're a great general, keep doing it. The situation one
of the things that people don't know about Valley Forge,
which we found out and again now what you saw
in social studies, it was not the worst winter of
the Revolutionary War. There were worst winters, but Valley Forge,
the winter was bad. I mean, it wasn't terrible, it
was bad. But what happened was the several systems had
(05:03):
broken down in the United States. One system was the government.
When the British took Philadelphia. They kicked the Continental Congress out,
and they pretty much spread out. Some of them went
to York, Pennsylvania, some of them simply went home, some
of them disappeared. There was no functioning government for the
most part of the United States anymore. So George Washington
(05:24):
at Valley Forge was the United States government. When Valley
Forge began in December nineteenth, seventeen seventy seven, the Army
went in there with twelve thousand soldiers and they built huts,
and there's also like about four or five hundred camp followers.
These are women and children that followed the army whenever
they went Suddenly, Valley Forge became the seventh largest city
in the United States, and it became the capital of
(05:47):
the United States. And I think that's something most people
would never realize from social studies that because of the
Philadelphia the capital of the United States being occupied by
the British, because there was pretty much no Continental Congress,
because every thing else in the political system was complete disarray,
Valley Forge was the capital the United States, and George
Washington was the leader, de facto leader of the United States.
(06:09):
If they if he had suddenly been lost for whatever reason,
if He's suddenly decided I've had enough, I'm getting out
of here. I'm going back to Mount Vernon. They even
the British government, as a persuasion even ordered offered to
make him a duke, so he would have been the
Duke of Mount Vernon, something like that. You know, if
you just give up. So there was that the idea
politically that Valley Forge was at the center of the
(06:32):
of the revolutions universe. The other thing that was happening
is that George Washington realized he cared about two things,
the cause of liberty and independence and his men, and
the anguish he was going through was absolutely awful because
every day his men were dying. There were some who
were deserting. Okay, they had they had to get out
of there, but there was they were dying. The very
(06:55):
first man who died at Valley Forge was Christmas Eve,
and Washington found out about it Chris this morning. It
was a black soldier from Connecticut named Jethro. He was
the first one to die. He died basically of exposure
and malnutrition. Two thousand men died at Valley Forge during
the course of those six months. That's more by far
(07:16):
than any battle in the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And that's a remarkable number. The story of Valley Forge
told by Bob Drury and Tom claven. It continues here
on our American Stories. Plee Habibe here the host of
our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
(07:40):
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give and we continue
(08:09):
with our American Stories. In the story of Valley Forge,
two thousand men died at Valley Forge, more than in
any other battle in the war. Let's continue with his
mostly unknown story.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Valley Forge was a struggle for survival, not just of
the army, but of the revolution. Because of the Continental
Army had ceased to exist, which Washington expected almost every day.
December twenty third, he wrote a letter to whatever is
left of Congress, saying, I expect any day for my
army to dissolve and disperse. He expected every morning to
(08:45):
wake up and look out, and they be gone. And
if they left, if there was no more Continental Army,
there was no more war for Independence. It was over.
Washington anguished over this. He was constantly begging the governors
of the individual states, send me some food, send me
some clothing. I mean literally. You might think it's a cliche,
(09:05):
but he literally. They were blood in the snow because
of all the men that had no shoes, the open sores.
They were dying of starving, literally dying of starvation. And
Washington had to try and keep them together. Why did
this army stay together? Because it ultimately did. I don't
think we're giving away too much that you know, we did.
We did win the War of Independence. That's where we
come to the central figure of this book, George Washington.
(09:28):
There were such admirations, such caring for him, that many
of the soldiers, just despite the suffering, they could not
abandon George Washington. They saw in him the war for
American independence, the ideal that they that America was going
to be.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Washington was he kept himself in check. He was an aggressive,
emotional man who never let anyone see it, except for
at times Martha. His wife. And when we discovered one
of the main themes of Valley Forge is Washington was
(10:07):
fighting a two front war at Valley Forge. One was
a war militarily against the British, and the second was
a political war against a faction of Congress who had
been displaced from Philadelphia when the British captured it, and
they were they had taken over the York Pennsylvania Courthouse,
and especially the New Englanders, who never really wanted Washington
(10:31):
to lead the Continental army anyway, but they figured, we're
going to fight the greatest, the great British Empire, we
need Virginia in the fold. So that's how he got
the job. And after he lost New York, after the
the stuttering Pennsylvania campaign, where he was beaten at Brandywine Creek,
he was beaten at Paoli, he was beat at Germantown,
(10:53):
there was more than whispers to usurp this man. Let's
replace him with Horatio Gates, who won the Great Battle
of Saratoga. But Washington had this inner steely quality, and
not only his officers, but his NCOs and his enlisted men,
they recognized it. They would not as shodily as they
(11:17):
were shorn I'll tell you just one silly example. When
foreign officers would come over to either volunteer to fight
for the Americans or to observe, they were shocked, shocked
to see the American centuries at Valley Forge in these
tattered blankets, naked underneath, not ripped uniforms, naked underneath, with
(11:40):
no shoes, standing on their hats in the snow to
keep their feet as warm as possible. Washington is the
reason that these men remained at Valley Forge, and I
think he emanated that kind of steely will. He was wounded,
he was wounded by the attempts to usurp his position,
(12:02):
but he never let it show.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Washington had gotten his first experience as a leader of
men in battle in the French and Indian War. He
never rose above the rank of colonel. He had hoped
to be brought into actually made an officer in the
British Army. They wouldn't have him then. Between that war
and the Revolutionary War, he was back on his farm.
I mean, even as the British derisively referred to him,
(12:28):
he was a Virginia planter. He was a farmer. No really,
I would say, very formal training. So there was that insecurity.
And I think also you have to look at Washington especially.
I think during Valley Forge was in such a difficult
position because he was very much alone.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
By this time, Washington had become some He didn't start
out this way, but he was a canny politician by
this time. Now there was no doubt that the Continental
Army was and dire straits. But Washington also recognized that
he was throwing the gauntlet to the Continental Congress. Okay,
I hear the whispers, I see the anonymous greeds against me.
(13:14):
I know Horatio Gates is triumphed in Saratoga, and you
want to replace me with him. Well, I'll tell you what,
go ahead and try it. And if you do try it,
this was he didn't come out and say this, but
the underlying, the undertone was if you do try this,
this army will dissolve and disperse. And one thing you
(13:37):
have to remember. To the politicians in York, some eighty
miles inland, an army dissolving or dispersing, this was you know,
eight to twelve to thirteen thousand men. But all they
could division was we're gonna have soldiers just scavenging in
the countryside, taking our own farms and taking our own cattle,
(13:59):
and so, yes, Washington was being a bit of a cynic.
But on the other hand, he was being perfectly truthful.
Because if they didn't get food, if they didn't get shoes,
if they didn't get medicine, the army would have fallen apart.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I mean, that's why something in some cases they vinegar.
In some cases they were eating if they could, if
there was a cow that had been that had died,
or a horse that had died, they'd eat the hide,
whatever they can find. Uh, there are stories. There's something
called fire cakes they would make. There was that ashes
from the fire, and.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Well what it was it was they would put They
had no leavening agent, they had no yease, so they
would put this goopy, goopy oat thing together and they
would just throw it on a rock in the campfire
and it wouldn't rise at all, and it would be
filled with maggots and ashes. And that's where it got
the name firecakes. And it was this hard, you know,
(14:54):
teeth breaking biscuit.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And obviously obvious question is if this was what they
had to eat, how did they survive? And I can
only point out again that of the estimated twelve thousand
men that went into Valley Forge in December seventeen seventy seven,
two thousand died. So they literally, on a daily basis,
were dying of starvation, exposure to the elements, disease. So
(15:19):
it was really it really was as horrific as that's
what we're making it seem, was their daily existence.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
At one point or not. At one point early on,
these soldiers figured, okay, Washington ordered these flying hospitals set
up around the countryside, but they had no idea of
you know, modern medicine. They did not know bacteria, germs,
and so somebody would die in one of these hospitals
and they just dumped the next guy on the same straw,
(15:48):
the same vermin infested straw. And finally the soldiers, of course,
not knowing the science of it, saying these are abatoires,
so they would just not tell anyone they're sick, and
they die in their hunts. UH.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
General Howe was the U There were two brothers, Richard
and William Howe were the two commanders of the British
forces in North America, and they were they were mostly
enjoying the pleasures of Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
UH.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
In the winter. Uh they they would send out some
foraging parties. This one event we talked about in the
book that one of the hows That was personally leading
a group of British brigade or regiment out into the
field to collect supplies. And Washington was enraged by this
because he said, they can't do this. They're coming right
in our faces. And he said, let's let's get an army,
(16:42):
let's get a force together and go and go attack them,
so we show them, we teach them a lesson. He
couldn't get enough men fit for duty. They either were naked,
or they were starving, or they were too weak to
get up off their cuts. And British just went about
their business, took some of the food that was around,
the came back. They were having parties, they were putting
(17:03):
on plays. Andre a major captain. Andre again was romancing
Benedict Donald's future wife. One of the Howe brothers had
a mistress. They had the British Office had numerous mistresses.
They were just having a really good time. And the
idea and the reason why they could do that there
was no insecurity on the part of the British because
(17:23):
they assumed that as soon as the spring came and
the fighting season began, A there'd be no American Army
left or b what was left could be easily wiped
off the map. So why not enjoy enjoy it? Go ahead,
have a good time.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And while they were having a good time, my goodness again,
two thousand died at Valley Forge. And this is the
period between December seventeen seventy seven and June seventeen seventy eight,
when we come back more of this great American story
and untold an unknown story here on our American stories.
(18:08):
And we're back with our American stories, and the story
of Valley Forge is told by Bob Drury and Tom claven.
Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Throughout the book, there's all these footnotes in it about
little tidbits that we found out during research. One of
which was that it was during the Valley Forge encampment
that the term father of his country was first used.
It was actually in a German magazine referring to the
American Revolution that George Washington was the father of his
country the Pennsylvania German. Yeah. But I think, yes, I
(18:44):
think Washington had probably some paternal instincts already from helping
to raise Martha's children, and then he found himself, which
is a really central part of this book. He found
himself with these relationships with the Marquis de Lafayette, with
John Lawrence, with Alexander Hamilton. That I think one of
(19:08):
the reasons why he could stand. They were a tremendous
burden he was under because these men were unabashedly supportive
of him and adoring of him, and they believed in him,
and that, you know, it's kind of it had to
make him feel like, we have to stay the course
to borrow something from George hw Bus, we have to
(19:28):
stay what we're doing and persevere. And they supported him enormously,
totally devoted to him. They would have instantly taken a
bullet for him, and that's a big part of our story.
Alexander Hamilton, who was twenty two years old, he was
Washington's right hand man. He wrote many of Washington's letters.
Washington would finish his thoughts. Washington could tell Hamilton, this
(19:49):
is what I think about, and Hamilton knew how to
translate that into a thousand page letter to some governor
of New York or the governor of Pennsylvania. There was
Marquis de Lafayette. He was a major general at twenty
led one of Washington's divisions. When he was wounded at
the Battle of Brandywine. Washington sent a surgeon to find
him and said to the surgeon, treat him as if
(20:11):
he were my son, totally devoted to him. And then
John Laurens was also twenty two and became great friends
with Hamilton and the Marquis de la Fayette, and he
worshiped Washington. He was from South Carolina, and among the
things he tried to do during the Valley Forging encampment,
he kept trying to raise a brigade of black soldiers.
(20:34):
He thought one of the ways that the Continlar Army
could be a more effective fighting force is get it
more integrated, and in fact he did in the sense
that there were hundreds of black soldiers part of the
Continental Army. It would be the last time America had
a fighting force in the field that was integrated until
the Korean War. So the rest of the army too,
has made up so much of immigrants Irish, German, Italians, Poland.
(21:00):
There was a turning point at February. In February was
probably the lowest point for Washington. There's a famous painting
and story about him kneeling in the snow and praying.
We discussed that in the book. It probably didn't happen.
The painting happened, but he probably didn't kneel in the snow.
But it was at his lowest point, and a couple
of things started to turn the tide. One thing is
on a personal level, is Martha Washington showed up And
(21:24):
you might think, well, so what. George and Martha Washington
were totally devoted to each other. And when she came
from Mount the comfortence of Mount Vernon to go in
the snow and the freezing cold with her husband. For
George personally, that was a big turning point. The other
point turning point was one of our favorite characters in
the book, Baron von Steuben. What you have probably don't
(21:47):
know is the real story of Baron von Stewben. We
mostly think of him, Oh yeah, he was a Prussian
general that came over and train the troops. Well, that
is true to it up to a point. He was
not a Prussian general. He was a captain. He was
a con man spy. He had met Ben Franklin in Paris,
and Franklin had completely given him a new resume, made
(22:08):
him a major general in the Prussian Army, gave him
Wallace background and everything, and said go over there, and
why don't you see things, how bad things are, and
report back to me. He gets over there, all said
to be. You know, he's got this resume that's totally doctored,
and Washington buys it. So he thinks, okay, great, I'm
gonna get paid a lot of money to be a
spy for the French and Franklin he falls in love
(22:29):
with the Continental Army. He says, my God, for the
first time, I believe in something, and he spends the
next two or three months training the Continental Army. There's
so many other characters who were in this book that
their stories are in the other people might not even
know about this. James monrou is a young officer who
becomes the sixth President of the United States or fifth.
(22:51):
John Quincy Andams is the sixth. There's even sidebar stories
about Captain John Andre, the British debonair theatrical officer, and
he's romancing Peggy Shimpin, which might not seem like a
big deal, but she's gonna marry benefit Arnold and with
her lover convince him to turn over West Point. This
is all happening at the same time. What happens is
(23:12):
that the army at the end of Valley Forge. You're
getting too the end the Valley Forge. It's going to
be time for the British, who have been relaxing and
partying and having a great time in Philadelphia. It's going
to be time as soon as the spring comes to
wipe out the American army. That's what they expected. They
saw an army back in the fall that had barely
(23:32):
staggered into a winter encampment and probably starved to death.
They expected when the winter was over there was either
going to be no army left, or whatever was left
was going to be low hanging fruit, easy pickings. And
so the two armies met at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse.
And what the British discovered is that whatever doesn't kill
you makes you stronger.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, I'm backing up because I paid clave In a
hundred bucks to let me talk about the Baron Friedrich
Wilhelm Ludolph Gerhardt Augustin von Steuben von Steuben. To you
and me, the Baron von Steuben arrived in Valley Forge
(24:14):
at the end of February as ostentatiously as he could.
He was in a sleigh adorned with twenty four jingle bells,
pulled by a team of percheron on horses. He had
purchased in France Cole Black to make a good entrance
(24:34):
into Valley Forge, and he had borrowed the money to
purchase the arches because he was dead flat broke. This guy,
he's my favorite. Well, Tom mentioned John Lawrence, the founding
father you never heard of because he died too young.
There's Matt Anthony Wayne. I have so many favorite characters
(24:55):
in this book, but the Baron von Steuben von Stuben
is my favorite. When he arrived at Valley Forge, not
only in the sleigh with the horses and the jingle bells,
he had his pocket greyhound Azor in his lap. He
was decked out in a silk uniform with these two
big horse pistols, and in his wake was a retinue
(25:19):
of aids and servants and assistance, and even a French
chef he had brought along, who, by the way, quit
forty eight hours after Eyeball, and the conditions at Valley Forge,
he said, no way, I'm staying here. And as Tom
alluded to, this guy arrived in Valley Forge with a
(25:41):
resume more doctored up than the Mayo clinic he had met.
He was a soldier of fortune. The one thing that
is true is that he had fought in Frederick the
Great's Prussian army. Now Frederick the Great and his army.
In fact, his army was known as an army with
a country, as opposed to a country with an army.
Frederick the Great was renowned throughout the Western world as
(26:05):
the most feared military leader in the world. And Von
Steuben had risen to captain in his army. But when
the European wars stopped, he kind of wandered around looking
for a job as a soldier of fortune.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
And you've been listening to Bob Drury and Tom Claven
telling this story, the remarkable story of Valley Forge, and
my goodness, that moment where Martha leaves the comfort of
Mount Vernon in February of seventy eight to visit her
husband at Valley Forge again in February, It's unbelievable. And
(26:41):
this was no duckwalk taking that ride. There was no
mass transit folks. And also this character von Steuben, who
if you grew up where I grew up in northern
New Jersey, there are Von Steuben houses all over the place,
because he really did become the man he'd never been
and actually became a man well superior to his phony
(27:01):
doctored up resume, doctored up like the Mayo clinic. I'll
remember that one and use it when we come back
more of this remarkable story Valley Forge. Here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories, and
(27:40):
the story of Valley Forge is told to us by
Bob Drury and Tom cleaven. Let's return to the final
installment of Vale Forge.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And Von Steuben eventually ended up in Paris, and the
French foreign minister, who is a big American supporter and
of eventually worked and worked and worked Louis the sixteenth
so much that that's what made the French come into
the war. But Verjean di Verjean, he saw someing in
(28:11):
von Steuben, and he introduced them to Franklin and Franklin's
associate diplomat Silas team. Now these two guys, they were
oh Man Washington has written so many letters to us
don't send me any more of these deadbeats, these these
soldiers of fortune, these and this is a quote from
(28:33):
what I read over two thousand of George Washington's memos,
private correspondents, official proclamations. I personally read these general orders,
the correspondence between Congress, and this is my favorite word.
Who said send me no more popinjays. We don't use
(28:54):
that word anymore, but von Steuben, he sits down. Within
three interviews with Franklin and Silas Dean, they realized this
guy's the real deal. Because Frederick the Great had one
rule in his army that no other Western army had,
and this was every officer would get down and work
(29:17):
and live with the enlisted men. Everyone else thought this
was beneath them, including the Continental Army. Every other army
bequeathed this job to noncommissioned officer, sergeants and corporals. And
when Von Steuben started telling Franklin, this is how I'll
drill them, this is how i'll train them, this is
what I'll do, they realized Washington, as strong as his
(29:42):
will was in keeping this army together. As Tom elucidated,
it was really a collection of disparate malitias, shoemakers, farmers, sailors, miners, shopkeepers.
They had no idea how to fight as one well
oiled machine. So Franklin and Silas Dean and they said,
(30:08):
all right, okay, we got to send Von Steuben. Oh,
but he's only a captain. So suddenly those captain bars disappeared,
and he had stars on his shoulder, and suddenly he
was not only an inspector general of the Prussian Army,
the vaunted Prussian Army, but an aid to Frederick the
Great himself. This is how he arrives in Valley Forge.
(30:29):
Now George Washington has no clue he knows Frederick the Great. Oh,
this is one of his inspector generals. Okay, let's go
on Von Steuben's first day in camp. He decides to
take an unofficial inspection tour. Here's this guy showing up
in his fancy pants European uniform with all the medals,
and he's walking into these filthy, dirty huts and he
(30:51):
starts interviewing continental soldiers about their sanitary habits, about do
you know how what the difference is became between an
ordinary march and a quick march? Do you he within
a week, he had issued a series of memos to Washington.
This is where you must take the latrines. These latrines,
you have, Doug, no wonder, there's so much disease in
(31:13):
this camp. You got to put them on the downhill
slope on the other side, away from the ovens that
are baking bread, you know what. And let's grade these
little paths in front of the huts, and let's make
them regimental roots to make this army feel more professional.
So Washington's all into this, and so he gives von
(31:34):
Steuben one hundred men his own personal guard to fifty
and fifty other men taken from the States equally, and
he said, you are going to be von Steuben's subtrainers.
Von Steuben takes them out on the parade ground of
Valley Forge the very first day. There's one hundred men,
there's thousands of other Continental soldiers. They have nothing else
(31:55):
to do. But as Tom said, starve and freeze to down.
They're all wide. Von Steuben spends the very first morning,
the entire morning, teaching them the correct way to stand
at attention. He goes on, he teaches them how to wheel.
You know, one of the great myths of the American
Revolution is the minute man, you know, slinking through the
(32:20):
cops of trees or hiding behind a boulder and picking
off the squared British Red coats in their battle formation.
And yes, there were times when this gorilla, when this
Indian fighting techniques that the Americans had, that it worked.
But for the most part, these people needed how to learn,
how to march quick step into battle, how to wheel,
(32:43):
how to stand when the cannonball or grape shot was
taking off the head of the guy next to you,
how to not fire until you were ordered to fire.
Von Steuben starts teaching the Continental Army how to do this,
how to become a professional army. And my favorite thing
about Von Steuben. If I could go back, I wouldn't
(33:04):
go back. They said, you go back to Valleyford, you
meet one person. It wouldn't be Washington, although he is
the protagonist and the hero of our book. It would
be Von Steuben because he's this Falstaffian character. He spoke
He had no English, so Washington assigned John Lawrence and
Alexander Hamilton. Von Steuben spoke French and German. Hamilton and
(33:25):
Lawrence both spoke French, and they were his translators, and
von Steuben was such a stickler for detail. He had
one word in English, goddamn. And when someone would make
a mistake during the training, his face would turn. And
he was a portly man with a double chin, and
(33:46):
he was in his mid forties, younger than most of
the generals in the American continent's alarm, and he would
his face would read. He'd flail his arms, spittle coming
out of his mouth, and he'd yell over at Alexander Hamilton,
whoever's transferring, get over here and swear for me. And
Alexander Hamilton would scurry up as von Steuben is unleashing
a string of oaths and curses. And by the time
(34:08):
Hamilton translated them into English, the Continental troops were doubled
over and laughter at this guy. But they understood that
he was not afraid. Like Frederick the Great. His mentor
to get down on his knees, on his belly in
the muck. And this is the way you this is
the way you put a bait at your bayonet is
(34:29):
not for cooking bifstick. It is for stabbing an enemy
in the gut. So von Steuben also know that sooner
or later the charade of his resume was gonna the
jig was gonna be up. But by the time the
jig was up, and von Steuben had a lot of
umph in kind of putting it up himself. He was
(34:50):
so he had become so enamored of not only the infantrymen,
but of the junior officers. Well, first, let me say
one thing. It's kind of really skipping ahead. But the
very last letter George Washington wrote before resigning his commission
as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in seventeen
(35:11):
eighty three was to the Baron von Steuben, thanking him
for turning his disparate militias into a professional army. So
that June of seventeen seventy eight, five years earlier, as
the Continental Army is marching out of Valley Forge to
meet the British on the sandy plains of New Jersey
(35:34):
near the small village of Mammoth Courthouse. And it was
what Tom and I like to call a Butcher sun
Dance moment. For the Brits. They looked at this army
wheeling and marching and like, who are these guys? These
are not the guys that we brushed off, like Lint
at the Battle of Brandywine before Christmas, at the Battle
(35:57):
of Germantown before Christmas, the massacre at Paoli before Christmas.
These guys look like they know what they're doing. As
it turned out, that day, Washington made the initial mistake
of putting another general in charge of the attack on
the British. He was bringing up the rear corps. When
(36:18):
he got to the front lines, he saw his Continental
Army retreating, retreating orderly thanks to Baron von Steuben, but
still retreating, and for the first time in front of
his age, in front of the entire he lost his temper.
He went galloping up and down the front lines until
(36:39):
he found the general he had put in charge, and
he dressed him down. And it was a blistering hot
June day, a heat wave with over one hundred degrees.
Washington up and down miles and miles, spurring the troops
to turn around, so much so that the horse he
was riding collect beneath him and dropped out of his exhaustion.
(37:03):
He was handed the reins of another horse, and he
got up. Finally he stood on a ridge, and about
a mile and a half away the entire Continental Army
could see a sea of red, ten thousand red coats
Cornwallis's best doing a slow bayonet charge. By this time,
the British artillery had moved into range. As Washington is
(37:26):
pointing his sword and saying to his troops, who will
fight with me? Who will stand with me? Grape shot
is whizzing by his head. A cannon ball lands feet
from his horse, splatters mud all over him, and he
is looking at those British and he's saying, who will
stand with me? Who will fight with me?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
And you've been listening to Bob Drury and Tom Claven
tell the story of Valley Forge and again an underappreciated story,
and will as again the great Joseph Ellis said it
was the existential moment in the Revolutionary War. You've heard
just a part of this great story. And if you
want to learn more, of course, Bally Forge is the
(38:08):
book and the writers are Bob Drurian Tom Claven the
story of Vallely Forge. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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