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THE CAMP-FIRE AT VALLEY FORGE
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The name of Valley Forge will long be remembered, as one of the remarkable places of the Revolution. It is situated about twenty miles from the city of Philadelphia. When, on the 18th of December, 1777, Washington gave orders to establish a fortified camp on this sot, which is bounded, on one side, by the river Schuylkill, and on the others by ridges of hills, the ground was covered with woods. The trees were felled, and huts constructed of the logs; the dimensions of each being sixteen feet by fourteen. One hut was assigned to twelve privates; and one to a smaller number of officers, according tot their rank. These rude dwellings were arranged in parallel lines, where the shape of the ground would admit; and, when the encampment was completed, it had the appearance of a town, with streets and avenues. The soldiers from the same State, inhabited the same street or quarter. The whole encampment was surrounded, on the land side, by entrenchments; and a bridge was thrown across the river, to establish a communication with the country in that direction.
Here it was that the American army underwent sufferings such as have scarcely a parallel in military history. On their march to the spot, over the hard frozen ground, such was their destitute condition, with respect to clothing, that they presented a pitiable spectacle; and their course might have been traced on the ground, by the blood drawn from their bare feet upon the march. While hutted at Valley Forge, at one time, no less than 2898 men were unfit for duty, because barefoot, and otherwise naked; and this, be it remembered, in the depth of winter. Only eighty-two hundred men, fit for duty, could have been mustered to resist the attack of General Howe's numerous and well-appointed army, had that officer seen fit to march but twenty miles from his comfortable quarters in Philadelphia, for the purpose of trying the fortune of war. Washington's letters, written at this dark period of the war, disclose not only the melancholy facts of the case, but the causes from which they resulted; namely, the inertness of congress, the apathy of the people and the wretched system, or rather no system, of supplies which prevailed at that time. He remarks, in one of these letters: "Upon the ground of safety and policy, I am obliged to conceal the true state of the army from public view, and thereby expose myself to calumny and detraction." Incapacity in the commissariat department of the army is glaringly apparent, from the fact, that, at the very time when the army was suffering so severely for want of clothing, hogsheads of shoes, stockings, and other wearing apparel, intended for the soldiers, were lying at different places, upon the road and in the woods, useless, for want of teams and proper management, and of ready money, to pay the teamsters for their transportation. On a certain night, in the middle of this disastrous winter, in one of the huts appointed for the accommodation of the Massachusetts line, three men might be seen sitting around a fire, and discoursing on the events of the war, by way of beguiling the dreary hours of darkness. These men were literally compelled to sit up by the fire all night, for want of a sufficient supply of blankets to accommodate the whole twelve who occupied the hut. The other nine, having blankets, could sleep; and, on the next night, three of them would have to take their turn of watching. They conversed in a low tone, so as not to disturb the sleepers in the surrounding bunks, or berths; but occasionally exciting themes raised their voices, till a warning snort, from some half-awakened sleeper would remind them of their want of caution; and then their tones would sink into a stern whisper. "I say, Ira Lawrence," said one of these soldiers, John Downing by name, a stalwart fellow, standing some six and a half feet without shoes; "I say, Ira, what would our friends in Groton think, if they could know what we are doing, and what we are suffering at this blessed minute?" "I guess," replied Ira. "they would think we were tarnation fools for 'listing in the army at all. I don't care, though, what they might think. I ain't a-going to write home about it. My old man told me I might go; though I was only nineteen, and he wanted me desputly on the farm; and I won't make him and mother uneasy, by telling tales out o' school. We're in for it now, and I go for facing it out as a man ought to." "Well said, Ira, --- well said!" replied Downing. "You're a little fellow; but you've got the real grit in you. You're a regular full-blooded Yankee, and an honor to the Bay State, though you're but just tall enough to pass muster. I like your sentiment; I honor your spunk!" "It's might aggrivoking, though," said Joe Shaw, the third man of the party; a raw-boned, keen-looking fellow, of meddling stature, in a rugged uniform, and three-cornered hat, seldom removed from his head; "Yes, it is a leetle too prevoking to think how nicely them tarnal red-coats are enjoying themselves in their snug quarters in the city, while we, the rightful owners of this here site, have to sit up all night, over a fire of pitch-pine knots, for want of blankets to sleep in! It is a leetle too much for human patience to stand." "Well," said Ira, "it is hard. That's a fact. But it's a great comfort to me, to know that we are bound to pitch it into 'em pretty strong, next spring. We'll make 'em suffer!" "Don't you think," said Joe, "that the army will be in a nice, suitable 'frame of mind,' as Deacon Tibbetts calls it, for fighting, next spring, if this freezing and starving goes on all winter?" "Well," replied Ira, with a long, slender, nasal drawl, "I guess they will. I feel as if I could kill a red-coat, and eat him, too, this minute." "I like your sentiment, Ira," said John Downing, stretching out his herculean arms, and bringing his fists together with a crushing blow; at the same time, grinning a formidable defiance, and hissing out an "Ah! ah! hah! wouldn't I like to have here, at arm's length before me, any one of the murdering blackguards, that gave the people so much trouble over in Jersey, last winter, burning, plundering and ravishing! If I stay here in these clearings for one thing more than another, it is for the chance of a dig at some of those infernal villains, with my bagonet!" * *All of the Continental rank and file with whom the writer has conversed, used this pronunciation for 'bayonet;' and they called a three-cornered hat, a 'bagonet hat.' "With them etarnal long arms of yourn," said Ira, "you could stick a grenadier half a mile off, and lift him clean over your head. You must be a mighty ugly customer, John, in a bagonet scrimmage. Have you had much practice in that 'air line?" "I have had some, I guess, before you j'ined our company. There was that kick-up we had about the oxen, last fall, over on t'other side of the Jerseys. Didn't I never tell ye about that?" "Never a word," replied Joe. "Well, that was warm work, I guess," rejoined the tall soldier. "Pray tell us all about it," said Joe. "Well, it's a long story, and we must have some more pitch-knots on the fire, before I begin;" and at the word, both of John's comrades hastened to heap more wood on the fire. This done, they assumed the most comfortable sitting posture for listening, while Long John stood up at his full length, before the blazing light of the pitch-knots, and commenced his narrative. "It was in the airly part of last fall --- in September, I guess --- when I was one of a detachment of light infantry some three thousand strong, that General Washington had sent to guard some fat cattle, that had been bought by the commissary, for the army. I vow, Ira, I wish we had one of them same oxen here now, for our mess!" "Oh, go ahead with your story," said Ira, "and let the mess alone." "Well, as I was saying, these cattle were feeding on a piece of intervale land; I guess there was about three hundred acre in the lot, with all the timber and wood cleared off; and it lay between a piece of thick woods and the river." "What river?" enquired Ira. "Why, the North River, to be sure. I told you it was on the other side of Jersey, right over against York State." "Oh, yes, I understand," returned Ira; "but who commanded the detachment?" "Who but the Marquis de La Fayette!" was the answer. "Do tell!" exclaimed Ira, with wide-open eyes and mouth. "Well! I never!" Ejaculated Joe; these exclamations expressing the very acme of Yankee astonishment. "You never told us before, that you had been in a fight under the Marquis." "Well," returned John, "if you will only shut up your etarnal clam-shells, I'll tell ye all about it, now. We'll never have a better chance; for we've got the whole night before us; and we may be frozen or starved to death, before our turn comes round to watch again." "Well, as I was a -saying, our detachment was stationed about five miles from the intervale lot tha I spoke of, where the cattle were being pastured; and our business was to see that the cattle were not stolen away by the enemy. The intervale, you understand was on a point of land running out into the river; and our men were on the neck; so that the cattle couldn't have been reached from the land-side, without a bit of a brush with us." "But the regulars could come in sloops and transports," said Ira. "Yes, you may say that," replied John; "and they were always mighty hungry after fat beef. But you shall hear the upshot of the business. One morning, just about the break of day, I was standing sentry, on the side of our encampment next to the cattle, which, as I said before, were full five miles from where we lay. I was thinking about home, and calculating that father might be pretty well through with harvesting his winter rye, when I heard some fellow trotting along the ground pretty considerable hard, and coming right towards me. I hailed him just as he came out of the bushes. 'Who goes there?' "A friend,' says he. 'Advance and give the countersign!' says I. 'I don't know the countersign; but the regulars is landing form the river; and if you di'n't make haste, they'll carry off all your fat cattle, in their launches!' By this time, the man, who was a Jersey countryman, was standing right before me. Seeing he was a little fellow, not more than five feet ten, I just grabbed him by he collar, with my right hand, and cocked and discharged my piece in the air, with my left. "'Now,' says I, 'my good fellow, if what you say is true, you'll get rewarded for your news; but if you've been giving a false alarm, you'll catch it, or my name's not Jack Downing.' 'It's as true as preaching,' said the countryman. "In five minutes, the guard was upon us in force. They carried off the fellow to the Marqus's quarters; and, in fifteen minutes more, our regiment was ordered to march down to the point in double-quick time. Our colonel was Rufus Putnam, a nephew of the general." "What --- Old Put?" enquired Ira. "Old Put, himself. This nephew is a chip off the old block, too, I can tell you; as cool as a peach, and as wide awake, when the smell of gunpowder is about as Old Put himself. We were mustered in a hurry, and the way we marched over that five miles of rough ground, was a caution to continentallers! It wasn't running; but it was a sample of the tallest kind of walking that ever I experienced; and you know I ain't slow at that exercise." "When we had got pretty near to the edge of the woods, the colonel ordered the adjutant to go forward and see where the regulars were, and how many they mustered. The adjutant came back pretty soon, and reported that they were forming, on the shore, in three columns; and that each of the columns, as near as he could calculate, was about a thousand strong. The colonel rose right up in his stirrups, and pointing back with his sword, he says. 'Then ride back to the camp, as fast as you can go, and tell Lafayette to come on!' Off went the adjutant, like an arrow from King Philips bow, and Colonel Putnam rode right up to my captain. It was Captain Daniel Shays --- a good officer, and a right clever man to his soldiers. 'Well, Captain Shays,' says he, 'shall we be a-playing with them a little, till the general comes?' 'That must be as you please,' was our captain's answer. "In a minute after, we were ordered to advance out of the woods, to the open land upon the point. Here we could see the whole force of the enemy, and the whole game the rascally red-coats were playing. There were their three thousand men, all ready to steal our fat cattle, and carry them off, or to shoot us down, if we say 'Nay.' "Pretty soon we received some volleys of musketry from the regulars, and the cannon from the shipping began to roar. Says I to myself, 'Jack Downing, you'll never see old Groton again; for there are regulars enough to eat up your regiment without salt.' But Colonel Putnam rode back and forth, before his regiment, as cool and as calm as though he was only parading us for inspection, while the balls were whistling about our ears in every direction. "At length we commenced; and we worked mighty fast, boys, I can tell ye; and, for one regiment, made a pretty considerable noise. That loading and firing, to keep an enemy, five or six times your number, in check, is rayther warm work. Presently, the corporal at my left hand was shot right through the body, and fell at my feet. There he lay, --- bleeding, gasping, dying. I had never seen a man killed so near me before, and I must say I felt kind of streaked. Captain Shays stepped forward, close to me. 'John,' says he, 'never mind it; I will take his place;' and he was as good as his word. He took the corporal's gun, and began blazing away with it, at the enemy, as cool as if he was beginning a day's work, in the haying season. I always liked that Captain Shays. He was the best captain I have ever served under yet. He is bold to the enemy, and always kind to his men. He stood should to shoulder with me, through the rest of that fight. "I was loading my gun for the twenty-second time, when General Lafayette, with the main body of the infantry, came dashing out of the woods in our rear. Never shall I forget the feeling of that moment, when I first heard the sound of their continental drums! 'Now, John,' said Captain Shays, 'we'll give it to them!' "The main body formed at once on our left; --- coming up beautifully into line, all eager for the fray. Lafayette rode along in front of our line. He is a splendid officer; and never did he so completely fill my eye, as at that moment. Though he is slight --- a mere stripling in his appearance --- his eye is full of fire, and his motions are all alert, and full of soldierly spunk and decision. "As he came near to the colonel of our regiment, he said: --- "'Colonel Putnam, how dare you fire before I arrived?' "'Oh," said the colonel, "I thought I would be playing with them, a little.' "'Lafayette at that moment seemed full of energy and fire. Turning towards the line, with a loud and distinct voice, he gave the order: --- "We fire? --- no! Let the whole line charge bagonets! --- Rush on, and drive them into the river!' "At these words, the boys seemed to feel the breath of a new life breathed into them. We did rush on with bagonets levelled; and such a horrible carnage I never saw. "At first, the British charged to meet us; but they couldn't stand against the Yankee boys that day. The reinforcement of fresh troops, added to our regiment, who had already shown that we could keep them at bay, seemed to strike a sort of panic into them; and when our line struck theirs, and we were all engaged, they fairly turned tail, and ran with all their might for the shore, in hopes to escape to their boats. We were not slow in following them, and we drove them pell-mell into the water. Hundreds that escaped our bagonets, were drowned before their boats could take them up; and, out of the whole three thousand men who landed on the point that morning full of hope and courage, and hungry for our fat beeves, scarcely fifteen hundred made out to get on board of the vessels! "Now, boys, you've heard a great deal of bragging about the British bagonet. Here was a fair stand-up fight, of equal numbers; and that was the way we walked into British soldiers, with the American bagonet!" |
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