Another result of the victory at Trenton was that more men decided to join the army. It now had ten thousand soldiers. This new Continental Army, however, lost battles during the summer to General Howe's forces near the Chesapeake Bay. And in August seventeen seventy-seven, General Howe captured Philadelphia.
Following these losses, Washington led the army to the nearby area of Pennsylvania called Valley Forge.
"Valley Forge was the camp where George Washington and his army spent a really miserable, miserable winter.”
Alice Kamps is a curator at the National Archives in Washington, where some of the country's most important documents are kept. One of those documents is a letter that George Washington wrote from Valley Forge.
KAMPS: "The men had nothing to wear, they had no blankets, they had very little to eat. Illnesses were rampant. It was a very, very miserable experience for them."
But in the middle of that winter, Washington finds out that France has decided to sign a treaty with the colonists.
"This is fantastic news. This is the kind of news that would make anyone just run about screaming with joy and doing handstands. But Washington is so reserved, and he says that he's received this news with, quote, the most sensible pleasure, unquote."
He also says he is going to wait for the government to approve the treaty before he tells the army.
"The fact that he is not going to announce this news immediately to his army speaks to the fact that he was always, always concerned with doing the right thing and with protocol."
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2013-11-25
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