•March 6, 2019•

By John F. Gilligan

History reveals that great and noble leaders are forged in adversity. Valley Forge was that crucible for George Washington where the mettle of his character was tested to the limit.
During that winter of 1777-78, a German newspaper from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, perceived that formation of a statesman. It described Washington as Des Landes Vater, “Father of the Country.” And we have known him thus ever since.
Valley Forge was “a place of squalid and horrendous conditions,” as Bob Drury and Tom Clavin have written in their latest book “Valley Forge.” “Men dying every day from famine, malnutrition, cold and disease.” Like a poisonous gas, the stench of fetid air from the rotting carcasses of starved horses, nearby latrines and the daily collection of corpses hung over all.
Alexander Hamilton, never one to mince words, attributed these conditions to the government the Continental Army was fighting for. Congress, he said, “was our greatest antagonist.”     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.