#469： How Valley Forge Turned the Tide of the Revolutionary War
Episode Stats
Summary
18 months after the Declaration of Independence was signed, this continental army was on the verge of being snuffed out. battered, demoralized, and half naked, 12,000 Americanan troops marched into a small poorly supplied encampment in British occupied Pennsylvania to hunker down for the winter. This was the encampment known as Valley forge. And despite the terrible conditions and circumstances, there something happened at Valley forge that would change the tide of the revolutionary war in the entire course of history. My guest today is a co-author of a new book entitled Valley forge about this historic crucible. His name is Bob Drewey, and I had him last on the show to discuss his stellar book, Lucky 666. Today, he explains the dire obstacles that General George Washington and the continental army were up against at the time of Valley forge, from coming off a string of strategic defeats to weathering political infighting. And he offers a vivid description of the squalor soldiers lived in, as well as a rundown of the common myths people have about this historical episode.
Transcript
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brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast
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18 months after the declaration of independence was signed this continental army was on the ropes
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and the american revolution was on the verge of being snuffed out battered demoralized and half
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naked 12 000 american troops marched into a small poorly supplied encampment in british occupied
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pennsylvania to hunker down for the winter they call the encampment valley forge despite the
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terrible conditions and circumstances there something happened at valley forge that would
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change the tide of the revolutionary war in the entire course of history my guest today is a
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co-author of a new book entitled valley forge about this historic crucible his name is bob drewey and
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i had him last on the show to discuss his stellar book lucky 666 today he explains the dire obstacles
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general george washington and the continental army were up against at the time of valley forge
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from coming off a string of strategic defeats to weathering political infighting he then offers
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a vivid description of the squalor soldiers lived in at valley forge as well as a rundown of the
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common myths people have about this historical episode we end our conversation discussing how
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the situation at valley forge got turned around and why the men who survived this crucible ended up
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stronger because of it this show will give you some fresh insights and new appreciation for this
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pivotal event in american history after it's over check out the show notes at aom.is
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slash valley forge bob joins me now via clearcast.io
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all right bob drewey welcome back to the show right it's great to be back thanks uh i had a fun
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time with you when we did lucky 666 and looking forward to the same for valley forge that's right
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so you got a new book out valley forge now this is interesting it's just like an iconic moment in
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american revolutionary history i think all of us have seen the the painting of washington praying
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we'll talk about that here in a bit but what got you thinking about valley forge and writing writing
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the history of this event uh and such great to tell frankly brett it was a family affair believe it or
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not i have a 20 year olds 21 year olds he's 21 now uh son leah mantuan with a hyphen and his
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mother's french and leah mantuan has been he's a dual citizen he's been bilingual since infancy he's
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in university of the uk now he speaks four different languages but one day i guess it was six or seven
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years ago he was 13 or 14 we were down at my wife's house outside of philadelphia for a holiday i think
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it was christmas and i heard this kerfluffle in the next room in the tv room and i went as i was walking
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towards it my son is kind of stomping out i said what's wrong son and he said uh my wife's brother
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had made a crack about the united states bailing france out of two world wars and my son shot back
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at him oh yeah if it wasn't for the marquis de lafayette in the french army you'd be canada right
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now there wouldn't even be a united states and not only was i proud of my you know early teen son for
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standing up to this 40 year old man brad it was like a light bulb went off over my head
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lafayette during the revolution what a great book and so i got a hold of my co-author tom clavin we
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both agreed we were just finishing up our ray cloud book the heart of everything that is and we had
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already committed to the world war ii book lucky 666 but lafayette was in the queue he was next online
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and of course as we were working on lucky 666 the inestimable sarah val terrific writer she came out
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with her book lafayette in the somewhat united states so alas there goes that idea down the
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tubes let's find something else but tom stopped me tom clavin my co-author and he said hold on a
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second i just been doing some perfunctory research on lafayette what do you know about valley forge
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and i kind of answered i don't know i suppose what most americans learned in civics class or social
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studies or eighth grade history a lot of freezing half naked men starving to death and as you put it
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kind of washington and all the portraits he's sitting on a big white horse watching them starve to death
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and and tom said there i think there might be a lot more to that winter of 1777 1778 that meets the
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eye and that most americans know about so by this time i had done a little research on my own
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and this was three februaries ago 2015 i made an appointment with the park services chief valley
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forge historian and brad i spent the day with him i drove to valley forge and we did a walking tour for
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the entire day and what i learned just in that day when i got home i was so excited i called clavin i said
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we have a book we have a book no one no american knows the half of what was going on at valley
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forge so that's how the concept came about so to speak i love it so it started with your son
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an argument that sounds fantastic he's gonna want in fact i you we used him you'll see on the book
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it says contemporaneous materials materials never used before we hired my son to go into the french
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archives and find out some stuff that's been in no other valley forge uh articles or books before
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and maybe we could talk about that later but i just thought that was a that was a nice aside that
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we got this french-speaking kid to go do our work for us that's awesome all right so i think for people
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to understand valley forge and its importance you have to understand what was going on with the war
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leading up to it so at what point did you take up the story we pick it up in august of 1777
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with george washington marching the continental army through down market street in philadelphia
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show of force i'll back up a little bit what had happened previous to where we begin the book
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washington as as you probably know he was a compromise candidate for the commander-in-chief of
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the continental army all those new england firebrands john adams sam adams james lavelle
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they knew that if they were going to take on the most powerful empire in the world they needed
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virginia the former colony of virginia now the state of virginia in the fold it was the most
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populous state it was the largest state it was a richest state so as a compromise they plucked george
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washington who had been a successful militia commander fighting alongside the british during the french and
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indian war and they made him commander-in-chief now this pissed off a lot of people and
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john adams was never really sold on george washington in fact he quipped the only reason
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he's commander-in-chief is because he's the tallest man in any room he walks in so when washington
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drove in 76 when washington drove the british out of boston feather in his cap but then things started
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to go wrong he lost new york the battle of brooklyn heights the battle of white plains the battle of
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parlam heights and he was basically just driven out of new york with his tail between his legs
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and the whispers about washington in philadelphia where the continental congress was meeting they
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started to get a little bit louder but then washington quelled that with his surprise attack
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in 1776 on trenton and the mop-up duty in princeton that kind of bought him some time
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but come what they call back then the fighting season of 1777 when general howe commander of all british
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forces in the united states he was the one who had driven washington out of new york he and his
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brother lord richard howe who was in charge of the royal navy they decided to make their move
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on philadelphia which was of course the nascent capital of the united states and throughout that
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late summer early fall campaign general howe flummoxed washington general washington at every
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single turn there was the battle of brandy wine creek where washington chose a spot on a creek that
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was more like a river to try to turn back the british from capturing philadelphia and instead
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general howe ran an all-night flanking maneuver and he came back he almost came back around behind
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washington and if only for the covering movements of two of washington's homegrown generals nathaniel green
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from rhode island and pennsylvania's own anthony wayne later became known as mad dog if it wasn't for
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their covering movement almost suicidal the continental army would have been annihilated or captured
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so 10 days after brandy wine creek washington has sent general wayne with a brigade of american
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soldiers shadow the british as they move towards philadelphia maybe you can come you can relay to me
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another place where we can attack them but wayne made the mistake of staying one night too long in
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this plateau in the township of paoli pennsylvania not far by the way from valley forge howe got wind of
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wayne where he was local tories led him there and he ordered a midnight bayonet attack on wayne's
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sleeping soldiers and the general he put in charge no flint gray they called him general charles gray gray
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g-r-e-y he had ordered his soldiers a reason got the nickname no flint take your flintlocks out of
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your brown best muskets this is strictly bayonets and b no quarter over 200 americans were massacred it
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became known as the paoli massacre massacred in their tents in their sleep and then finally shortly after
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that when washington tried one last ditch effort to take back philadelphia at what became known as the
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battle of germantown he came this close brett they were so close to routing the british and then at
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the last minute this fog rolled in the american militia started shooting at each other it was just
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a mess a giant mess of friendly fire which gave the british enough time gave general cornwallis
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enough time to get out of philadelphia with reinforcements for half and they turned what looked
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for sure like it was going to be a continental victory into this rousing route of a retreat
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so now washington's over three and the wish of course when the british took philadelphia the
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continental congress such as they were abandoned the city now most of them went back to their their own
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districts but a small quorum at any one point between 18 and 23 delegates took over the courthouse in
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the inland philadelphia town of york and now the whispers that i spoke about about washington they're
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they're a full-blown roar john adams wants him out dr benjamin rush uh pennsylvania surgeon very
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respected man signer of the declaration of independence he writes an anonymous screed
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calling washington a full-blown dictator with no military skills now this of course is turned into a
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pamphlet it's circulated up and down the east coast through all the colonies patrick henry has a
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matter of fact he saw the original and he writes to washington he said this is benjamin rush's
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handwriting these i just want you to know the kind of statesman the kind of heavy hitters you're up
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against who wants you out and washington oddly enough he was a great militia commander and infantry
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commander but he knew nothing about cavalry tactics or about about military engineering or about
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artillery so when he was named commander-in-chief he ran out and bought all these books about how does
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this work so now he was not only learning how to be a military commander he was learning how to be a
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savvy politician if the knives are out for me i'm going to turn i'm going to turn the situation around
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and make the knives out for them so what he did was he didn't respond to rush right away instead he
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asked congress in york the delegates were there can you send a commission out here on an inspection tour
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i want you to see what's happening down here and when the five delegates who eventually arrived to
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valley forge saw the condition of the army right when i'm saying naked or half naked i'm not talking
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metaphorically foreign officers who came to valley forge to either volunteer to fight for the americans
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or to observe were shocked to see continental sentries naked under a ratty blanket barefoot
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standing on their hats in the snow or the freezing mud i mean this army was on the on the verge as
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washington wrote to congress of starving dissolving or dispersing when these five delegates reached
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valley forge they were so embarrassed they started taking off their own shoes and handing them to
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soldiers so now washington starts manipulating what came to be known as the camp committee these five
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delegates and without them really knowing it they're putting into action everything that washington
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wants every day he sends over one of his young aides perhaps to john lawrence alexander hamilton
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and cajoling and kind of putting into mind oh god we need food washington's not an autocrat
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he's the only thing keeping this army together which in fact was true so it was almost like the tail
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started wagging the dog the five delegates of the camp committee began wagging the dog of the continental
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congress back in york and washington was so close to turning things around when i don't know if you
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want to talk about saratoga but as all these losses were piling up during the pennsylvania campaign
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randy wine creek paoli germantown up in a little hamlet in upstate new york the hamlet of saratoga
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the american general horatio gates defeats the british general gentleman johnny burgoyne
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captures 5 000 redcoats and hessians including 23 generals now gates of course he's held by the
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john adams clique this is the man to replace washington now gates was fine with that he was a
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political animal he was a he was british born he had fought for the british during the french and indian
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war and after the british won that war he had settled in the states on an estate of virginia
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and when the rebellion broke out the american rebellion broke out gates cast his lot with the
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colonies which were now states he went to boston he expected to be named commander-in-chief and was
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quite peeved when washington was chosen as the compromise candidate gates considered washington
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middle gentry fox hunting virginia and a country bumpkin more or less so now gates sees his chance
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and he takes logic in york and he begins lobbying the delegates there i'm your man make me commander-in-chief
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but because there were so few congressmen in york they could not get a majority so they did the next
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best thing they gifted general gates by making him president of the board of war now previously the
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american board of war had been kind of a bureaucratic political position you know what are we going to do
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with the pow's how are we going to get wagon wheels made where are we going to purchase our arms but
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gates turns it around and suddenly he's giving orders to the field you don't do this that's way out of
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line it was public slap in the face to washington and the denouement came when gates named his friend
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the irish-born french officer thomas conway as inspector general of the continental army this was way out of
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league washington was the only man to name his name he was it was in protocol that the commander-in-chief
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names the inspector general not some president of the board of war but washington once again takes this
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very public slap in the face with equanimity and he knows what gates doesn't know what adams doesn't
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know what none of the new england faction know is that without his physical and emotional presence
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at valley forge this army this continental army of ours would fall apart and suddenly the delegates
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out of the camp committee that went to valley forge they're starting to realize this too it's only
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washington's preternatural sense of will it's only the loyalty that these soldiers have to their
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commander-in-chief that is keeping this army together now don't get me wrong there were plenty
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there were scores hundreds of desertions men just saying we can't take this anymore albigin's well
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some of the diaries and and journals we read bread i remember it was joseph plum martin he was like the
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zellig of the revolution he was everywhere and at one point he wrote in his diary oh yes i think it
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was thanksgiving the continental congress had declared a day of thanksgiving for gates's victory
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at saratoga and he said oh we were served a hearty lamb stew with onions and carrots and cabbage and
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hickory nuts without the lamb stew the onions the carrots the cabbage or the hickory nuts instead they
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were issued a gill of vinegar to ward off scurvy and a gill of rice i mean this army was in bad
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shape and the delegates at valley forge are beginning to realize only washington can keep
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this army together that was a very long-winded answer to your question and i apologize no no no
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it's a great story so so basically they were they were hunkering down in valley forge for the winter
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after these defeats at brandy wine in germantown this is in pennsylvania so this raises the question
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why were things so bad why why were there men who were naked no shoes in the winter during valley
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valley forge just as the nascent united states did not know how to set up an army we had no clue how
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to put an army together in fact most of the congressmen did not want a standing army they
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thought they could they could defeat the greatest the greatest empire on earth militarily with a bunch
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of disparate militiamen you know second sons and farmers and miners and shoemakers and and finally
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they were disabused of that notion during the new york campaign where the british just rolled up the
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americans so just as they did not know how to create an army from scratch they didn't know how to create a
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supply system from scratch there was a general general mifflin wasn't charged with the supply line
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but everybody working below him buyers teamsters they were all civilians and they were corrupt as
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hell and even when there was we have bushels of wheat we have corn we have whatever they had the
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continental army had no wagons there were maybe 16 wagons for the 12 000 men at valley forge so they
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couldn't get the food there and washington one of his dictates to the camp committee the five delegates
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at valley forge was we must totally restructure the supply stem of this army and of course they
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agreed with him and eventually i'm jumping ahead of myself a little bit but general green who is just
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a great character in the book he was washington had designated general green and when these guys are
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so young brett green was in his mid-30s anthony wayne was in his mid-30s lafayette was 19 when he
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introduced himself to washington hamilton was 22 lawrence was 20 john lawrence by the way the founding
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father you'd never heard of john lawrence was 23 but washington has had designated general green as
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his successor as commander-in-chief should he fall to battle and when washington went to green and said
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i need your organizational skills please take over the supply line green didn't want to he wanted
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battlefield honors as he put it no one in history ever heard of a supply general he only heard of
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battling generals but for the good of the country for the good of the army for the good of his
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great good friend george washington he did it and eventually not yet february was the cruelest cruelest
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month of valley forge but eventually by the time that army marched out of valley forge green had set
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up all these depots for the horses the horses were dropping dead where they stood of starvation and we
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didn't talk about a couple of the myths and now that i'm onto the horses do you mind let's talk about
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some of the myths two of the things i found out that day when i did my tour of valley forge my very first
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tour were the myths of oh freezing winter what washington's bad luck the coldest winter ever
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it wasn't brett in fact it was one of the mildest winters ever recorded in southeastern pennsylvania
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but what would happen washington's previous encampment at marstown new jersey and his subsequent
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encampment at marstown new jersey were far more arctic but what would happen is that valley forge would be
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buried in a week in a snowstorm and that would be followed by an ice storm and then the temperatures
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would rise and 40 degree rains would just flood the camp the the once again they did not dig latrines
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the latrines were just dug haphazard through the camp and uh all kind well it was just flying all
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over the camp the horses who had dropped dead and been dead and maybe a foot or two of ground because it
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was freezing at the time now they're starting to rise the one thing that was an ongoing uh trail
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through all the research that tom clavin and i did i i personally read everything
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watch george washington wrote or dictated between july 1 1777 and july 15 1778 i can tell you brett
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sometimes my eyes were glazing over but sometimes you just come across a nugget say yes that's what i'm
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talking about but the the winter hot cold hot cold hot cold washington much preferred cold
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the previous morristown the subsequent of morristown and with this mud everything that we read from
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everybody everyone commented on the stink hanging over the camp like an illness it just smelled to high
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heaven and another myth as long as i'm on myth is that oh the pencil the previous autos pennsylvania
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campaign had denuded all the farmsteads of the surrounding counties chester county where alley
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forge was the neighboring counties delaware montgomery bucks county there was no food to be had that's
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why the continentals had no food that is 100 wrong in fact 1777 had been one of the best harvests of the
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decade for that area but the surrounding the civilians the merchants the uh the farmers continental
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soldiers who survived valley forge many of them went to their deathbed cursing as they put it those
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damn quakers because there were many religious sects who preferred dunkers men and knights the
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soldiers all just called them quakers that preferred to smuggle their goods their merchandise their cattle
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their poultry their sheep their corn their wheat into british occupy philadelphia where they would
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be paid in pounds sterling and sometimes even gold as opposed to selling their goods for the the
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worthless script that the continental congress was issuing so those are two myths right there you know
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cold winter and no and no food around no and one other thing i'll mention is that it's not so much a myth
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but it it kind of shocks people when i mention it in my presentation but brett i'll ask you well yes of
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course you know because you read the book but nobody seems to realize there were 750 black soldiers
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at valley forge now they were all freemen many of them had been born freemen others had been slaves on
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new england plantations their owners were given compensation and these men were formed into battalions
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and they fought ferociously and the deal was if you'll fight that was in their contract for the duration
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of the war we will we will free you afterwards and rhode island was the first state to do this
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and when politicians and generals from connecticut and massachusetts saw how ferociously these black
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soldiers fought they said we have to do this ourselves and this was the last time until the
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korean war that black american soldiers fought side by side with white american soldiers yes there were black
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units in world war ii tuskegee airmen but they were all segregated this was the last integrated
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american army until korea that's that's crazy that's a i did not know that haven't been until i read the
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book we're gonna take a quick break for your word from our sponsors and now back to the show so i mean
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okay washington is basically just having a hell of a time right now he's faced these defeats
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his army is about to fall apart so what i love about the book is you describe his inner circle these
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characters that kind of buoyed him up yeah and the one the one that really stuck out to me we started
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talking we began the show talking about him as lafayette i mean i i knew of him but i didn't know
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much about him until i read the book and i made me like fall in love with this guy this guy sounded
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amazing like i said he was 19 years old so tell us how did this aristocratic french kid basically
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end up being washington's basically a kind of adopted son well tom and i contend in our book valley
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forged that the shared core of values that men like lafayette and hamilton and green and mad anthony
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wayne and john lawrence their shared court core of values was the most productive generation of
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statesmen that the united states has ever produced we say this knowing full well about lincoln's team
00:25:02.460
of rivals and fdr's kitchen cabinet but these men stood out i believe now don't forget it was it
00:25:10.220
sounds it's easy to be sarcastic about this now but this was another era and these were idealists
00:25:15.460
and there was none more ideal than the marquis de lafayette when he arrived in the united states
00:25:22.100
in august of 1777 as you said he was 19 years old he uh he turned 20 around the time of the battle of
00:25:28.160
brandy wine he wanted to fight he had read about american ideals and he believed that
00:25:34.900
he could fight in this war and take that ideology back to france with him and washington who for the
00:25:41.720
most part hated the foreign mercenaries that ben franklin and his associate silas dean the two
00:25:48.800
american diplomats in paris they were sending all these i love this word he wrote to him i read the
00:25:54.040
letters stop sending me these poppin jays it's a good word it's falling into disuse but these were
00:26:01.740
predominantly frenchmen and they came over with no english and they expected to be handed a general
00:26:07.600
sash the moment they set foot on united states soil and washington just had no use for these people
00:26:13.660
but lafayette was different i think washington saw some of his younger self in lafayette
00:26:21.080
in the enthusiasm for the battlefield honors because washington was very much that way
00:26:26.420
in his younger days uh during the with the seven years war which we called the french and indian war
00:26:32.300
and there was something about lafayette it didn't help that lafayette was the only man washington was
00:26:38.100
a tall man he was six three at the time when i guess the average height was maybe five nine
00:26:42.200
and lafayette was tall enough he was the only man that could look washington in the eye
00:26:46.380
and washington there was a double-edged sword with lafayette not only did he personally
00:26:53.100
come to consider him his surrogate son don't forget washington was childless he had a he had
00:26:59.020
a stepson jackie custis with martha custis but he had no children of his own lafayette was about the
00:27:04.560
right age for him to have been george washington's son and i'll give you a perfect anecdote at the
00:27:11.060
battle of brandy wine creek when lafayette took a bullet hole a musket ball in his uh leg washington
00:27:17.900
sought out the surgeons attending to lafayette and said treat him as you would my own son
00:27:22.360
now there's that there's that personal connection between the two but there's also washington as i
00:27:31.020
said before was learning to become a canny political atom and he knew that lafayette was
00:27:36.780
writing back to france about the american struggle for independence especially to the french foreign
00:27:43.000
minister the count de vijon who had the ear of the boy king louis the 16th would go a long way to
00:27:49.980
bringing friendship france into the war he needed lafayette he was he was walking a tightrope because
00:27:56.360
on the one hand he couldn't have lafayette killed because oh the greatest frenchman in the united states
00:28:01.800
is now dead no we're not going to fight this war for you that's what the king would say and on the
00:28:05.880
other hand he needed lafayette he couldn't really stop him i think at one point he said he wrote to
00:28:10.880
the to henry lawrence the president of the continental congress he said i've tried my best the man lives to
00:28:17.260
be in the way of danger i'm putting him in charge of everybody whatever happens happen let's let the
00:28:21.180
chips fall where they may so finally of course lafayette's importuning to versailles to the count de vijon
00:28:31.220
and to the king it did bring the french into the war in february of 1778 although given the vagaries
00:28:37.840
of ocean travel at the time no one in america would know that for months so um there was that
00:28:44.220
aspect uh that person in his inner circle that kind of buoyed him up and played a political role as well
00:28:49.180
uh you mentioned john lawrence you says like the forgotten founding father tell us about this guy and
00:28:53.900
what role did he play in washington's circle he is uh well of course washington's my favorite character in the
00:29:00.060
book i just you know brett we tend to look at washington or when we think of washington and i know i'm
00:29:06.520
getting off your question i promise i'll get right back that's fine no let's get back here talk about
00:29:09.680
washington we we think of him like coming out of the womb in his you know in the portrait that's on
00:29:15.800
the one dollar bill and washington was a a very human man he had his he had his weaknesses he had
00:29:24.420
his uh he had his doubts about himself that's why these these kids we would call them that he had
00:29:30.180
around him lafayette hamilton i mean they were all there's 17 of them all living in a three-bedroom
00:29:35.480
farmhouse on the northwest corner of valley forge that washington had made his headquarters
00:29:40.200
and among them were john lawrence 23 year old john lawrence and you're right he's one of my favorite
00:29:45.920
characters in the book lawrence had been studying he was the son of henry lawrence who succeeded john
00:29:52.260
hancock as president of the continental congress in 1777 the lawrences were a big south carolina family
00:30:00.480
in fact they had made their money on slavery henry lawrence owned the biggest slave house in south
00:30:05.120
carolina john was studying law in london after having received his university degree in geneva
00:30:11.100
when war broke out in the united states much to his father's chagrin he immediately rushed back
00:30:16.720
volunteered his services washington liked this man too and so did hamilton alexander hamilton and john
00:30:24.520
lawrence became fast friends they became the best of friends finishing each other's sentences and
00:30:30.380
at one point i mean during brandywine creek much to once again his father's chagrin lawrence showed his
00:30:37.540
military ability and then he was actually heroic at germantown in the defeat of germantown if we had
00:30:43.520
won that battle i think more people would know about john lawrence but you know there's so much about
00:30:48.760
john lawrence's story arc in the book that i could go to here today but let me just say the reason i call
00:30:54.040
him the founding father you never heard of was because late in the war when washington had finally
00:30:59.120
hamilton lawrence they were always pleading release me from my inkwell that's what they called
00:31:03.960
being washington's aid to camp release me from my inkwell late in the war when washington had
00:31:08.840
finally given hamilton and lawrence a command lawrence was down in south carolina outside of his
00:31:13.540
hometown of charleston and he was down in sickbed with uh he was suffering from malaria and he had heard
00:31:21.580
he got word that the british were sending a foraging party out of the city brett this was months from the
00:31:28.860
end of the war it was mere weeks before the british would evacuate charleston but lawrence gets out of
00:31:35.920
bed shaking with malaria determined to look for a fight with this foraging party he leads a company
00:31:42.100
of men and as he's looking for him a squad of british scouts spots him they shoot him out of shoot him
00:31:47.780
off his horse out of the saddle and he's dead he's dead at the age of 27 it's just i am certain from
00:31:54.860
everything i've read and know about john lawrence that he would have been president george washington's
00:31:58.900
first secretary of state but anyway we're getting way ahead of ourselves here but let me just go back
00:32:04.060
to saying that it was the young men as washington felt the weight of the world on his soldiers at his
00:32:10.640
headquarters in valley forge at the potts house what came to be known as the potts house it was a rented
00:32:15.360
from a quaker named potts it was lawrence and lafayette and hamilton who buoyed him in his darkest time
00:32:22.760
and you mentioned at the onset of our conversation here about washington praying in the snowy glade down
00:32:29.520
on his knees tom and i as we write have come to the conclusion that this is a an apocryphal story
00:32:35.740
washington was not a very religious man he sometimes attended like jefferson he was a deist and he
00:32:42.440
sometimes attended episcopalian services but he always left before the communion and there's just
00:32:49.180
because the story came out over half a century later it's not sourced well we just can't believe
00:32:56.480
that washington went off by himself into the woods valley forge and got down on his knees in the snow
00:33:03.020
and prayed to his god to help him persevere and keep his army together but that painting which you know
00:33:12.540
everyone has seen it circulates so much washington on his knees it is symbolic of how washington felt
00:33:19.000
that winter so in that sense had he been a religious man he probably would have done that
00:33:25.380
he just did it in his own way and once again it was the youngsters you know these guys are veterans
00:33:31.040
wow lafayette's wounded but it was the youngsters as tom and i call them that really buoyed this man
00:33:37.200
in his deepest darkest hour how long was the continental army hold up at valley forge precisely six months
00:33:44.920
six months they slogged in there on december 19th 1777 and they marched out and there's a difference
00:33:53.420
when i say slog and march and they marched out on june 19th 1778 well let's talk about that difference
00:33:59.780
like what happened to the army while they were in valley forge that because like after valley forge
00:34:04.460
like things changed for the continental army right it went toward like they started winning so like what
00:34:08.960
happened at valley forge that started that sort of precipitated that i think you can't put it all on
00:34:15.260
his soldiers shoulders i'm sorry on his shoulders but i told you before john lawrence and of course
00:34:21.280
washington is my favorite character in the book john lawrence might be one of my favorites but my favorite
00:34:27.000
secondary protagonist in this book is the baron friedrich wilhelm ludolf gerhard augustin von steuben
00:34:35.260
baron von steuben to you and me this guy was as colorful as his name brett he arrived at valley
00:34:42.100
forge in late february in his sleigh pulled by pulled by a team of coal black percheron horses he had
00:34:49.740
purchased in france just to make a good impression on uh of course he had purchased the horses on borrowed
00:34:55.460
money he was dead flat broke the sleigh was adorned with 24 jingle bells steuben himself had a silk
00:35:02.540
tunic tunic on a silk officer's tunic two big horse pistols in his holster on either on either hip
00:35:08.460
and his pocket greyhound azar sitting in his lap he was a big man he was not a young man von steuben
00:35:14.540
was in his mid-40s and he was a he was an ample man shall we shall we say and in his trail was his
00:35:21.920
retinue of servants and aid to camps and translators he had no english he was fluent in french and german
00:35:28.420
but and translated he even brought he brought a french chef to valley forge the guy quit after 48
00:35:35.620
hours he said no no no this is not for me but what really intrigued me about von steuben was he also
00:35:44.080
arrived at valley forge with a resume that was more doctored up than the mayo clinic
00:35:48.680
now i'll step back to explain that von steuben had risen to the rank of captain
00:35:54.400
in frederick the great's prussian army now of course frederick the great at the time was the
00:35:59.660
most renowned military commander in the western world and his prussian army although small was the
00:36:05.040
most feared in fact they used to say that frederick the great had an army with a country as opposed to
00:36:10.800
a country with an army von steuben had learned under frederick the great something that no other western
00:36:17.880
officer had not in france not in poland not in britain not in idaly certainly not in the continental
00:36:23.360
army united states and that was frederick the great made his officers live eat and breathe with
00:36:30.900
the enlisted men get down in the muck and mire with them all the other armies thought the officers
00:36:36.900
that this were this was uh below an officer station we leave that to the sergeants and the corporals the
00:36:42.760
nco von steuben knew how to drill an army so when he kind of shows up in france and the count of
00:36:50.320
virgin once again a man the frenchman in the middle of a lot of this introduces him to franklin and
00:36:55.320
silas dean now of course their initial reaction is oh christ no no no no we're already getting
00:37:01.640
screaming letters from watch and not to send any more of these mercenaries these soldiers of fortune
00:37:06.620
over to the united states but it only took a few interviews with von steuben they all chatted in french
00:37:12.040
for them to realize franklin especially this is just the man that washington needs to turn his
00:37:19.760
disparate conglomeration of militias into a well-oiled fighting machine he knows what he's
00:37:27.720
doing he knows how to train he knows how to drill but he and dean and virgin got together and he said
00:37:32.340
well what are we going to do though he's only a captain washington's rejecting the generals we're
00:37:36.420
sending over so suddenly brett von steuben's captain's bars miraculously disappear from his
00:37:42.420
shoulder and they're replaced by general stars and he became the inspector general of frederick
00:37:47.580
the great's prussian army which of course he never was and he became a principal aide to camp to frederick
00:37:53.180
the great for over a decade of course which he never did but this is the way that they figured
00:37:57.460
they can get him into the states later on when it gets exposed we'll figure it out then but for now
00:38:02.820
let's get him over there and sure enough he shows up within his first week at valley forge
00:38:09.100
the enlisted men the junior officers and even the american generals who are very suspicious of
00:38:14.680
foreigners he's ingratiated himself to every one of them his first week he's writing memos to
00:38:21.900
washington you cannot have your latrines run willy-nilly through the bread baking oven territory
00:38:28.120
you got to put them on the other side of the hill you can let's grade the roads in front of the huts
00:38:32.720
there's 2 000 huts they built at valley forge let's grade those roads and give them regimental names to
00:38:39.380
give the soldiers a sense of professionalism within 10 days washington had told all his other officers
00:38:46.680
do not train your men the training is going to come from this prussian washington gave on steuben
00:38:53.840
his personal guard of 50 men chose another 50 men from the states that were represented at valley
00:38:59.240
forge and said to von steuben train these 100 men and then spread them out throughout the army as
00:39:05.140
your sub trainers so every day von steuben would take these 100 men out on the break onto the parade
00:39:11.240
ground at valley forge and the other soldiers didn't have a lot to do so there's thousands of them lined up
00:39:15.980
in a square in a square watching von steuben in action and sure enough von steuben would get down on
00:39:22.640
his rather large gut in the muck in the mire to teach them how to read terrain or he'd pick up he'd
00:39:29.580
doff his coat and throw away his riding crop pick up a musket and show him the proper way
00:39:35.200
to put a to put a bayonet in somebody's gut and then twist it the men took to this like never before
00:39:43.620
and brett this is the other well one of the many reasons why i love von steuben he was a prickler for
00:39:50.400
detail he was prussian what do you expect and when someone made a mistake or did something wrong or
00:39:56.120
somehow incurred von steuben's ire as i said before he had no english just french and uh german well
00:40:03.780
washington had assigned lafayette and lawrence as his translators in fact they followed him he was a
00:40:10.140
false staffian character and they followed him around like a couple of prince house but when someone
00:40:14.660
made a mistake on the drilling field von steuben's double-chinned face would get red and he'd start
00:40:21.260
flailing his arms and and i said before he had no english he had one word of english god damn and he
00:40:28.460
would call over to lawrence or hamilton or whoever was translating for him that day and in french he
00:40:33.060
would yell get over here and curse for me and hamilton would come over and a string i mean the spittle
00:40:40.380
coming out of von steuben's mouth there would be a string of french and german oaths and curses
00:40:46.020
punctuated by the occasional god damn and by the time whoever was translating lawrence hamilton by the
00:40:51.720
time they translated the american soldiers were doubled over in laughter they loved this guy and he
00:40:57.400
in the same way with the junior officers he because his uh rations were not quite as meager as the
00:41:03.500
the captains the lieutenants the majors he would invite them over to the farmhouse where he was staying
00:41:08.520
for dinner but on one condition the clothing situation by the time of von steuben's arrival
00:41:15.100
and through march had not improved much so if you wanted to attend one of von steuben's dinners you
00:41:20.500
had to have no pants or your pants weren't such rags they were just falling off you he called him his
00:41:25.280
son's culottes dinners suppers his son's culottes suppers and on the many occasions when von steuben was
00:41:32.400
invited to the potts house to dine with washington and the other generals he would charm the other
00:41:36.940
generals wives who spoke french with like ribald tales of salons of europe but all that aside it
00:41:45.560
should be remembered that the very last letter the very last public official letter that george
00:41:52.680
washington wrote in 1783 before resigning as commander-in-chief of the continental army
00:41:58.640
was to the baron von steuben thanking him for turning this disparate contingent of militias
00:42:06.320
into a professional army and that's what von steuben did for us so not only did valley forge forge the
00:42:17.000
army into an army but like it did something spiritually too like something happened to the i don't know the
00:42:23.200
motivation the drive of not only washington but also the the continental army like what do you think
00:42:29.060
happened there was it just like a crucible that they went through and they came out refined yes you
00:42:32.940
just said the word i was just going to use the word crucible kind of like you know what what doesn't
00:42:38.220
kill you makes you stronger i don't forget 2 000 men died of valley forge of malnutrition exposure
00:42:44.820
disease i mean cholera typhus they just ran wild through the camp because until von steuben got there
00:42:51.040
nobody knew the personal hygiene or a lack thereof breeds disease but the 10 11 000 men it's funny
00:42:59.940
historians that don't they say the victors write history no one could say for sure how many men marched
00:43:04.620
into valley forge and how many men marched out so let's say the 12 000 marched in and the 10 000
00:43:10.740
that marched out had gone through this crucible and once again i don't want i hate to come off as naive
00:43:17.360
but there was a burning desire in all these men for freedom for for an independent united states and
00:43:25.120
all they needed was the right direction and between washington and and everyone we've talked about
00:43:30.700
green and wayne and and von steuben these men gave those enlisted men the right direction and uh
00:43:38.940
i'll i'll tell you i know i might be jumping ahead but it's another one of my favorite stories
00:43:44.260
what i like to call it when they marched out of valley forge in quick step by the way having been
00:43:51.940
taught what quick step was by the baron von steuben when they met the british on the sandy plains of new
00:43:58.900
jersey near the small hamlet of monmouth courthouse the british had their butch and sundance moment
00:44:06.820
who are these guys this is not this is not the rag tag you know a bunch of farmers we brushed off
00:44:15.260
our shoulders like lint at brandywine creek that we massacred at paoli that we turned the tables on
00:44:21.260
at germantown look at these guys they're wheeling in formation they're spreading out in columns they
00:44:26.900
never did that before one of the great myths of the american revolution brett is of the you know
00:44:33.500
musket carrying minute men stealing through a copse of trees or crouch behind a boulder picking off
00:44:39.380
the squared british attack formations one by one and that's how we won now don't get me wrong our
00:44:45.520
indian style guerrilla warfare did come in handy many many times but if it hadn't been for a von
00:44:51.680
steuben who by the way wrote the manual for the u.s army war college and it was in use for 50 years
00:44:58.360
after valley forge if it hadn't been for the likes of von steuben teaching these men how to
00:45:03.180
fight like professionals there never would have been that who are these guys moment and if you want
00:45:10.540
to roll into the end i i there's there's just a great story about the end uh i don't know where we
00:45:15.760
are i'm yakking no much here and i apologize yeah well no you're fine this is being like so yeah let's
00:45:21.960
roll into the end so how did this how did you how did all right how did this end all right well we're
00:45:26.420
talking about you know here comes the army here comes the continental army marching to meet the
00:45:32.280
british near monmouth courthouse the town of monmouth courthouse in quick step wheeling and
00:45:36.800
turn all von steuben's doing who are these guys but washington had made one mistake that day
00:45:42.680
he had put another general in charge of the attack on the british and he was bringing up the relief in
00:45:49.380
the rear the other general who had been a pow for the last 16 months didn't realize that the men he
00:45:55.320
was leading were changed troops he thought he was still eating the rag tag from 1776 and at the first
00:46:02.300
hint of british opposition he called a retreat by the time washington gets to the front line
00:46:07.400
the soldiers are retreating in an orderly fashion thanks to the baron von steuben they're not running
00:46:13.300
for their lives but they're retreating for the first time ever among his aides among his close
00:46:18.740
associates among his favorite generals they had never seen the stoic george washington explode
00:46:26.300
he explodes on the front line calls over the general charles lee had put in charge of the attack
00:46:30.980
what is the meaning of this you pull true what is the meaning of this get to the back i dismiss you to
00:46:38.260
the back washington takes over the lead of the attack but first he's got to turn his troops so he's riding
00:46:43.860
up and down the front lines trying to halt this orderly retreat he's on this big white charger it was a
00:46:49.720
stifling blistering day over 100 degrees at one point the horse just collapsed beneath him died of
00:46:55.800
heat exhaustion he takes the reins of another horse and he's riding up and down trying to turn this
00:47:01.340
retreat into an attack of his own by now he can see across a swale a mile and a half away a sea of red
00:47:08.320
is approaching 10 000 redcoats have doffed their packs and they're attacking in a in a in a bayonet
00:47:14.700
charge the british artillery were close enough that the grape shot is whizzing by washington's head
00:47:20.020
a cannonball lands yards from where he's sitting on his horse splattering him in his horse with mud
00:47:26.200
and yet he's riding up and down will you fight with me not will you fight for me will you fight
00:47:33.220
with me his sword is extending his right hand he's pointing it towards the sea of red coming closer and
00:47:39.620
closer will you fight with me and finally the soldiers stopped and they turned and they answered
00:47:45.920
in unison and brett if you want to know what they answered you're gonna have to read the book okay
00:47:51.180
i love it well bob this has been a great conversation where can people go to learn
00:47:57.680
more about the book you know i have a website my co-author tom clavin has a website but it you just
00:48:04.460
can never go wrong if you went to amazon.com and typed in bob drury page it would probably give you
00:48:11.060
everything you need fantastic well bob drury always a pleasure thanks for coming on oh brett thank you i
00:48:17.360
always have fun when i talk with you my guest today is bob drury he is the co-author of the book valley
00:48:21.840
forge it's available on amazon.com and bookstores everywhere you can find out more information about
00:48:25.860
his work at rfxdrury.com or you can check out our show notes at aom.is valleyforge where you find
00:48:32.660
links to resources we can delve deeper into this topic
00:48:34.860
well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice
00:48:51.280
make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com and if you enjoy
00:48:54.680
the show you've gotten something out of it i'd appreciate it if you take one minute to give us
00:48:57.860
a review on itunes or stitcher helps out a lot and if you've done that already thank you please
00:49:01.640
consider sharing the show with a friend or family member who you think would get something out of
00:49:05.020
it as always thank you for your continued support until next time this is brett mckay telling you to