[[[Disposition of the American Army at Valley Forge.--The Huts and their Occupants.]]]
{ 334}comfortably lodged, Washington occupied his cheerless marquee; after which he made his quarters at the house of Mr. Potts.
Near Washington's quarters, on a gentle elevation by the river, were stationed his Body, or Life Guard, * under the command of Charles Gibbs, of Rhode Island.
A little to the right of the guard was the brigade of General M'Intosh; and further up the hills were the brigades of Huntington, Conway, and Maxwell. Between these and M'Intosh's brigade were a redoubt, and slight intrench-ments; and directly in front of them was a line of _abatis_. Nearer the Schuylkill, and on the top of the hill, was the brigade of General Varnum, near a star redoubt. At a distance of about a mile, and forming a line from the Schuylkill to Valley Creek, was the main portion of the army, under Brigadiers Muhlenberg, Weed-on, Paterson, Learned, Glover, Poor, Wayne, Scott, and Woodford, with a line of intrenchments in front. The artificers of the army were on the north side of the creek, opposite the general's quarters; and near the cotton factory was the army bake-house.
There was also an irregular line of intrenchments along the brow of the hill, on the south side of the creek. Not far southward of Rogers's observatory was a redoubt, and near it was Knox's artillery. The remains of this redoubt are yet very prominent in
[[[Condition of the Army.--Great Sufferings.--Number of Soldiers in Camp.--Toryism displayed]]]
Redoubt A { 335}the woods on the right side of the road leading from Valley Forge to Paoli; also, the redoubt on the left wing of the encampment (now near the Reading rail-road) is well preserved, the forest protecting it from demolition.
Here, after an arduous campaign of four months, during which neither party had obtained a decided advantage, other than good winter quarters at Philadelphia on the part of the enemy, the shattered remains of the American army * vainly sought repose. They had marched and countermarched, day and night, in endeavoring to baffle the designs of a powerful enemy to their country and its liberties; now they were called upon, in the midst of comparative inaction, to war with enemies more insidious, implacable, and personal. Hunger and nakedness assailed that dreary winter camp with all their progeny of disease and woe. Thither, as we have seen, the soldiers came with naked and bleeding feet, and there they sat down where destitution held court, and ruled with an icy scepter. The prevalence of Toryism in the vicinity, the avaricious peculations of some unprincipled commissioners, the tardy movements of Congress in supplying provisions, and the close proximity of a powerful enemy, combined to make the procurement of provisions absolutely impracticable without a resort to force. *** But few horses were in the camp; and such was the deficiency, in this respect, for the ordinary, as well as extraordinary occasions of the army, that the men, in many instances, cheerfully yoked themselves to vehicles of their own construction, for carrying wood and provisions when procured; while others performed the duty of pack-horses, and carried heavy burdens of fuel upon their backs. **** As the winter advanced, their sufferings increased On the 16th of February, Washington wrote to Governor Clinton, "For some days past there has been little less than a famine in the camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we can not enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been, ere this, excited by their sufferings to a general mutiny and desertion.