Welcome to the December Edition of Patriot Music News!

	Matt Fitzgibbons

Consider your immediate environment and circumstances at this very moment in December of 2007. For me, here in Connecticut, I sit in the comfort of a nominally-insulated home with an inside temperature of 58 degrees. (And I complain about it all the time.) But, I'm wearing insulated socks and a sweatsuit, dinner is in the oven, and I'm enjoying a welcome pint of Guinness as I write. Outside it's 14 degrees.

230 years ago, George Washington and 13,000 Continental soldiers were encamped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania under much different circumstances.

In the winter of 1777, following the Continental Army's defeats at Brandywine and Germantown in the attempt to prevent the British from occupying America's capital (Philadelphia), Washington chose a highly defensible position named Valley Forge for their winter encampment. The two forts guarding the river supply routes into the city had fallen to the British, and now 17,000 of them were warm and comfortable in the richest city in America, where Congress met and the Declaration of Independence had been signed. In France at the time, Benjamin Franklin remarked of the British commander in his city, that Howe had not taken Philadelphia, but Philadelphia had taken Howe.

Valley Forge's proximity to the British would prevent their ability to harass Americans west of the city, and yet was far enough to prevent a surprise attack and lose the war in one blow. Greatly outnumbered, but resolute, Valley Forge suddenly became America's 4th largest "city" as Washington's 13,000 Continentals soldiers marched in and set up camp.

With 2000 too sick to move, and another 3000 with nothing more than torn rags on their backs (most without shoes), they hastily built shelters to brace for the winter. But it would not be the snow they feared. Their immediate problems were food, disease, clothing, and money.

Washington reported in early December that they had enough meat for 8 days. On half rations, the men began eating firecake (a mixture of flour and water) and would soon be eating their leather cartridge bags, and eventually making soup from burnt leaves and dirt. Several hundred horse carcasses lie rotting, and few latrines were constructed. The men used the ground near their tents so as to avoid walking too far, unclothed and without blankets. Dysentery, pneumonia, typhoid, and typhus would kill another 2000 by winter's end.

Congress was powerless to find supplies, and inflation as well as British counterfeit money made Continental dollars worthless. IOUs were issued to local inhabitants as the army waited for supplies.

Through all of this, Washington remained confident in front of the men while relentlessly writing Congress daily for assistance. As a testament to his ability as a commander, the Continental Army would emerge healthy, well-trained, and eager to earn both their, and our liberty.

In 1783 when King George III heard from Benjamin West that George Washington would soon retire as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and forfeit his personal control of a continent, he said,

"If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
King George III 1783