Tough winter at Valley Forge
By Lukyan Sukhachevskyi
On December 19th, 1777 General Washington set up headquarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
It was a tough winter and most of the people did not have clothes and shoes on. They didn't have any medical supplies and diseases spread quickly.
Conditions
"By my count, no less than 2,898 of my men were unfit for duty. A lot of them had no boots and their feet were bleeding. Some soldiers were naked. Many did not have blankets to sleep under. Food was sometimes scarce and sufficient supplies rarely made it to the camp. Hundreds died after suffering from diseases such as influenza, typhus, typhoid fever, and dysentery" said George Washington (modified).
French help
Marquis de Lafayette, from the Continental army spent most of December 1777 and January 1778 with George Washington and his Continental Army troops at their winter quarters at Valley Forge.
Shelter
The first properly constructed hut appeared in three days after they arrived. One other hut, which required 80 logs, and whose timber had to be collected from miles away, went up in one week with the use of only one axe. These huts provided sufficient protection from the moderately cold, but mainly wet and damp conditions of a typical Pennsylvania winter of 1777–1778. By the beginning of February, construction of 2,000 huts was completed. They provided shelter, but did little to offset the critical shortages that continually plagued the army.