Imagine it’s the year of 1777 in cold Philadelphia at Valley Forge. It smells like fresh log from the huts. You see injured men and people starving for food. People crying from the pain and in the corner of your eye you see General Washington making Revolutionary War attack plans. We are here to fight for our freedom. The enlistment is over and you and the rest of the soldiers at Valley Forge have to decide whether or not you are going to quit. If I were you I would quit because of the lack of supplies, family issues, and illness/death.
Lack of Supplies My first reason on why you would should quit the army would be because of the lack of supplies. In document “B” there is a picture of General Washington presenting the Continental Army and
I would not quit because only 15% of people are dying. My first piece of evidence that supports this claim is from document A and it shows 3,989/8,000 soldiers are sick, but only 1,800/12,000 died which is only 15%. Even though half the population is sick, only 15% people are dying, which is not a huge amount of people are dying. This evidence supports my claim because it is telling you how many people died. My second piece of evidence that supports this claim is from document A and the numbers show that not a lot of people are leaving. On document A there is a graph
Soldiers faced diseases like measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, camp itch, mumps, typhoid and dysentery. However, diarrhea killed more soldiers than any other illness. There were many reasons that diseases were so common for the causes of death for soldiers. Reasons include the fact that there were poor physicals before entering the army, ignorance of medical information, lack of camp hygiene, insects that carried disease, lack of clothing and shoes, troops were crowded and in close quarters and inadequate food and water.
Despite the fact the soldiers have received expert training when they enlisted in the army they struggle to fight their most basic instinct, to survive. The fear of death can compel an individual to do things considered completely irrational and foolish with resultant dire consequences.
The conditions at Valley Forge were horrible, yes, but there were brave soldiers who stayed strong throughout all of the hardships.
Furthermore, in the continental army there was a surgeon who was treating the sick and wounded. He said that “The Army which has been surprisingly healthy hitherto, now begins to grow sickly from the continued fatigues they have suffered this Campaign.” This means that once the army was strong but the lack of food and sickness rampaged in the camp of the army. This made life very hard for the soldiers.
“Heartily wish myself at home, my skin and eyes are almost spoil’d with continual smoke. A general cry thro’ the Camp this evening among the Soldiers, ‘No Meat! No Meat!’-the distant vales echo’d back the melancholy sound-’No Meat! No meat!’”(Dr. Waldo 151) It is 1777 and George Washington has brought his army of 7,00 men to Valley Forge to rest for the winter. As the season went on, the situation seemed to only get worse. Most soldiers enlisted for only 6-9 months at a time. Also, the government highly recommended that no man enlisted for a whole year. With soldiers enlistments coming to end and men leaving fast, Washington was worried that he would not have any men left by the end of the winter. Washington's generals were also leaving for home and not coming back. Meanwhile, the British army of 1,800 men ,led by General Howe, was about 18 miles away at the national capital in Philadelphia . If you were a Revolutionary Soldier at Valley Forge, would you have reenlist. I have decided to not reenlist for three reasons which are that so many people, the living conditions are terrible, and it is a rich man's’ war.
The recruiters for the army mostly targeted to recruit less wealthy and stronger more healthy men to send to the battlefield. Some of the young men such as in Joseph’s case volunteered to fight while the others were drafted into the army. Among the discomforts that the continental soldiers had to suffer were shortages of food and multiple other supplies, long periods away from their home, sinking morale and the constant threat of death. It was not just about being at threat when they were engaged in battle with the opposing army but just as well just being there. The enemy was just one of the many threats they had. At any given time really they could fall short of food and starve to death or run out of clothes to warm themselves and suffer an agonizing death because of the cold. Another vital supply they were short on was ammunition Bullets were scarce as well as guns so every time they fired their arm it had to be for a kill because there was no margin for error, if they messed up it could be the difference between life and death. Joseph his partners in the war had to suffer to fight for what they believed in because everything was against
Valley Forge was a training camp in the winter. 50% of the soldiers who attended Valley Forge got severely sick or died. All soldiers were not treated well. I would quit and leave Valley Forge. Only 20% of the Valley Forge soldiers survived, which is less than half of the soldiers.(Doc.A) In valley Forge there is much tyranny (hell) through all conflicts caused. All soldiers work very hard but are only allowed to buy espensive things and no cheap items are allowed. (Doc. D) All soldiers were not treated fairly or well. In Diary of Doctor Waldo he explains the torture that the soldiers of Valley Forge went through. The soldiers were fed poorly, hard lodging, cold weather and nasty clothes.
The men saw family obligations and farm work as more important than military service and many refused to enlist for another year. The men mostly farmers did not want to take up long-term service in the military for fear their families and farms would suffer for it. Most of the enlistment lasted a year and the next year the Army had slightly over 8,000 troops instead of 20,000. The militia groups continued to fill the ranks but not to the numbers needed. At the time of the war the colonial population number about 2.5 million people with about 20 percent of the population being African American slaves who were not usually eligible for
Dodging bullets and and praying to God that your foot does not step on a landmine. Missing the company of your family, not to mention having to miss birth of your first born child. Only to be on an unknown terrain, hoping that the next second will not be your last, only to produce a salary that rigidly pays to maintain your household. Today joining the military is not a trendy determination to compose and sensibly so. With the bloodshed in both Iraq and Afghanistan more military cadre are essential but an insufficient amount are joining. So why should you join? Today, in spite of the intimidation of going to combat, is the utmost cost-effective time for a person to comply to join the military. There to have at no time been as many benefits either as broad of perks granted.. Currently, there is the Montgomery GI Bill as everybody knows accessible for combatant men and women to attend college and acquire a college degree. There reside plentiful opportunities to take dominance of by joining into militant service. Of course there are a great deal of senses both for and against joining the army. Joining the military, however, is a verdict that demands to and has to be built to be realized to continue to reside in the United States.
My opinion to this is that I would have quit because all of the times that we have lost and lost so I think that would be my choice. But if i knew that the American side would win then i would choose to stay because who wouldn’t want to be remembered as giving America its freedom and victory is what I would want not defeat. My choice of this is because we had lost the wars with most militia because the men were not trained well and had no experience, and also because men who were experienced didn’t have men to help. But some battles were just battles of who can last the longest with the supplies they had like the battle of Bunker Hill. At that battle the American Army was winning but they had a shortage of gunpowder, which led
Valley Forge was a remorseful, and overwhelmed time of our soldier lives. Now it is the end of our enlistment and it is time to make the decision to reenlist and try again, or not re-enlist and go home. This was a tough decision for me, a farmer named Levi Zendt, and the other patriots, for Valley Forge is the time when the snow is secure on the ground and you never seem to find warmth anywhere. Everyone is fighting for survival and are weak and weary and sick, sick in every way possible. We are living in a time where General Washington is leading a war against France in 1778 and recourses are very low. Though there are many complications I have decided to take a courageous move and reenlist, for these soldiers need help fighting for this
The reason I am quitting is not because i’m a coward it’s because I have a family to get back to and almost half of the men here are either sick or dying and I am not sick yet but i’m not planning to get sick either. Men are getting sick because it’s too cold and their not use to the weather yet, and we are not being fed enough because of the food mishape. 2,898 men were recorded sick on December 23, 1777.
Frostbite is a scary thing to get for fear of amputation, and there were no pills to make the pain go away so you would just have to sit there while they would saw off one of your limbs. Dr.Waldo described life at the fort as a struggle, unbearable, and not at all easy, and he was a hundred percent accurate (Doc C Waldo 151). The death range in Valley Forge is ( from December through June ) is 1,800 to 2,500, and there is a total of 20,000 soldiers at the Valley ( Doc A Busch 147). The weather here is horrid here, it is like a great wall of suffer pushing you closer and closer to a cold brick wall. This reason is causing me to not reenlist because I do not want to suffer at a horrifying camp for 9 more months. If I die at camp I wouldn’t have gotten to see my family once more,l and I love my family more than words can
It was finally the day. I was deployed to a different country for the first time. I looked my uniform up and down. It was a beautiful sight earned by months of hard work at training camp. The day of graduation, I took my rightful place among the ranks of the Army receiving a uniform with the name Willis on the chest. All my childhood I longed to be in the army and take down "bad guys," and as my dream was becoming true, I had second thoughts. Growing up I realized I had a great fear of losing my life. I told my friends who were going to join with me that I was having second thoughts about joining up. They made it their mission to make me reconsider joining. They said that I would be fine and that it would fun. And even if not it would be an honor to die for my country. I finally gave in and decided to join, but not because my friends were telling me to, but because I had a fear of losing my friends