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Boston tea party from the british perspective
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Valley Forge: Would you stay or leave?
I walk into Valley Forge. Winter 1777-78. As I walk in, an overwhelming feeling of emotions comes over me. Sadness, anger, hope, unwillingness, and happiness. I walk in a little bit further and I am greeted with many huts. These huts have no windows and only one door. I decide to peek into one of them and see 12 men inside. The huts are hard to see in because smoke has filled them. From another direction there is many men talking. I walk towards the noise and am surprised to see men sitting around a campfire eating small amounts of food. The men are talking about various things. Some are talking about their family, how they are excited that their duty is almost over, and some of the strong willed patriots who are willing to fight for their country are talking about how they are going to stay longer than they were sent to. As I keep wandering around the camp I find myself at an area with many men. These men are different than the men at the campfire. These men were the unlucky soldiers who had gotten sick. There is a soldier who is crying over another soldiers still body. Again I hear talking but this time it’s about how they need help caring for the sick and the soldiers that want to leave shouldn’t leave so they can help the sick. I shake off what I just witnessed and made the tough decision of staying. I would stay because they would need my help,
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According to Document A, there were 12,000 soldier in valley forge during December 1777. By February 1778 there were only 8,000 soldiers. From December to June 1,800 to 2,500 soldiers died. In December there were 2,898 soldiers sick and by February there were 3,989 soldiers sick. About 50% of soldiers were sick in February. They need help caring for the sick and dying. If I stayed I could help the sick and wounded instead of leaving all the fallen soldiers behind.
Getting
To make matters worse they had to deal with smallpox more dangerously than that is Lice because they rarely bathed or washed themselves or had laundered clothing. Another horrible things that Martin and his soldiers had to deal with was typhus a potential killer disease characterized by usually high fevers and red sports on the skin. Typhus took the lives of most of the Valley Forge Martin was under the brigade command of General James M. Varnum but his actual commander was Colonial John Durkee of the 4th Connecticut regiment, since Varnum was elsewhere. Washington’s continentals fairly well- supplied with food, but in the months preceding a major reason for so much privation at Valley Forge. Martin’s statement about Washington’s main army was misleading about them residing in the White Plains as they crossed the Hudson River and established winter quarters in Middlebrooks, New
In the winter of 1777 and 1778 George Washington and the Continental Army had a rough time at Valley Forge. Valley Forge was 18 miles outside of Philadelphia . Some of the soldiers left because all they did was work it was cold and they had bad clothing like worn out shoes and they were getting sick but not all left some stayed loyal and times got even harder but they were so devoted to stay and fight for their freedom. So I would not have quit because…..
Goal: Have the general public understand why the army stayed at Valley Forge, and what the soldiers did here in order to survive the winter encampment.
Valley Forge, was the toughest obstacle the Continental Army had to face during the Revolutionary War. For about nine months in the cold winter, these soldiers stayed in this area for them to"... be close enough to Philadelphia to keep an eye on the British"(Background). By the end of the war, the colonists were victorious in gaining their independence. Regardless, I would abandon my position as a soldier at Valley Forge. My reasoning are due to the multiple hardship they endure such as living in a harsh environment, sickness that lead to death and lacked numerous resources.
• Valley Forge was among the last of true hardships of humanity during the war
Though originally the Prussian General Von Steuben had decided to turn down working for the continental army, he had to reconsider, upon learning that European authorities were going to sexually persecute him. However, Baron Von Steuben changed his mind and agreed to train the soldiers in the America Continental army, as an unpaid volunteer. He wasn’t yet aware of the hard work to be done. After some small lies by George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, word of Steuben’s past employments preceded him to Congress, gaining him quick acceptance. He then quickly joined the troops at Valley Forge in 1778, along with his servants Karl Vogel, Thevenaud de Francy, and Pierre Etienne du Ponceau, who remained Steuben’s adjutant until 1779 (American Revolution Vol. 2.). He saw the cold, disease-stricken, starved, and half- clothed, poorly supplied men, and became aware that changes needed to be made.
As I walked through the snow with aching, raw feet, the blood, making a trail behind me, I soon began to realize how Valley Forge and this whole war in it’s entirety was driving me to the point where I wanted to quit. It was the winter of 1777 and the American Army was forced to set up camp 18 miles outside of Philadelphia, we call it Valley Forge. The question that keeps popping up in my mind while I sit miserably in my hut is, am I going to re-enlist? I am not going to re-enlist for 3 reasons: death and illness, harsh conditions, and the lack of support and supplies. One of these causes that make me want to quit is the amount of men we were losing due to the illnesses that spread around camp.
Just like you I had once fallen for all of the propaganda going around Germany. An old teacher I used to know named Kantorich had filled my and many of my classmates heads with patriotic reasons to why we should join the army. We eventually gave in to this crazy man and signed in. From the very first battle I have been in all I have been around is horror, bodies tangling into unnatural shapes, blood and tears everywhere, along with watching close friends of mine die horrible deaths. One of my classmates named Joseph Behm was the most reluctant to give into Kantorek’s pressure, he died a very slow and horrible death. Another close friend of mine had received a leg wound and, after treatment, took a day or two to realize that he had his leg amputated. Soon after, he had died also. I have been around many horrific battles where I have found myself diving into unburied graves to just stay alive. Over and over again I see men turned into a mush of blood and splintered bones and I wonder when it will be my turn to get it. Tobacco and card games seem to be my only salvation to maintain my sanity. The only hope that I have seen demonstrated out of any of my fellow soldiers has been scarce talk about who will do what after the war. I personally feel that my peers and I have had the rest of our lives stolen from us. Even if I do get out of this nightmare I realize that I have no established life to come back to, my old hobby in poetry has escaped me as it seems that all of this awfulness has made me a hardened man, ignorant to all of the old interests that I had.
But after experiencing ten weeks of atrocious basic training at the hands of the small-minded, vindictive Corporal Himmelstoss and the inconceivable cruelty of life on the front lines. Paul and his comrades realize that the ideals that made them enlist are merely empty clichés. They no longer believe that war is magnificent or respectable, and they live in unceasing physical terror that each day that goes may be their last. When Paul’s company receives a short reprieve after two weeks of fighting at the front lines, only eighty men of the original 150-man company return from the front. The cook , Ginger, doesn’t want to give the survivors the rations that were meant for the dead men He insists that he is only allowed to distribute single rations and that the dead soldiers’ rations will simply have to go to waste but eventually gives in.
...though people believe that, those on the home front have it just as a bad as the soldiers, because they have to deal with the responsibilities of their husbands, there is nothing that can compare to what these men have gone through. The war itself consumed them of their ideology of a happy life, and while some might have entered the war with the hope that they would soon return home, most men came to grips with the fact that they might never make it out alive. The biggest tragedy that follows the war is not the number of deaths and the damages done, it is the broken mindset derives from being at war. These men are all prime examples of the hardships of being out at war and the consequences, ideologies, and lifestyles that develop from it.
It was the winter of 1777 and 1778, about 18 miles outside of Philadelphia. Commander George Washington and his Continental Army set up a camp named Valley Forge. Nearly several thousand patriot soldiers were sent there to fight against the British. There were 18,000 comfortably quartered soldiers. Since there was no place for the many soldiers to stay, they made log “huts” There were no beds, just fragile straw on the cold, mud floor. They housed 12 men and had no windows. Cold was one problem, smoke was another. Since the “huts” had no windows, the smoke had nowhere to get out and made the soldiers hurt. There were many problems, and the first two years of the American Revolution had not gone well for the Continental Army. Washington was having problems keeping soldiers in the army. Even nine-month men decided to go home and not returning. Others simply deserted. Would you have quit Valley Forge? There are reasons to quit, like the poor conditions, but I would stay at Valley Forge because I am not a summer soldier or sunshine patriot and there is still hope.
From the winter of 1777 to the summer of 1778, George Washington had a winter camp called Valley Forge. It was a very difficult place to live, but most soldiers toughed it out for their country, for their freedom and for America. It was cold, sickness was thriving, food was disgusting but I would have stayed and fought through it for my country because there were other brave soldiers that stuck with it so I would too, Washington is getting congress to help with the terrible conditions, and I do not want to be a summer soldier because they stop when times get rough and I want to stay the entire time for my freedom.
“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.
Additionally, there were 6,887 soldiers who were unable to work. The diseases that were spread at Valley Forge were smallpox, scarlet fever, and pneumonia. Pneumonia is a lung infection that can occur in cold weather, therefore, many people in Valley Forge had this. Although pneumonia can be cured by a vaccination today, in 1777 or 1778 I highly doubt they had a highly effective treatment to this disease. Scarlet fever is a rash that is spread on arms, neck, and legs. Along with this rash comes a fever and can be caused by strep throat. Smallpox is another form of rash. This rash is intensified majorly and is spread everywhere on the body. These diseases and illnesses were the reason the Continental Army’s population came to a low and it took a toll on the army. In a letter George Washington wrote to George Clinton, a governor of New York at the time, he explained that many of his soldiers were ill and unable to work. He concluded the letter by requesting that congressmen come to the aid of his
Throughout the destructive and bitter winters during the time span from December 1777-February 1778, many men at the Valley Forge Camp were catching an illness or dying. Studies from researchers at the University of Michigan show that over the course of 3 months almost 50% of the soldiers (3989 out of 8000) were sick, and 10% were dead by the time they were ready to fight again (Doc. A). If I was a soldier back then I wouldn’t want a 50% chance of catching an illness because medical issues weren’t as easily cured during that time period. Although only 10% resulted in death, out of 8000 soldiers that took a pretty significant toll on the Continental