Free Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory by William R. Forstchen, Newt Gingrich, Albert S. Hanser Page B

already been scavenged by his hungry troops.
    As the storm increased its intensity, sleet slashed down on the melancholy landscape. The tree limbs glistened and the tent groaned under the weight of the ice. It would certainly not survive this storm; he made a mental note to send guards out to approach the nearby farmers with a request to rent their homes as headquarters.
    He had become quite firm on that issue. For Americans, this was a war for the hearts of a people who were indeed wavering after two and a half years of bitter fighting. To loot, to forage, and to take without asking only created yet more enemies to fight. It brought to mind the rejoinder of Henry V just before he hanged an old comrade for looting: that at times the gentler of souls gained the greater victory with the people who must endure the passing of armies.
    He came to a halt in front of his tent. A headquarters guard immediately took the bridle of his horse.
    “Thank you, Peter,” he whispered.
    The young soldier forced a smile. He was one of the men who had joined the headquarters guards before Trenton and then stayed on rather than return to his Jersey militia unit.
    Major Tench Tilghman, his aide-decamp, waited by the open tent flap. “Did the ride help at all, sir?” he asked. “No, it did not,” he replied wearily.
    Tench offered his general a tin cup of tepid coffee mixed with roasted barley. Washington refused; the guilt of having indulged in a meager meal of slightly rancid but tolerable bacon and coffee with his staff this morning still gnawed at him.
    “Have you thought of a reply, sir?” Tench inquired, as he sat across the conference table and motioned to the stack of correspondence. Atop it were the three letters, the cause of his explosive rage an hour ago. He had ordered the ever-present Billy Lee and the rest of his staff to stay behind as he stormed out and mounted to ride. They had waited nervously for his return.
    The tent began to leak through a burst seam; a steady trickle dropped onto the table, splattered the papers, and caused the ink to smear and run.
    “Will all of you, except Tench, please excuse me,” he sighed.
    His staff and the waiting generals obliged and filed out into the storm. Billy Lee closed the flap of the tent behind him. He overheard General Greene ask profanely where in the hell they should go now.
    He promptly turned his attention back to Tench.
    “Tell Sergeant Harris to go back down the Guelph Road toward the forge. The first house he reaches, I believe the name of the owner is Potts, tell him to ask respectfully if we might move in there for now. We will pay a fair price.”
    He hesitated.
    “That is, in Dutch silver, not Continentals.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Washington picked up the three papers that had come in over the last day. It never ceased to amaze him just how much correspondence arrived. There were the letters from parents begging for news of the fate of a son last heard of during the Battle of Long Island. There were letters of complaint—a representative of Congress stated that soldiers had stolen five pigs and a cow, that he was shocked to hear of such behavior by troops under Washington’s command, and now threatened an investigation. Washington picked up the first of the three letters that had set off a long-simmering rage. The first bore a formal title: “A Letter of Remonstration.”
    It was an official note from Congress declaring that the patriots of New Jersey were suffering under the yoke of British and Hessian depredation. He was hereby ordered to send the appropriate number of troops needed to drive the interlopers out of that state, reassert control, and capture the governor appointed by the Crown.
    Incredible. Over twelve thousand of his men were huddled on these hills of Valley Forge, not one hut was yet built to shelter them, he possessed at most a hundred axes to fell the trees, there had been no food for two days…and he was to detach sufficient numbers to reoccupy