Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge by Thomas Fleming

Author:Thomas Fleming [Thomas Fleming]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/United States/Revolutionary Period
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2015-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

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There were several factors in this enormously significant transformation. One was the mere sight of the army at Valley Forge. On February 2, 1778, a shocked Gouverneur Morris wrote to his friend John Jay that they were confronted by “the skeleton of an army . . . in a naked starving condition, out of health, out of spirits.” The wealthy, conservative New Yorker instinctively despised the ideology-driven Lee-Adams junto that was running Congress, and had already become Washington’s most vocal advocate on the committee.

Another factor was the representatives of the commissary department whom the committee interviewed in their first days at Valley Forge. The congressmen found no evidence of peculation or gross corruption in the department’s well-kept books. That exploded one of their strongest preconceptions - that the department was a veritable worm’s nest of fraud. From these interviews also emerged another shock: the staggering quantities of food the army consumed. When Ephraim Blaine said the soldiers ate a million pounds of meat and a million pounds of bread a month, the politicians sat there goggle-eyed. From would-be villains, the commissaries (at least the ones stationed at Valley Forge) became something close to victims of the malfunctioning system.

Another vital factor in changing the committee members’ minds was meeting George Washington. The man was physically impressive, towering over everyone in sight. Equally impressive was his demeanor. He emanated self-control and calm decision. There was no trace of the indecisive advice-taker regularly described in York by Thomas Mifflin, James Lovell, and other sneerers and deriders.

Most unexpected of all was the man’s talent for politics. Chairman Francis Dana was the first and most important committee member to discover this political Washington. One night, early in Dana’s visit to Valley Forge, the commander in chief invited the Massachusetts congressman to dinner at headquarters, where he was given a thorough description of the army’s problems.

The hour became late, and Dana was invited to stay the night. Before going to bed, he decided to get some fresh air. Descending to the first floor, he stepped out the front door and became aware of a large cloaked figure pacing up and down in the darkness: Washington. Dana hesitated for several moments and finally made the general aware of his presence.

Abruptly Washington turned to him and said: “Mr. Dana - Congress does not trust me. I cannot continue thus.” Profoundly touched, Dana assured him that a majority of Congress had not lost faith in him. Soon, the Massachusetts lawyer was a Washington ally.

Washington handled John Harvie, who was already on his side, in a less confrontational way. Like the others, Harvie was appalled by the half-naked, sickly soldiers. When he was alone with Washington, the Virginia congressman all but cried out: “My dear General, if you had given some explanation [to Congress], all these rumors would have been silenced a long time ago.”

“How could I exculpate myself,” Washington asked him, “without doing harm to the public cause?” His choice of the word “exculpate” implied volumes. Aside from the

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