The Revolution Continues

---

Saturday morning found me in a hotel in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The good thing about weekends when you’re on holidays is that the hotel breakfast is usually open later than normal. As I didn’t have too much planned, and far less to travel than some previous days, I had a lazy morning and didn’t get on my way until 11am. I was a little apprehensive too, because the area I was travelling to was expecting a big thunderstorm in the afternoon, with possible tornadoes!

Lancaster is in the middle of “Dutch country”, which means that one of the local tourist attractions is the local Amish communities. So I had been planning to check that out, but judging by the pamphlets at the hotel, it seemed overly touristy and really only seemed to offer buggy rides and genuine Amish-made furniture for sale. Neither particularly interested me, but I thought I would drive via country roads and see what I could see. I did see some Amish, including a fellow on a scooter, a fellow pulling a cart, plus some of the tourist buggy rides. When I headed out of the town, I came across a guy ploughing his field in a horse-drawn plough. I stopped and took some photos, but then it occurred to me that his plough looked a bit high-tech for the Amish. He may have been an ex-Amish guy, I’m not sure.

Anyway, I decided to continue on to my main destination for the day – Valley Forge. Valley Forge is the most famous winter encampment of Washington’s Continental army, due to the 2,000 soldiers who died as they were camped there from December 1777 to June 1778. It was bitterly cold and the soldiers were not well supplied with clothing, cold-weather gear, nor food. As it turns out, most of the deaths were from disease after the weather got warmer, but it still must have been a terrible time. There were up to 20,000 people camped there including soldiers and camp followers, making it the 3rd largest city in America at the time.

Valley Forge is situated in a town with one of the coolest town names I have ever heard – King Of Prussia. How cool is that? If I was mayor of that town, I would secede from the USA and declare myself to be the King of King of Prussia.

Anyway, I arrived at about 1:30 and decided to go on the 3pm bus tour around the park. That left me the intervening time to look around the museum and gift shop, plus watch another movie. This movie was much older and less impressive than the others I’ve seen, but it was still pretty informative. The museum was pretty good, and gave a pretty good idea of why the Americans camped there and what it was like.

Then it was time for the tour. The tour guide was a fellow named Randy, and he really knew his stuff, and was pretty funny. He loved telling us details about how bad life was for the soldiers and camp followers, and would finish each tidbit with a “Welcome to the Army” or a “Oh, it gets worse. It always gets worse”.

The first stop on the tour was the main defense ridge for the camp. It was the main one for 2 reasons – first, it faced where the British were camped in Philadelphia; and second, the other sides of the camp had high hills with steep sides that provided natural barriers. On the ridge, there were some reconstructions of the soldiers’ huts, and a couple of volunteers – one dressed as a soldier, the other as a camp follower. By the way, the camp followers were not the kind that many of us think of when we hear the term. They were either civilians providing services to the army (merchants, cobblers, etc) or they were soldiers’ wives. If you were a woman who wanted to live in camp, you had to be married to a soldier. And if you weren’t, they would find a husband for you. These ladies were also required to work for their food, too. They did stuff like laundry and nursing.

We then hopped back on the bus and continued the tour around the park. The next stop was at Washington’s headquarters. And it was here that the thunderstorm hit. I was the only one on the tour that had brought an umbrella, so while some ran over to the headquarters, others opted to sit this one out. We had a look around, but because the place is so small it was a bit of a squeeze and Randy didn’t seem to be giving much information. I figure he normally gives the talk outside the building, but there wasn’t much point when we couldn’t all get into the same room.

The tour continued until we got back to the visitor’s centre, but because of the rain I didn’t get many more pictures. And that was pretty much it for Valley Forge. I hopped in the car and drove to my hotel in Princeton, New Jersey. I opted to avoid the tolls in the hope of seeing more of the country than just expressways. As it turns out, this took me almost right into Philadelphia before heading north, and combined with the heavy rain, it wasn’t exactly a relaxing drive. After my long country drives, I was well and truly back in civilisation.

The hotel was a little hard to find. My GPS said it knew where it was, but when I drove past all I could see was an empty field. So I found somewhere to pull over and gave the hotel a call. It seems they have changed their name, and according to my GPS they also moved a couple of blocks away. Anyway, I found the place, checked in and had dinner at a nearby restaurant that the lady at the hotel recommended. It was called the “Salt Water Grill” and it was a pretty fancy place, but the food was great.

Sunday morning I had a late breakfast again before heading out to the Princeton Battlefield Park. This is a state park, rather than a national park, and it was a little disappointing. The battle of Princeton wasn’t large, so I didn’t expect as much, but there was very little there and the one house wasn’t going to be open until 1pm. I had a walk around and looked at the grave of the unknown soldiers (15 American and 21 British).

Next, I decided to head into Trenton. Back in December 1776, George Washington and the Continental army were on the run from the British after they had captured New York. Washington had retreated over the Delaware River and the British, thinking that campaigning was over for the winter, split their forces into small garrisons all over New Jersey. On Christmas night, Washington’s army crossed the Delaware, with ice and all, and attacked a Hessian garrison in Trenton. There followed a famous ten day campaign that finished with the American victory at Princeton. They weren’t large victories, but they restored hope in the American cause.

In Trenton there is a monument to the battle, and a museum at the barracks used by the Hessians. So I headed into downtown Trenton to visit the museum. I found myself well and truly in the hood. I parked the car and started walking to the museum, and the few people around gave me some strange looks. I was clearly the only white guy around. As it turned out, the museum is closed on Sundays and I was feeling a tad nervous, so I skipped the monument and got out of there. I’ve probably just watched too many episodes of The Wire.

The next thing on my list was another state park, this time at the sight of Washington’s crossing. This state park did have a visitors centre, but unlike the national parks, I really didn’t feel all that welcome. The small museum was interesting, but no photography was allowed. There seems to have been some talk going on in the auditorium when I arrived, but there was no indication what it was. I then went out to have a look at the site of the crossing. There wasn’t a lot there, so I decided to call it a day. I drove to my hotel in Philadelphia. I was not looking forward to the city driving, but it was Sunday afternoon and it wasn’t bad at all. I found the hotel easily and settled in for a relaxing evening.

---

Photos

Statue of von Steuben
Valley Forge museum. Von Steuben was a Prussian that joined the Americans at Valley Forge and he created a standardised American drill manual, essentially turning the Continental army into a professional army

Valley Forge cabins
These are reconstructions of the type of cabins built by the soldiers to live in. It is estimated there was about 1,800 of these.

Randy and our bus
Randy was the tour guide.

Monument
At Valley Forge

Statue of Anthony Wayne
He was in charge of discipline in the camp. This is the only equestrian statue in the park.

Washingtons headquarters
At Valley Forge

Inside Washingtons headquarters
At Valley Forge

The Clarke House
At the Princeton battlefield. This house was used as a hospital for troops from both sides.

Trenton Barracks Museum
Taken over the closed gate.

Johnson Ferry House
This house was used by Washington as a headquarters as his army regrouped after crossing the Delaware.

Stone barn
At Washingtons Crossing

Washingtons Crossing
The bridge wasn't there at the time. I bet he wished it was though!

Comments

[Jenny]

Philadelphia seems to be a beautiful place, love the pics of the houses and barns, so picturesque....

[deejayvee]

Philadelphia is next. It's a big city, but was the first capital of the US. These pictures are from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.