valley forge

Just a few weeks ago I finished reading the book Valley Forge by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. It was a Christmas present from my brother, Rick.

I learned in school that the conditions at Valley Forge were harsh, but this book opened my eyes to a better understanding of what soldiers experienced there. About 1/3 of the army had no shoes. There was not enough food, and many of the soldiers died of starvation. Desertion was rampant because of the deplorable conditions.

The problem was the Continental Army supply lines. Many who were hired to transfer supplies were unreliable. One story tells how a farmer was delivering food supplies when his wagon got stuck in the mud. He just left it there and went home.

My favorite part of the book tells of the arrival that winter of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Von Steuben was a Prussian military officer who crossed the ocean to participate in the Revolutionary War. He spent that winter training the troops in the art of warfare. He is pictured here in a painting by Edwin Austin Abbey.

When the war started, General Washington was leading a group of rag-tag volunteers. Most of them had no military training, and it showed. There were numerous defeats in the early days of the war. During that winter in Valley Forge, von Steuben taught them how to fight. It is said that he was relentless in his training methods.

When the fighting resumed in the spring, the British were not expecting to face an army of professional soldiers. But the training, and the harsh conditions, made them battle worthy. At the Battle of Monmouth, the British faced a disciplined, toughened, well trained fighting force. The Americans more than held their own.

None of us likes going without shoes in the winter. And drilling from sunup to sundown is no fun. But sometimes God places us in difficult situations to harden us for the challenges we will face. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “No pain, no gain.”