OCR Text |
Show VALLEY FORCE. i The Wonderful Endurance of Cold, 5ks, Hungry Soldiers. But, whether due to military expa-diency expa-diency or not, the story of V.l'.o.v Forge is an epic of slow suffering silently si-lently home, of patient heroism, and of a very bright and triumphant outcome, out-come, when the gray days, the long nights and the biting frost fled together, says Scribner's. The middle of December Decem-ber in the North American woods; no shelter, no provisions, no preparations; such were the conditions of Valley Forge when the American army first came there. Two weeks of hard' work and huts were built and arranged in streets. This work was doneon a diet of flour mixed with water and baked bak-ed in cakes, with scarcely any meat or bread. At night the 'men huddled around the fires to keep from freezing. Few blankets, few coverings, many soldiers without shoes, "wading naked In December's snows" such were the attributes of Valley Forge. By the new year the huts were done, the street laid out and an army housed, with some three thousand men unlit tor duty, frostbitten, sick and hungry. They had shelter, but that was about all. The country had been swept so bare by the passage of the contending armies that even straw to lie on was liard to get, and the cold, uncovered ground often had to serve for a sleeping sleep-ing place. Provisions were scarce ami """Her was added to the pain of eoHl. , Sometimes the soldiers went for days without meat sometimes without nuy fodd.I.afayetto tells us. marveling "l tlio endurance and couratvo of tl" men. There la o rttn famine lu the rump, writes Hamilton, a mau not glvou to cxnbuvral.loii. - 1 |