x, 205 pages, [8] pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-200) and index.
Contents
Setting the stage : the war, army, and community -- Martha Washington at Valley Forge : "the worthy partner of the worthiest of men" -- Martha Washington at the other encampments : a resolute and loyal lady -- Catharine Greene and Lucy Knox : the ladies come to Valley Forge -- Rebekah Biddle, Lady Stirling, and Alice Shippen at Valley Forge : "I should not be sorry to see you here" -- The women with Washington's "family" : slaves, servants, and spies -- Camp women at Valley Forge : "a caravan of wild beasts" -- Camp women with the Continental Army : cannonballs and cooking kettles -- The general returns to Valley Forge : a distinguished officer's musings -- Appendix: Making the myth of Martha Washington : nineteenth-century fantasy vs. eighteenth-century reality.
Summary
"[This book] tells the story of the forgotten women who spent the winter of 1777-78 with the Continental Army at Valley Forge -- from those on society's lowest rungs to ladies of the upper echelon. Poor, dirty beings who clung to the very edge of survival, many camp women were soldiers' wives who worked as the army's washerwomen, nurses, cooks, or seamstresses. Though these women's written correspondence is scarce, author Nancy Loane uses sources such as issued military orders, pension depositions after the war, and soldiers' descriptions to bring these women to life. Other women at the encampment were of higher status: they traveled with Washington's entourage when the army headquarters shifted from place to place and served the general as valued cooks, laundresses, or housekeepers ... Drawing from diary entries and letters, Following the drum illuminates the experiences of these ladies, including Martha Washington, Lucy Knox, and Lady Stirling, during the encampment and then traces their lives after the Revolutionary War"--Jacket.
"What Dr.Stoudt has done is to cull a variety of sources- military journals, diaries, memoirs, newspapers, and published letters- and to reconstruct life at Valley Forge, day by day, during the terrible winter of 1777-1778. The 'chronicle' that emerges is not genuine history, since Dr.Stoudt has varied, modified, reorganized, transposed, and rewritten his source material to suit his purpose. This purpose is to dramatize that episode in American military history which has become a national symbol of courage and patriotism for the general reader and the Revolutionary Warbuff. As such,Ordeal at Valley Forge is a commendable effort." [From a book review by Milton Klein of Long Island University]
Records of the revolutionary war: containing the military and financial correspondence of distinguished officers; names of the officers and privates of regiments, companies, and corps, with the dates of their commissions and enlistments; general orders of Washington, Lee, and Greene, at Germantown and Valley Forge; with a list of distinguished prisoners of war; the time of their capture, exchange, etc. To which is added the half-pay acts of the Continental Congress; the revolutionary pension laws; and a list of the officers of the Continental Army who acquired the right to half-pay, commutation, and lands
A detailed account of the engagements around Whitemarsh, PA, December 5-8 1777, which ended with Washington's forces retiring to Valley Forge. "After the reverses at Brandywine, Paoli and Germantown, it was significant that the skirmishes around Whitemarsh constituted an important moral victory for the American cause, for had General Howe succeeded in destroying the Continental Army by his well planned surprise attack, there might very well have been no Valley Forge!" [from the foreward]
Includes bibliographical references (pages 109-113) and index.
Contents
A grand view -- "Spirits form the vastly deep" -- Delaware --- Maryland -- Pennsylvania -- New Jersey -- From North and South -- Glory forgotten.
Introduction -- A grand view -- "Spirits from the vastly deep" -- Delaware -- Maryland -- Pennsylvania -- New Jersey -- From North and South -- Glory forgotten.
Summary
"The "Flying Camp" is a vaguely understood episode of the American Revolution. In May 1776 the Continental Congress authorized the formation of a force of 10,000 militia, conceived by General George Washington as a "mobile reserve" that would both defend the army's garrisons in the Middle States and spread alarm amongst the British. Most, but not all, of the putative organization was to come from the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. In point of fact, the Flying Camp as an idea and actuality barely survived the year. In the wake of the New York and New Jersey campaigns of 1776 it became abundantly clear that what Washington needed was a reliable and substantial Continental Army, not short-term, undersubscribed militia haphazardly organized under the chimera of a "Flying Camp." Despite its unsustainability as a military concept, the officers and noncommissioned members of the various elements of the Flying Camp rendered important service to the Nation in the campaigns of Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton, among others. Drawing on original sources, particularly the correspondence of the Continental Congress, state committees of safety, the George Washington papers, and more, Baker fills in the gaps in the history of the Flying Camp that have eluded historians until now. In his able hands, we trace the Flying Camp from its beginnings in Washington's imagination, to the dispatches of the new Congress enjoining the Middle States to commit specified numbers of militiamen to this important cause, to the logistical difficulties in achieving the objectives in General Washington's master plan, and to the actual service of Flying Camp militia in the campaigns of 1776." -- Publisher.
Guide to the microfilm of the miscellaneous manuscripts of the Revolutionary War era, 1771-1791 (manuscript group 275) in the Pennsylvania State Archives, 1 roll : a microfilm project of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
