"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]
