s, electing them the leaders and the favorites in
all the social gayeties and amusements of the season. Such was the
luxury and dissipation of the British in the city, at dinner parties,
cock-fights, amateur theatrical performances, that Dr. Franklin was led
to remark in Paris that General Howe had not taken Philadelphia as much
as Philadelphia had taken General Howe.

The general plan of campaign for the year 1777 did not include the
capture of Philadelphia. Howe had been ordered to march from New York,
which he had taken the preceding August, to the vicinity of Albany.
There he was to join forces with the army from Canada under General
Burgoyne, which was to penetrate northern New York. Why he elected to
march against Philadelphia and be obliged to retrace his steps in order
to reach Burgoyne was unknown at the time. The total collapse of
Burgoyne's expedition at Saratoga and the menace of the American Army
under General Washington obliged him to alter his plan and to remain in
the vicinity of Philadelphia, which city he made his headquarters for
the winter.

In the meantime the army of General Washington, which had been
continually harassing the English forces, went into winter quarters in
close proximity, at Valley Forge, a bare twenty miles distant, northwest
of the city. Here the little army of the Colonists menaced the position
of the British while enduring with heroic fortitude the severities of
the winter season. Shoeless and shivering, the soldiers prepared these
winter quarters of cold huts, rudely constructed; themselves overcoated
in torn blankets, with stuffed straw in their boots for want of
stockings. Their food was as scarce as their clothing and at one time
more than two thousand men were reported unfit for duty because barefoot
and otherwise naked. Many a night the men were compelled to remain
seated by the fire for want of blankets. Day by day the supply of fuel
diminished, and the neighborhood became more destitute of trees and
timber.

The morale of the troops seemed to feed on misfortune; but their hopes
and courage were suddenly intensified when the news of the Alliance with
France reverberated throughout the camp to the booming of cannon and the
shouts of the whole army. There was no respite, however. While the enemy
was living in luxury and comfort in the gay city, the Continentals under
the patience of Washington, and the military genius of Von Steuben, were
being rounded into a toughened a