bundant, but, with little food for oxen
and horses, men had to turn themselves into draught animals to bring in
supplies.

Sometimes the army was for a week without meat. Many horses died for
lack of forage or of proper care, a waste which especially disturbed
Washington, a lover of horses. When quantities of clothing were ready
for use, they were not delivered at Valley Forge owing to lack of
transport. Washington expressed his contempt for officers who resigned
their commissions in face of these distresses. No one, he said, ever
heard him say a word about resignation. There were many desertions but,
on the whole, he marveled at the patience of his men and that they did
not mutiny. With a certain grim humor they chanted phrases about "no
pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum," and sang an ode glorifying war
and Washington. Hundreds of them marched barefoot, their blood staining
the snow or the frozen ground while, at the same time, stores of shoes
and clothing were lying unused somewhere on the roads to the camp.

Sickness raged in the army. Few men at Valley Forge, wrote Washington,
had more than a sheet, many only part of a sheet, and some nothing at
all. Hospital stores were lacking. For want of straw and blankets the
sick lay perishing on the frozen ground. When Washington had been
at Valley Forge for less than a week, he had to report nearly three
thousand men unfit for duty because of their nakedness in the bitter
winter. Then, as always, what we now call the "profiteer" was holding up
supplies for higher prices. To the British at Philadelphia, because they
paid in gold, things were furnished which were denied to Washington
at Valley Forge, and he announced that he would hang any one who
took provisions to Philadelphia. To keep his men alive Washington had
sometimes to take food by force from the inhabitants and then there was
an outcry that this was robbery. With many sick, his horses so disabled
that he could not move his artillery, and his defenses very slight,
he could have made only a weak fight had Howe attacked him. Yet the
legislature of Pennsylvania told him that, instead of lying quiet in
winter quarters, he ought to be carrying on an active campaign. In most
wars irresponsible men sitting by comfortable firesides are sure they
knew best how the thing should be done.

The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was something more than a prison.
Washington's staff was known as his family and his relations with