Editing Valley Forge (section)

== Winter Hardships ==

The suffering at Valley Forge became legendary almost immediately. Soldiers constructed log huts for shelter, following specifications Washington prescribed: 14 feet by 16 feet, with fireplaces and bunks for twelve men. The construction process itself was arduous, as weakened men felled trees and dragged logs through snow and mud. Until the huts were completed, troops slept in tents or under whatever improvised shelter they could construct. Food was scarce and irregular; there were days when the army had no meat and survived on "firecake," a simple mixture of flour and water cooked over open flames. Washington reported that the army was often "five or Six days together without Bread, at other times as many days without Meat."<ref name="lockhart">{{cite book |last=Lockhart |first=Paul |title=The Drillmaster of Valley Forge |year=2008 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York}}</ref>

Disease proved deadlier than cold and hunger. Typhus, typhoid fever, dysentery, and smallpox swept through the crowded, unsanitary camp. The army's medical services were overwhelmed, and many sick soldiers died without adequate care. Of the approximately 2,000 deaths at Valley Forge, the vast majority resulted from disease rather than combat or exposure. The dead were buried in unmarked graves, their sacrifice unrecorded except in the aggregate statistics of the encampment. The survivors endured not only physical suffering but the psychological burden of watching comrades sicken and die, of uncertain news from home, and of wondering whether the cause for which they suffered would ultimately prevail.<ref name="bodle"/>