of part of the troops completed the discomfiture of the rest, is one of the dark points in our history, yet, strange to say, it proved in the end to have exerted a favorable influence on the result of the war. Washington never supposed he had done any thing remarkable in undertaking it, and he suffered extreme distress from its unhappy result. "It was a bloody day," he said. "Would to Heaven I could add that it had been a fortunate one for us." Yet when the news of it reached Paris, where American commissioners were endeavoring to obtain aid from France, the Count de Vergennes, prime minister of Louis XVI., was so struck with the boldness of General Washington in attacking the far superior force of General Howe, and that with an army of newly raised and little disciplined troops, that he felt at once inspired with an interest and confidence which led him to accord the aid we had requested.

A few days after the battle of Germantown, there were skirmishes at Whitemarsh, near which Sir William Howe was posted with twelve thousand men. General Washington's position being an advantageous one, he did not choose to leave it in order to attack the British in their chosen position; and Howe being equally unwilling to quit his ground, no general engagement took place, and after three days' manoeuvring, the British army suddenly retreated to Philadelphia.

As it was now the middle of December, winter quarters became the matter of deepest concern, for the men had not even clothing to keep them warm under

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WINTER AT VALLEY FORGE.

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cover, so destitute had they been left of all necessary supplies. Shoes had come to be a luxury enjoyed only by the fortunate, and a blanket, with or without holes, was shared by as many as could creep under it. Surrounded as the army was by the disaffected and the timid, money would hardly buy what was needed, and even money was very scarce.

In this distressed state was the encampment at Valley Forge-a name of sad memory so long as the American heart shall beat-begun and continued. The spot lies about twenty miles from Philadelphia, between the banks of the Schuylkill and a line of hills;a pleasant scene in summer or autumn, when one visits it in peace and comfort; but in the long months of that dreadful winter, with scarcely shelter and sustenance for bare life, a melancholy desert, though teeming with human beings. It had been selected by Washington, after a vain attempt to obtain a guiding opinion from a council of war, as being near enough to Philadelphia to be aware of the enemy's movements; and also for the reason that the interior of the State was occupied by families from Philadelphia, who must necessarily be much distressed by the scarcity that would result from the presence of an army in the country. The men began to erect huts or log-houses on the 18th of December, and as far as was possible Washington, who superintended the whole work in person, tried to make the thing tolerable, by offering a reward in money to whoever should invent the best mode of roofing, and by

placing the troops from the same State in neighborhoods. Then the camp had to be intrenched, and a bridge to be built across the Schuylkill, in order to keep open a communication with the country. Scarcely was all this completed, when information was received which rendered it probable that a detachment of the enemy had left Philadelphia, with intentions that would make it necessary to be prepared to meet them.

When troops were detached for this purpose, it was found that the absolute distress prevailing had so far impaired discipline, that a mutiny might be expected if the men were ordered on duty without proper supplies of food and clothing.

"Not a single hoof to slaughter," says Washington, "and not more than twenty-five barrels of flour!" Eleven thousand men in this condition weighed heavy on the soul of a commander, even though he and his officers shared generously in the privations of the troops. A glance at the general orders of that dreadful time, will show what were the labors and trials of the commander-in-chief. Yet there were some people reasonable enough to wonder that the army was lying idle, and to suggest that a winter campaign should have been attempted! This was a little too much, even for Washington, and he bursts out in a tone quite unusual with him, in his grave and measured despatches to Congress:

"We find gentlemen, without knowing whether the army was really going into winter quarters or not (for