348 Valley Forge

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On December 19, 1777, George Washington marched his Continental Army into its winter encampment at Valley Forge. In school we learned this was a hard, cold winter that saw the soldiers so ill-supplied they chewed on the leather of their shoes. But is this what really happened at Valley Forge? Were soldiers idle, wallowing in their misery? Ricardo Herrera, a historian of American military history and a visiting professor in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College, joins us to investigate the winter at Valley Forge with details form his book, Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/348 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 158: The Revolutionaries’ Army 🎧 Episode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice Age 🎧 Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters 🎧 Episode 298: Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Origins of American Manufacturing 🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1 🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2 🎧 Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia 🎧 Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club LISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
0:04.0	Ben Franklin's world is a production of the
0:06.2	Omaha Institute and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Hello and welcome to episode 348 of Ben Franklin's world.
0:24.8	The podcast dedicated to helping you
0:27.2	learn more about how the people and events
0:29.2	of our early American past have shaped the present day world
0:32.1	we live in.
0:33.0	And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.
0:36.0	On December 19, 1777, George Washington marched his continental army into its winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
0:44.0	Now if you think back to what we learned in school, Valley Forge is the winter when the
0:48.5	soldiers in the Continental Army did everything they could just to keep warm.
0:52.2	They built wooden huts where they huddled inside around did everything they could just to keep warm.
0:53.0	They built wooden huts where they huddled inside around a campfire.
0:56.3	They wrapped cloth around their feet and their hands because they lacked socks and gloves.
1:00.6	And if they had shoes, and some of them didn't have shoes were taught, they were chewing on their
1:05.2	shoe leather because they often had little to no food.
1:09.2	Valley Forge we were taught was a winter of great probation. But we were also taught that it was a winter of great
1:14.8	virtue because despite all of the freezing conditions and lack of food and supplies the
1:20.0	Army stayed and readied themselves for their continued fight for independence in the spring of 1778.
1:26.0	But is this what really happened at Valley Forge?
1:29.0	Did the men of the Continental Army really experience such privation that they were eating their own shoe
1:34.9	leather.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Liz Covart, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Liz Covart and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.