Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

It is 50 Weeks that shaped America, our series on 250 years of American history, and this week, week eight, for the first time in this series, we go to the very

beginning of U.S. history, the Revolutionary War. Let's head to the winter of 1778, a long,

cold, dark winter, both meteorologically and metaphorically and metaphorically, and also militarily,

because in the winter of 1778, things were not looking too good for the

Continental Army. The early victories and enthusiasm of the war in 1776, 1777, they'd kind of

given way to this realization that this was going to be a long, hard struggle. So much so that by

February of 1778, George Washington had retreated. He'd taken

some 12,000 soldiers along with many others and camped out for the winter in Valley Forge,

Pennsylvania. And that winter at Valley Forge is the subject of this week's installment of our 50-week

series. If you remember your ninth grade history, you might think of Valley Forge often referred to as an encampment, but it was so much more than that. In fact, all told, there were some 15, 20,000 people in the community which made it the fourth largest city in America at the time. At Valley Forge, the Continental Army licked its wounds. George Washington regrouped, and in many ways

the modern American army was born, helped in large part by the arrival of a swashbuckling

foreign general who showed up in that last week of February 248 years ago this week. So,

let's head to a little northwest of Philadelphia, to the icy but thawing winter of 1778 here to discuss Valley Forge are, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

We've talked a few times about kind of stories that are that little sidebar in your history book or that little thing.

And Valley Forge fits into that. To me, actually, Valley Forge is like question nine on an 11 question quiz that's like, what was the encampment? And it always used the word encampment. What was the encampment that George Washington retreated to in the winter of 1778? And then you write in your sort of not so great, eighth great handwriting. Fill in the blank. Valley Forge. You write Valley Forge or like Yorktown and then you lose some points or whatever. Our listeners are going to be so good at that quiz by the end of this. Hopefully. But they will also quibble with that word encampment, which I think was one of the most fascinating parts of this story. It was much more than just an encampment. It was a proper city, which we'll get into. And we'll get into that right after this break. A reminder for those of you who are paying subscribers to our newsletter that you get early ad-free access to our entire 50-week series. So if you want to get that on Sundays before we start

to roll these out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, go ahead and support the show by becoming a paid

newsletter subscriber at thisdaypod.com. Either way, we will be back with our look at the

encampment that's really a city right after these ads.

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