Some follow the noise.

Bloomberg follows the money.

Because behind every headline is a bottom line.

Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings,

there's a money side to every story.

And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss.

Get the money side of the story.

Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.

The winter at Valley Forge is generally regarded as the low point of America's Revolutionary War.

An exhausted, defeated army, lacking food, clothing,

and shelter, huddled beside flickering campfires, warming themselves against the freezing cold.

The image is accurate. It was a miserable time for the Continental Army and for its commander,

George Washington. Yet that's only half of the story. The other half is a tale of an army's rebirth and renewal. If that sounds like a description of an American

miracle, it very nearly was. Here's how it happened. In the fall of 1777, Washington's forces had been badly mauled by a powerful British

army at the battles of Brandywine and a German town.

As winter loomed, Washington had no choice but to order a winter encampment laid out

on a barren field 22 miles west of Philadelphia, an area named for a nearby ironworks,

Valley Forge.

By mid-December, his army of some 20,000 men had begun their march to their new encampment

and started building crude cabins to shelter themselves from the elements.

But they were in short supply of everything,

and Washington warned of the Continental Congress

...