Washington's Urgent Plea On Display At Valley Forge

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. - Two days before Christmas, his men facing a bitter winter and a powerful opponent, George Washington wrote a letter filled with urgency and despair.

His troops needed supplies, as he had told officials just a day earlier.

"I am now convinced beyond a doubt, that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that line this army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things: starve - dissolve - or disperse, in order to obtain subsistance in the best manner they can," Washington wrote to Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress.

The year was 1777, and Washington and his 12,000 soldiers were four days into their terrible winter at Valley Forge. For the first time, the public will soon get a chance to view Washington's urgent warning.

This year, Valley Forge National Historical Park marks the anniversary of the soldiers' ordeal by displaying the letter, which the park received in the will of a collector.

In his letter, Washington told Laurens, "Rest assured, Sir, this is not an exaggerated picture, and that I have abundant reason to support what I say." He told Laurens he had "no less than 2,898 men now in Camp unfit for duty, because they are barefoot and otherwise naked."

Acting curator Phyllis Ewing said the letter - a fragile, yellowed document with ink faded to a dull brown - is the prize of the park's collection. Three of its 10 pages are being displayed

through Jan. 5.

"This is why we're here," Ewing said. "The letter talks about the hardships of Valley Forge, the dedication of the men."

Washington's letter isn't necessarily easy to read, filled with run-on sentences and with spellings, punctuation and words considered odd today. Through it all, however, the message is clear. As Ewing put it in 20th century language: "He's saying, `Hey guys, get with the program. This is pretty important. . . . Tomorrow may be too late.' "

Some of Washington's words are particularly biting. Speaking apparently of complainers in Congress, then sitting at York, Pa., as the British occupied Philadelphia, Washington told Laurens:

"I can assure those Gentlemen, that it is a much easier and less distressing thing, to draw Remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good fire side, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost & snow without Cloaths or Blankets: However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed Soldier, I feel superabundantly for them, and from my soul pity those miseries, which it is neither in my power to relieve or prevent."

His letter voiced concern for his men, his reputation and the future of their cause, and denounced obstacles he perceived being put in place by bureaucrats. He said he had learned that his officers two nights earlier had suppressed a "dangerous mutiny" by hungry troops.

"This brought forth the only Commissary in the purchasing line in this Camp, and with him this melancholy and alarming truth, That he had not a single hoof of any kind to slaughter, and not more than 25 Barrells of Flour!"

The letter is part of a collection of about 300 documents willed to the park by John Reed of nearby King of Prussia, Pa. The park received the collection about two years ago, but this is the first piece to go on display.

There are minutes of trials of local residents caught trafficking with the British in Philadelphia; letters by Lafayette, the French general; and oaths of allegiance, printed forms on which soldiers swear they will defend the country against King George III of Britain.

Washington's letter to Laurens was not written in the hand of the future president; it was written by Lt. Col. Robert Hanson Harrison from a draft by Washington and signed by the general.