Into Valley Forge, 1777

On December 19, 1777, the Continental Army marched into its winter camp on the high ground above the Schuylkill, twenty miles from British-held Philadelphia. About 12,000 men had followed Washington through the fall campaign — Brandywine, Germantown, a string of retreats — and many of them had marched the last miles without shoes.

There were no huts yet. The army built them through January, some 2,000 log cabins twelve feet by sixteen, while supply broke down and the men lived on fire cake and water. Something like 2,000 died of disease and exposure before spring.

In February a Prussian volunteer named Steuben began drilling them by the hundred. The army that marched out in June was a different one.

The column crosses the lower third of the picture from left to right, a dozen men wrapped in blankets and torn coats, muskets shouldered, one cart between them. Above them the sky takes up most of the picture, a pale winter sun burning through low cloud over the Pennsylvania hills. Look at the snow behind the marchers: the track they leave is spotted red. It is the only warm color in the painting, and it is the whole story.