CHAPTER LXII
Monday, May 18, 1778
THIS LAND WHICH WE HAVE WATERED WITH OUR TEARS AND OUR BLOOD IS NOW OUR MOTHER COUNTRY.—RICHARD ALLEN, BORN A SLAVE, WHO FREED HIMSELF AND DROVE WAGONS DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
IT WAS TEMPTING TO LEAVE BELLINGHAM on the floor and run, but we needed to make sure we’d have enough time to escape. First we carried him out to the barn, where we trussed him up good, tying his hands and feet with rope. We ran a leather strap through the ring at the back of the iron collar before we locked it around his neck. This strap I fastened to an overhead beam, leaving enough length that Bellingham could sit or lay on the ground, but keeping him tethered inside the barn.
We used his own neck cloth to wrap around his mouth so his shouts would not carry far and took the key with us.
The confusion and crowd started at headquarters: soldiers shouting, soldiers laughing, soldiers ready for war. The fellows had forged themselves into an army that was ready to march and take its country back. A part of my heart was gladdened, but most of me was desperate. Every moment we stayed gave Bellingham another chance to escape.
I asked a few questions of the fellows milling about. There had been some disagreements between the junior officers of Lafayette’s force and that was why the troops had not yet left. I explained this to Isabel as we made our way toward Sullivan’s Bridge, keeping to the edges of the crowd, hats pulled low on our heads. We wormed our way until we were on the south side of the gathering, putting several thousand bodies between us and anyone who might come riding down from Moore Hall.
All at once the drums started rattling and commands were being shouted. The crowd quickly thinned as the fellows who were staying in camp backed away from those who were leaving.
“What are we going to do?” asked Isabel.
“Greenlaw’s company is in here somewhere,” I said. “Keep looking.”
Another order was shouted. “Forward!” The captains and sergeants echoed it down the ranks, and four thousand boots moved toward the bridge, with Lafayette at the head, followed by the Oneidas, and then the first company of Continentals. The men were not forced to march with the precision of Baron von Steuben’s drills; those were reserved for the battlefield. But the companies walked together. We could not just walk alongside them. We needed to belong somewhere to have safe passage.
I scanned the lines of men, not bothering to hide my face any longer.
“Master Stone Thrower!” shouted a familiar voice.
I looked at the mass of moving soldiers, but they all had their backs to us. Suddenly, a long arm shot up from the center of the crowd, the hand waving a hat like a signal flag.
“Follow me,” I told Isabel, “and don’t say a word.”
We fought past hundreds of fellows, with me loudly muttering things like, “Pardon me . . . beg pardon . . . Sarge is gonna kill us . . . shoes fell apart . . . beg pardon,” as we bumped and squeezed our way up to the section where Sergeant Greenlaw’s company was walking.
“A bad day to be late, Private,” Luke Greenlaw scolded. “Privates.”
Isabel opened her mouth and I kicked her ankle.
“Shhh,” I reminded her. The breeches, coat, and large-brimmed hat would not shield her at all if she were to open her mouth. Isabel’s voice would never be mistaken for a boy’s. If she was overheard by an officer from a different company, our goose would be cooked.
“All right, lads,” said Greenlaw. “You know what to do.”
The company rearranged itself, one fellow lagging behind for a moment, another stepping to the side, until they had formed a box around us that shielded us from sight. Faulkner and Edwards leaned forward to give me a wave and went wide-eyed at the sight of Isabel and her remarkable breeches, which made me laugh.
We marched onto the bridge. Looking back, I know it could not have been longer than thirty or forty paces. It felt like forty miles. With every step, I wanted to turn around and see if there were men on horseback searching for us. But to do so would give them a look at my face. I glanced once at Isabel. Her eyes were forward, her jaw set firm. She did not look back.
“Here.” I slipped her the key.
She grinned and threw it over the heads of the lads and into the river.
I laughed then, walking out of Valley Forge the way I walked into it—with my friends.
APPENDIX
Was Curzon a real person?
Like Chains and Fever 1793, Forge is a fictional story based, in part, on historical events. The most important characters in the book—Curzon, Isabel, Ebenezer, John Burns, Gideon, Bellingham, and Missus Cook—are fictional, though I borrowed bits and pieces from the lives of real people as I was creating them. Some elements of Curzon’s character are based on the lives of Prince Estabrook, Peter Nelson, Peter Salem, Austin Dabney, Jude Hall, John Peterson, and Jehu Grant. The Sixteenth Massachusetts Regiment and the Fourth New Hampshire Regiment are fictional as well.
Read More:
Sidney Kaplan and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution.
Janet Lee Malcolm, Peter’s War: A New England Slave Boy and the American Revolution.
William D. Piersen, Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England.
Are any characters in the book real?
Many real-life historical figures appear on the pages of this story. The blue-coated, sword-waving officer who led the charge in Chapter 5 was Benedict Arnold. At Saratoga, Arnold was an impatient, brave officer who defied the orders of General Horatio Gates. Historians say that Arnold’s leadership was critical to the American victory there. He later betrayed his country to the British and is today known as the most vile traitor in United States history.
Agrippa Hull, mentioned in Chapter 7—a tall, free African American from Stockbridge, Massachusetts—was a soldier in Paterson’s brigade for the entire war. After his service at Saratoga, he served as an orderly for General Tadeusz Kościuszko. In Chapter 26, Curzon mentions Salem Poor from Massachusetts, Shadrack Battles from Virginia, and Windsor Fry from Rhode Island, all free men of color who served at Valley Forge.
Baumfree and Bett, seen in Chapter 12, were real people owned first by Colonel Johannes Hardenburgh of Esopus, New York, and later by his son, Charles. Baumfree and Bett had thirteen children; most of them were sold away from their parents at a very young age. Their next-to-youngest, Isabella, was born in 1797, twenty years after the events in Forge. Isabella was sold at age nine, along with some sheep. After escaping to freedom, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and became one of the most important voices of the abolition movement in the nineteenth century.
Details about the washerwoman from Virginia (Sarah Van Kirk) who was drummed out of camp in Chapter 15 and John Reily, who was hanged in Chapter 24, came from letters written from the encampment and the daily General Orders issued by George Washington.
The congressmen of the Committee at Camp—Gouverneur Morris, Joseph Reed, Francis Dana, and Nathaniel Folsom—took over much of Moore Hall for the winter while they studied the conditions of camp and consulted Washington and his staff about ways to save the army.
Nathanael Greene was one of the most important generals of the American Revolution. After rescuing the army from disaster at Valley Forge, he went on to lead the American troops in the South, ultimately defeating the British there. In gratitude for his actions, several southern states gave Greene land and money. After the war Nathanael and Catharine settled in Georgia with their five children and used slave labor to work their plantation.
After Nathanael’s death in 1786, Catharine befriended a tutor from Connecticut named Eli Whitney. Some historians believe that Catharine Greene had a hand in the development of Whitney’s famous cotton gin, the machine that led to the explosive expansion of slavery in the South.
Charles Willson Peale was the most popular portrait painter of the American Revolution. He was also a captain in the Pennsylvania
militia. He painted forty miniatures during the Valley Forge encampment, including portraits of General Greene and his wife, as seen in Chapter 48. (If you read Fever 1793, you might remember that Nathanial Benson in that story was an apprentice of Charles Peale. The parrot, King George, is found in that book too.)
Other real-life people who appear on the pages of Forge include the Oneida warriors and Polly Cooper, Hannah and Isaac Till, Billy Lee, Malvina, Shrewsberry, George and Martha Washington, John Laurens, the Marquis de Lafayette, Missus Shippen, Lord Stirling’s wife and daughter, and Mister Duporteil, the Frenchman.
Oh, and Baron von Steuben and his dog, Azor. Can’t forget those two!
Read More:
Thomas Fleming, Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge.
Sidney Kaplan and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution.
Janet A. Stegeman and John F. Stegeman, Caty: A Biography of Catharine Littlefield Greene.
Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York in 1828.
How could Isabel have been kidnapped in Philadelphia and sold like that?
In Pennsylvania and many other states during the Revolution, any black person suspected of being a runaway could be arrested and imprisoned for months or sold, even if there was no proof of the accusation.
Read More:
Billy G. Smith and Richard Wojtowicz, “The Precarious Freedom of Blacks in the Mid-Atlantic Region.” PA Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. CXIII, No. 2 (April 1989).
Which events in Forge are real?
Weaving the fictional stories of Curzon and Isabel through real historical events was one of the most exciting challenges of writing this book. Here are the story elements that are based on reality:
• The Second Battle of Saratoga
• The surrender of the British army after that battle
• Burning of Kingston, New York
• Troop movement from Albany south to New Jersey and Pennsylvania to join the main body of the army for the winter encampment
• The conditions of Valley Forge:
• The starving times
• The lack of shelter, clothes, shoes, blankets, and tools
• Eating firecake, squirrel, and opossum
• The occasional flares of mutiny
• The scavenging and desertion
• The way that the huts were built
• The pumpkin cooking
• The fierce determination of most of the soldiers to endure the winter to keep the army together
• The training conducted by Baron von Steuben
• The defensive fortifications
• The medical treatment of sick and injured soldiers
• The bodies of dead horses lying about
• The spying done by both Patriots and the British
• The presence and responsibilities of the Committee at Camp
• The use of Moore Hall by both the committee and General Greene
• The arrival of the Oneidas and their generous gift of corn
• The celebration of the French alliance, including the three rounds of running fire (the feu de joie) performed by ten thousand soldiers
• The troops led by the Marquis de Lafayette to Barren Hill
Read More:
Wayne Bodle, The Valley Forge Winter:
Civilians and Soldiers at War.
Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point
of America’s Revolutionary War.
George F. Scheer, ed., Private Yankee Doodle.
Did African Americans really fight for the Patriots?
Absolutely, they did! Historians have used muster rolls, pension applications, letters, regimental histories, census data, church records, eulogies, and tombstones to come up with the estimate that at least five thousand African Americans—some free, some enslaved—fought for the Continental army. Another thousand served on privateer ships and in the navy.
The rules about the military service of African Americans changed many times over the course of the war. Black soldiers fought in northern militias from the beginning of the American Revolution. About 5 percent of the men who fought the Battle of Bunker Hill (also called Breed’s Hill) were African American.
At first George Washington and Congress did not want African Americans in the Continental army. Washington soon realized this was a mistake and allowed free blacks to enlist in January 1777. Even before he made it official, though, recruiting officers had enlisted hundreds of men of color. Eventually, some states allowed enslaved African Americans to serve too. Some slaves were enlisted to serve in place of their owners. Others were enlisted with the promise of freedom when their service was over. I found several instances in which a master promised freedom to a slave who served in the war, then refused to honor that promise.
By the end of 1777, African Americans, both free and enslaved, were serving in integrated regiments. In his book The Forgotten Fifth, historian Gary Nash says that throughout the war, black soldiers from the northern states “responded to the call to arms more readily than white men” (p. 8). A census of most of the Continental army compiled by Adjutant General Alexander Scammell the summer after the Valley Forge encampment showed 755 black soldiers serving at a time when the entire army totaled only 7,600 soldiers.
The American Revolution was the last war in which black and white Americans served in integrated units until the Korean War in 1950.
Read More:
Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan, eds., Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age.
Douglas R. Egerton, Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning, Defenders of Liberty: African Americans in the Revolutionary War.
Gary B. Nash, The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution.
Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution.
Did African Americans really fight for the British?
Absolutely! Just like Americans of European descent and Native Americans, African Americans had different opinions about which army—Patriot or British—they wanted to support. But there was one important difference. The Patriot declaration that “all men are created equal” did not extend to people of color when it was written in 1776.
At the time of the American Revolution, slavery was legal in all thirteen colonies and all of the British colonies in the Caribbean. Slavery was also accepted and practiced in French and British Canada. American slaves did not have a place of freedom they could escape to. Slaves had to choose between the side that liked to talk about freedom and the side that actually offered it to them. The British said that any slave who fled a Patriot master to join them would be instantly freed. This offer of real freedom motivated 80,000–100,000 enslaved people, about one third of them women, to run to the British. Most of them worked as laborers, but some served as soldiers. Many were abandoned to recapture or death after the British fled America.
Read More:
Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan, eds., Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age.
Douglas R. Egerton, Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America.
Why did they have such a hard time feeding the soldiers at Valley Forge?
A combination of bad decisions and poor planning made the Valley Forge encampment unnecessarily harsh. Part of this was because the United States was a young country (not even two years old) and was still learning how to govern itself. In addition, people were realizing that getting rid of the British was going to be harder than they thought. Politicians argued constantly about how to win the war and how to pay for it.
To make matters worse, the men in charge of preparing for the army’s winter encampment were overwhelmed by the huge challenges. The supply chain that was supposed to bring food, clothing, and other necessities to Valley Forge was broken.
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And then? There was a salt shortage. That made it almost impossible to preserve meat so it could be shipped to camp without spoiling. That meant that cattle and pigs had to be herded to Valley Forge, often over long distances in the middle of winter, when there was little hope of finding food for the animals along the way, and the roads were often impassable because of bad weather.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, the British army was camped eighteen miles away in Philadelphia, and they could pay higher prices for everything.
Read More:
Wayne Bodle and Jacqueline Thibaut, The Vortex of Small Fortunes: The Continental Army at Valley Forge, 1777–1778.
Jacqueline Thibaut, The Fatal Crisis: Logistics and the Continental Army at Valley Forge, 1777–1778.
Are you sure that there were women and children at Valley Forge?
Historians say that between three hundred and four hundred women lived and worked alongside the soldiers at Valley Forge, taking care of cooking, washing, and mending for soldiers. This is in addition to the officers’ wives at the camp. We do not have solid numbers for how many of them had their children with them, but children are mentioned in several letters from the camp.
Read More:
Nancy K. Loane, Following the Drum: Women and the Valley Forge Encampment.
Holly A. Mayer, Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution.
How many soldiers died at Valley Forge?
Historians estimate two thousand or more soldiers died during the Valley Forge encampment, most of them from disease.
Read More:
Wayne Bodle, The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers at War.
National Park Service website: www.nps.gov/vafo/historyculture/index.htm.
Was Valley Forge the coldest winter of the American Revolution?
Not at all. The Continental army was encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, during the worst winter of the eighteenth century: 1779–1780. They endured twenty-eight snowstorms and much colder temperatures than they had faced at Valley Forge. But by 1780 the army was much better prepared; only one hundred men or so died at Morristown.