To keep his men alive Washington
had sometimes to take food by force from the inhabitants and then
there was an outcry that this was robbery. With many sick, his
horses so disabled that he could not move his artillery, and his
defenses very slight, he could have made only a weak fight had
Howe attacked him. Yet the legislature of Pennsylvania told him
that, instead of lying quiet in winter quarters, he ought to be
carrying on an active campaign. In most wars irresponsible men
sitting by comfortable firesides are sure they knew best how the
thing should be done.
The bleak hillside at Valley Forge was something more than a
prison. Washington's staff was known as his family and his
relations with them were cordial and even affectionate. The young
officers faced their hardships cheerily and gave meager dinners
to which no one might go if he was so well off as to have
trousers without holes. They talked and sang and jested about
their privations. By this time many of the bad officers, of whom
Washington complained earlier, had been weeded out and he was
served by a body of devoted men. There was much good comradeship.
Partnership in suffering tends to draw men together. In the
company which gathered about Washington, two men, mere youths at
the time, have a world-wide fame.
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