Valley Forge

Valley Forge: Quit or Stay When a person is in a stressful situation on instinct they have two options, fight or flight. In war the same is true. War is not always bayonets and bullets, it’s the decisions you make during times of hardship. A soldier has to make the decision whether to keep fighting for what they believe in no matter what the stakes or to flee. In December of 1777, George Washington and his troops arrived at Valley Forge. Since the summer of 1775, all has gone well for the Continental Army. More recently Washington was presumably unable to stop General Howe and his British soldiers from claiming the national capital of Philadelphia. With Howe and his army of approximately 18,000 comfortably quartered in Philadelphia, Washington decided to build a winter camp at Valley Forge just 18 miles from Philadelphia in order to keep a close watch on the British. Washington now has a problem. Many soldiers’ terms are coming to an end soon and the demand for soldiers couldn’t be higher. My 9-month enlistment for the war is up on February 1st in just one month’s time. The question for most of us soldiers is, “Should I quit and desert the Continental Army?” I have thought long and hard about this, and even though I’m concerned about my aging mother and miss my family dearly, I feel that the need is greater to stay, so I must re-enlist. I will re-enlist because, I am loyal, we are not a nation of summer soldiers, and having sick and dying men means the healthy should fight. I am going to re-enlist because many men are sick and dying. The winter months have been hard on us. Over half of the army is too sick for roll call which is an estimated value of 3,989 men (Document A). Those that are healthy need to fill in for them in order to make up for the lack of ready men. The amount of sick men is insurmountable and should only encourage us to fight harder for our cause. The estimated death rate from illness is 1,800 to 2,500 (Document A). Even though these numbers