Valley Forge Dbq Questions And Answers

Would You Have Reenlisted at Valley Forge? The American Army had seen hard times during the first two years of the Revolutionary War. They had been the victor in two battles—one in Trenton and one in Philadelphia—but other than that, it had not gone very well. (Background Essay) Because of these struggles, Washington had a hard time keeping his soldiers in the army since many signed up for only nine months and then left or simply deserted. This brings up the question: Would you have reenlisted for the army at Valley Forge? I most definitely would not have because of the illnesses, the government neglecting the soldiers, and the bad conditions that existed there. To begin, diseases and illnesses were a big problem at Valley Forge. In February of 1778, 50% of the soldiers were sick out of the entire army, which only had about 8,000 men in it. (Doc. A) It was
One aspect of this is the inadequate clothing the troops had. One fifth of them had no shoes, and going barefoot in the dead of winter would not have been any fun. (Doc. F) All their other clothes were tattered and did not compensate for the cold temperatures in any way. (Doc. C) The quality of the food and the air inside the cabins was lousy as well. The very little food that could be obtained at Valley Forge was undoubtedly contaminated from all the diseases. The sad excuse for a ventilation system inside the soldiers’ cabins was poor and insufficient, and this probably didn’t help the health issues that close to half of the men already had. (Doc. C) Walking away from the American army did mean that I would only lessen the chances that I would get what I joined the military to find. But between the frostbite-inducing lack of proper clothing, shortage of safe-to-eat food, and smoke inhalation, there would have been enough dangers to make me think twice before