THE MOST CELEBRATED ENCAMPMENT: VALLEY FORGE IN AMERICAN CULTURE, 1777-1983 (PENNSYLVANIA)

During the winter of 1777-78 the Continental Army quartered at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where the troops suffered severe hardships as a result of the poorly organized supply system. The entire episode was ignored by Americans until the mid-nineteenth century, when they discovered in the Valley Forge encampment experience something perfectly suited to the new nation's need for pride, for patriotism, and for collective character. Valley forge was found to embody heroic episodes and memories that lent themselves well to a story of courage and patriotism, so well in fact that they were too precious to be abandoned in the interest of historical veracity. The facts of the encampment became blurred, and historians made no attempt to rescue them. A romantic haze, enhanced by a tradition of art and literature, settled down over the winter of 1777-78. Valley Forge became part of our national mythology as well as our national history.;This study explores the meaning of the Valley Forge encampment experience in American culture. It tries to determine both that which actually happened during the winter of 1777-78 and that which has been perceived in the two centuries since. Myths and legends and popular references that have perpetuated the Valley Forge experience in the American historical memory and that in turn reveal cultural values and attitudes are equally relevant to this study of the Valley Forge tradition as the facts of the Valley Forge encampment. The story of the development of that tradition is a story of shifting perceptions of the meaning of the Valley Forge experience as well as changing attitudes towards the preservation and commemoration of historic sites. It is a story in which myth has considerably influenced reality, thereby suggesting the artificiality of historiographical barriers segregating the two.