. Washington, the man of action . hough Howe saved 206 WASHINGTON the day and eventually compelledhis assailants to retreat, he receiveda bad scare, and whatever plans hemay have been devising for Bur-goynes rescue were promptly laidaside. Probably it was then toolate, in any case, to have saved thenorthern army, for in less than twoweeks Burgoyne surrendered to Gen-eral Gates at Saratoga, and after forc-ing Howe to fight all autumn forthe complete possession of Phila-delphia, Washington p racti cal 1 ylocked his opponent up in the cap-tured city and went into winterquarters at Valley Forge. C
. Washington, the man of action . hough Howe saved 206 WASHINGTON the day and eventually compelledhis assailants to retreat, he receiveda bad scare, and whatever plans hemay have been devising for Bur-goynes rescue were promptly laidaside. Probably it was then toolate, in any case, to have saved thenorthern army, for in less than twoweeks Burgoyne surrendered to Gen-eral Gates at Saratoga, and after forc-ing Howe to fight all autumn forthe complete possession of Phila-delphia, Washington p racti cal 1 ylocked his opponent up in the cap-tured city and went into winterquarters at Valley Forge. CHAPTER XIV VALLEY FORGE VALLEY FORGE, which tookits name from an iron worksin the immediate neighborhood, wasadmirably located for Washingtonspurposes, not only because it wasimpregnable to attack but also be-cause it was so situated as to menaceboth Philadelphia and New it was so close to the QuakerCity that Howe soon found himselfpractically besieged in the captured 208 The First Gun at Yorktown(September 28-9,1781). WASHINGTON capital, and General Clinton couldnot leave New York without com-pletely exposing it to Washingtonsragged followers in the Pennsylvaniavalley. That the little Americanarmy was ill-clad and half-starvedcould not be denied, but the worstaspect of its pitiable condition wasthat there would have been no lackof provisions and clothing had thosewho were charged with the dutyof furnishing the necessary suppliesperformed their work with evenordinary intelligence, industry andhonesty. Congress had, however,fallen into the hands of a set of in- 213 WASHINGTON competents who had taken the placesof abler and more patriotic men whohad resigned to enter the army or toperform other and more congenialpublic service. The result was thatin a winter of exceptional severitythe soldiers at Valley Forge werenot only left to freeze and starve, butwere actually denounced as being toolazy or cowardly to fight. Wash-ington met this neglect and calumnywith characteri
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