Excerpted from Vol. 46 No. 2 of the Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly Washington’s Great Challenge: Arming the Continental Army in 1777 Scott P. Houting This article was transcribed from a program deliv- Yes. In fact, if you’re interested, in the stable at ered by Scott Houting at the February 17, 2008 meet- Washington’s Headquarters we’ve a small exhibit ing of the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society. The about the Mount Joy Forge with artifacts that were program was held at the Education Center of Valley excavated in 1929 – 1930 from the forge site. Forge National Historical Park. Those are some of things that we think of when we hear the words “Valley Forge.” Today I’ll talk about ’d like to start by asking, “What comes to mind the lack of supplies and specifically about the lack of when you think of Valley Forge and the encamp- weapons, and not only the lack of weapons but also I ment that occurred here in the winter of 1777- the lack of training in the use of those weapons. 1778?” When the army arrived here, about half of the sol- diers had bayonets for their muskets. Very few, how- Audience responses: ever, were properly trained in the use of the bayonet. Snow. In fact, an occasional use of the bayonet was to roast Weather conditions. meat over an open fire. Von Steuben rebuilding the army’s discipline. Starvation. First, I’d like to read some excerpts from transcripts No battle. of three letters from General Washington. The first one is dated February 29, 1778, and it’s addressed Thank you! I’m glad we don’t have to clear that up. from Headquarters: “The Armory Department is in as Every day visitors come to the Welcome Center from bad a situation as it can well be and requires Brandywine or Gettysburg or other battlefields and measures to be immediately taken to put it upon a ask, ”Where was the battle at Valley Forge?” proper footing. Otherwise the army must be greatly What else? distressed on a score of arms and the public will be at a great expense to little purpose.” The hardships that they endured. Disease. A day later from Lebanon (Lebanon was a storage Lack of supplies. facility for the Continental Army); this is a Return of I think about the women and ladies who were Arms dated March 1, 1778: “1,564 new French mus- here. kets from New England, balance remaining here Jan- st Yes. And, of course, the children. This was a winter uary 31 per last return, 1,500 still there. 2,407 old camp of six months. There were families here. It was muskets unfit for service there, at last return still a large town for those six months. there. 460 of the old muskets in such bad condition the stocks all broke . Mr. Dupree thought better to Parson Weems’ story of Washington praying. take them to pieces, which was done. The good bar- rels and mountings will be packed up together and Okay, the myths of Valley Forge, the romanticism. sent to Carlisle.” That’s Carlisle, Pennsylvania, prob- ably for refitting on new stocks. The name itself. 45 Copyright © 2020 Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Authors retain copyright for their contributions. This publication or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher. Contact the Society for permission to use any content in this publication.The Society does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of the information herein. Excerpted from Vol. 46 No. 2 of the Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly Moving along in the Valley Forge encampment, April land and around London proper were making compo- 30, 1778 - there is no location on this Return: “697 nents for military weapons. One person would spe- new French muskets sent to camp for the month of cialize in locks, another would specialize in barrels, April. 4,212 damaged muskets listed total.” And then another in the furniture on the weapons. These spe- he continues talking about rifles coming in the stores. cialized craftsmen made the parts and then shipped The point here is that the lack of weapons was a them to the Tower of London. The Tower itself was chronic problem faced by the Continental Army up the main repository for the British government going until the end of the Valley Forge encampment. By its back to 1078. So after 1715, individual gun makers end, in April and May of 1778, supplies were coming were specializing in one component of the manufac- in from France. We enjoyed the French alliance here turing, then shipping by the crate to the Tower. If at Valley Forge on the 5th and 6th of May; with that England went to war or if a regiment had to be re- we had more open trade. Overall, the French govern- supplied with weapons, they would be assembled, ment supplied anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000 inspected, and issued by the Tower. This, in a nut- French flintlock muskets during the war period. But shell, was the system of weapons development in before Valley Forge, a chronic problem faced by the England leading up to the establishment of the Ord- Continental Congress and Washington was the short- nance System in 1715. age of weapons and, if they had weapons, were they serviceable? As one historian put it, in 1776 Wash- Having said that, let’s look more closely at the chal- ington faced an arms crisis. Without weaponry, the lenge faced by the American government and General war movement might have fallen apart at that point. Washington in supplying the Continental Army. In 1774, we were a new nation on the brink of war. Like To get a better understanding of the situation faced any young nation, we were ill prepared for it. Prior to by Washington (remember, we were allies with the 1774, of course, we were allies of England; actually, British prior to this war), I would like to take a look colonies of England. We had fought with them during at the British system of procuring and developing the French and Indian War and our militia had been weapons for their Army. Let’s look first at what hap- supplied by them with British weapons through the pened before 1715 and then how everything changed Ordnance System. But as the war clouds gathered, the with the adoption of a program called the Ordnance individual Colonies started to recognize that some System. system was needed to supply weapons to the Ameri- can militia. When, in September 1774, twelve of the Prior to 1715, the British government’s military was original thirteen colonies met in Philadelphia at Car- one of the strongest in Europe. At that time, the colo- penter’s Hall to establish the First Continental Con- nels who commanded the British regiments of foot gress, one of their actions was to adopt a resolution had total control over procurement. The British gov- calling for the American colonists to arm themselves ernment would give them an allotted amount of mon- with whatever weapons they could find, either pri- ey to purchase weapons for the soldiers in their units. vately or on the commercial market. The problem The problem was that the colonels would often pro- with this resolution was that it was only a resolution. cure inferior, cheap, domestic firearms then pocket There was no legal action. We had no legal system any leftover monies from the allotment. They worked established for the procurement and issue of military with commercial gun makers in England, through a weapons. group called the London Guild of Gun Makers. The Guild did not necessarily work for the government. In 1775, when it seemed that war with the Crown was They made weapons privately. From what I under- inevitable, the American colonies once again got to- stand, it was common practice for the colonels to gether to form what were called “committees of safe- keep some of the money. ty,” or “councils of public safety.” They were orga- nized with the sole purpose of procuring weapons for In 1715, this changed. The Ordnance System was an the militia of the thirteen colonies. The first contract attempt by the Crown, under King George I, to gain was let in the spring of 1775, about a month before better control over the quality and the quantity of fire- Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. By the arms issued to the British Army. Under the Ordnance way, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were two of System, different gun makers in the midlands of Eng- the leading colonies that took active roles in the com- 46 Copyright © 2020 Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Authors retain copyright for their contributions. This publication or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher. Contact the Society for permission to use any content in this publication.The Society does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of the information herein. Excerpted from Vol. 46 No. 2 of the Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly mittees of safety for arming the colonies. The 100,000 French weapons were brought to the Ameri- “Committees of Safety” program was well- can States for the war effort. intentioned but their ability to procure weapons was very limited, for this reason: the colonists making the When we started the war, we were using British weapons were often hesitant to put their names on the weapons.