Valley Forge Letter

February 18^th 1777

Dear Melinda,

War has been so hard and we haven’t won a battle yet. Just thinking that we haven’t won anything makes me feel like we can’t do anything and it is a waste of time. I have to sleep in a 12 men hut that is 16 by 14 feet long with walls that are 6 and a half feet high. It is so uncomfortable and I barely get sleep at night. Transportation is so horrible. The roads are horrible to get around and it is very difficult to recruit Wagoner’s. Quartermaster General Thomas Mifflin who is in charge of out transportation hates his job. Mifflin was a very wealthy Philadelphia merchant who wanted to be on the battlefield not as the head of transportation. He would ignore his job which did no good for us.

It is so cold here and it is so hard to keep warm and to keep my mind on what is going on knowing that you and the baby are home without me there but this is what I’m suppose to be doing for my country. The temperature has been around 20 and 30. We have had 13 days of rain during the first 2 weeks that we got here, it is nothing like California. Things began to improve, we started to get wagons full of clothing of food and they started a baking company that was gingerbread. We would cook our good over a fire normally. No one knew how to march or walk on the battlefield so that was very hard for us to work with. Orders stopping gambling, fighting, selling Army equipment and wandering away from the site was ignored.

Everything started to change once Baron von Steuben arrived. He served in the Prussian Army of Fredrick but only made it as a captain. He was a very good leader and knew what he was doing. We all loved his manner and his cursing in broken English and his hands on style of demonstrating every move personally. He wanted the officers to drill with their men. So many men tried to take charge that weren't suppose to and it was getting on my nerves.

This war so far has had it's up and downs and I just wanted you to know that I can't stop thinking about you and Abby. I hope that you are doing very well and I can't wait to see you and hopefully I will be back very soon. I love you.

Love forever,
James Pedone
xoxoxo