Valley Forge

Chapter XII

Tuesday, January, 20- Friday, February 6, 1779

I twisted my ear so often in the weeks that followed, It swelled like a puffball. Did me no good; I still thought about my father. Its been exactly 3 years since he died. And a year since I left my family. His face had poisoned my mind the way the cold had taken hold of my bones

Sore ear and cold bones aside, life had become tolerable on account of our little hut. Sleeping whilst sheltered by walls and a roof is vastly much better than sleeping under the open sky, even if the roof did leak in spots.

Though most huts in the camp were completed thousands of soldiers were unfit for duty because their clothes were falling to pieces. Those without shirts covered their forms with blankets or rags when necessity forced them out to use a privy trench. Many suffered the death of their toes and fingers on account of the frostbite, I can not bring myself to describe the state that I saw of those men.

Because my company was mostly clothed and shod, we worked more hours than some. We fell into a regular pattern; Dawn, Work on fortifications meant to protect us from attack, Breakfast, More wood. Dinner. The day was a tolerable war, but after dawn and dear sunset the cold ate through my clothes and gnawed on my bones

The best hours came after the sun dropped behind mount miser. We'd retire to our hut cook up the days rations of dried peas and meat (With a few cabbage leaves or a potato when fortune smiled) and eat as slow as we could manage. We devised a rotation to take turns sitting directly in front of the fire. Two by two., to play checkers bits of a tig stood in for the black checkers and shards of bone for the white.

Edwards stole extra time where it was warmest by cooking tonics for our health, boiling butternut bark or spruce tips or moss in the kettle. These remedies required constant stirring and tasting/ The tailor was near three times as old as us and had grown painfully thin, so there was little protest about his unlawful hearth-sitting

(Aaron Barry did once whine about Edwards habit. Greenlaw lost his temper and offered to remove all of Aarons' teeth with his fist. which caused Aaron to crawl up onto his bunk like a coward. gnawing on his toothstick like a discontented beaver.)

When we were not the appointed checker players, Benny and I worked on our wood carvings. My bird was slowly transforming from the beaked pig into a sheep carrying a knapsack. Benny was much better then I; He could carve the likeness of a horse in two nights' work. He was never satisfied though and threw each one into the fire.

The hut filled with boasting and conversating, wagering and wild tales every night, We'd itch the vermin feasting on our flesh and share the days' many rumors;

The King has declared peace.

No, The King was sending German and Russain mercenaries to destroy us. 

A ball of fire as big as a man's head fell from heaven to Hatboro- A good omen. But there's been an earthquake near york just as a cat gave birth to puppies, which meat the worst

Congress was fleeing to Spain. No, Congress was coming to Valley Forge.

Smallpox was killing thousands of soldiers, Nay.  the variolation against the smallpox had killed them

Birds flew backward over Philadelphia. A talking cow had been displayed in Georgia

And always the wild tales that more food, better food, and blankets and clothing were on the way. And we would soon be paid for the first time in months. That made us laugh Because we knew. It wasn't going to happen

Sooner or later, someone would throw a pebble, maybe a twig at Edwards begging him for a story. The lad had every book ever printed, it seemed. Happily recounted for us the ancient tales of evil kings, beautiful queens, and quarreling gods, monsters and heroes

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At the start of February, we enjoyed rare clear skies and warm days that melted most of the snow and thawed my fingerbones some. Sargent Barry armed us with shovels, axes, and hatches, ordering us to strengthen the outer line fortifications. Half a thousand men dug trenches deep enough for a man to stand in up to his neck. We wove an abatis- A giant tangle of a fence with a long, sharp-tipped poles that would gut any British horse that tried to leap the barricades.-

I made a point to be friendly with a few of the black soldiers I met on fortification duty; A fellow named York from Massachusetts, Tobberi from Maryland, and Windeior from Rhode Island. They were all mostly from the north. The vast encampment was home to hundreds of fellows like us, mostly free though' some had been enlisted by there masters. Today we didn't complain about the lack of food and water and everything else under the sun. I managed to forget about the Barry twins for once. It was an uncommon sensation and most pleasant I told them to look out for any spare oranges, it would help there smallpox. getting rid of there scars and give them nutrition I knew, I knew there were no oranges.

One day it became so warm while we worked on the abatis, They all stripped off their clothes and I suffered in my tattered clothes and wiped the sweat beads off my forehead. Some lads from the south made a game of hitting at rocks with stout sticks, but the officers put a stop to the sport before it caused us to forge our duties. Once they'd gone, the game started up again.

We too care to post sentry guards and took turns batting at the sphere, I felt included for once because they didn't know. My company scored the greatest number of hits and claimed the top prize; a freshly killed opossum. We hurried back to the hut to cook it, arm-sore and ravenous. the previous wagons from Maryland and New Jersy had arrived near empty that week, and the whole camp had been on half rations because of it, we nearly starved. 

Opossum taste better than you might think

Word Count; 1054

About 4 average book pages.

*Opossum; The Virgina Opossum is a close relative to the Possum, but it is from Virgina, Not a big difference

(A/N): Apologise for this chapter being so late, Been quite busy with school work, and family. Thank you for your Patience- Author