 Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me for this book talk. I'm Rick Herrera, and I was professor of military history at the School of Advanced Military Studies. I am now visiting professor at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Before I begin, a little bit of boilerplate. Nothing that I say reflects the views of the Army War College, the U.S. Army, or the federal government. These are strictly my own. So, let's talk a little bit about beating Washington's Army, surviving the Valley Forge winter of 1778. Next slide, please. You know, this whole, this book project came out of a teaching moment. And when I was, oh gosh, must have been 12 years ago when I was on the staff ride team at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. And I'll talk to you about a little bit about what a staff ride is. I was building a staff, a staff ride on the Philadelphia campaign of 1777. And part of that means that you absolutely have to go to Valley Forge. It's such a meaningful and central location, both in terms of American identity, our national tales, but also for the campaign itself. Now, staff rides are a form of instruction, a form of learning and teaching that are used very much by the Army and the Marine Corps. And what we do in doing a staff ride is use the battlefield or the campaign area in which an engagement or a campaign took place. We walk the ground. And what we do is use the ground as our evidence to analyze. We also use the ground as our classroom. And so students will examine and discuss what took place at a particular time during the campaign or during the engagement. And staff rides are very much predicated upon movement. The problem, though, with Valley Forge is it static? So I wondered, what is it that I can do to try and introduce some movement in a largely static location? Well, I thought about Valley Forge and recalled some works that I'd read. And I also was thinking about the ongoing US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And instead of using Valley Forge in its more traditional understanding, the way that most Americans grew up with it, I decided to reconceptualize it as FOB Valley Forge, Forward Operating Base Valley Forge. And so rather than envisioning the Continental Army as this group of starving noble soldiers, the stories that we hear about bloody footprints in the snow and all of that, certainly there are some kernels of truth to all of that. What I wanted to do was to convey the vital, vital image of the army as an active field army, doing many of the things, much of the stuff that armies today do, doing many of the things that armies in World War II did. And so that that would help convey the much more of the reality of Valley Forge and to try and get a little bit out of the more mythic construction that most Americans have. And as with all myths, our general understanding of Valley Forge is a way that helps us understand it, helps make meaning of it. It helps in the construction and understanding of our identities as citizens of the United States, as Americans. And there is, of course, some truth to it, as I said. So Valley Forge, FOB Valley Forge, it's the home of an active army. Why Valley Forge though? Well, Washington, who was much more than a general, he had also been a politician and that's not a bad thing. He understood how to work with groups of people. He understood how to balance the needs and interests of disparate groups. And so what Washington did as a general was carry on a series of conversations through letters mostly. And there's a wonderful collection of edited letters that is constantly being worked on. Many of them held by the federal government, other entities as well. Washington works with the governors and governments of Pennsylvania, of New Jersey, to some extent, of Maryland and Delaware. He's also working with the delegates of the Second Continental Congress. And where should the army go? What should the army do? This all comes about in the aftermath of the Philadelphia campaign. Now to kind of refresh our memories, the British army had landed at Hedavellic, Maryland, and I'll show that to you in a forthcoming slide, landed at Hedavellic, Maryland in August of 1777. Under the command of General Sir William Howe, the British as well as German auxiliaries, better known to most of us as Hessians, began their march on Philadelphia, which was the capital of this, this erstwhile United States of America. In the campaign, the Continental Army lost more fights than it won. Still though, the army held together, which is a testimony to the soldiers' dedication to what they were doing, their officers' capabilities as well. By December, after having lost the battle of Brandywine, the battle of Germantown, the army draws up on a ridgeline just outside of Philadelphia called White Marsh. Washington's soldiers fortify it. They dig in trenchments, fortifications, things called readouts. And Washington, who was an aggressive commander, was spoiling for a fight. He wanted Sir William Howe to bring his army out and launch attacks against these fortified positions. Howe marched his army out. He looked at the positions and he thought, this is not a good idea. Howe had to be cautious. He recognized that his army was essentially the bulk of the British army. And Britain had commitments not only in North America trying to suppress this rebellion. It also had commitments in the Caribbean. It had commitments on the Indian subcontinent. It had commitments elsewhere. And these are British regular troops or were British regular troops, rather, in garrisons all across the globe. And so these were stretched thin. Howe could not risk this most valuable of commodities, his soldiers' lives. He marched back to Philadelphia. Washington now faced a dilemma. What do I do? He talked to his generals and councils of war and queried them. What should we do next? Washington thought very, very seriously about launching a winter campaign, taking the army out of White Marsh and attacking Philadelphia. Now that might seem like madness given that the army had lost a series of battles. Here it is the early days of winter or it's about to become winter. But think back what had happened the year before toward the end of 1776, around Christmas time, in fact, when the Continental Army launches its attack at Trenton and captures nearly an entire brigade of Hessians. That, in turn, incited an uprising of the local militia in New Jersey, which forced the British army to fall back on its bases of communication almost as far back as New York. New Jersey was virtually reclaimed for the American cause. So Washington wondered, why not? My soldiers can do it again. They've done it before. Moreover, the army's got another year of experience. The officers have another year of experience. They're ready to do the impossible. Well, Washington queries his officers. They have a series of discussions. And it comes down to a matter of, if we succeed, then what? If we fail, then what? So Washington and his generals were thinking about the next steps, always thinking a couple of steps ahead. Very sophisticated stuff. And when I taught my students at the School of Advanced Military Studies, they helped me address all of these things. They helped me understand that these are things that they, in turn, do as staff officers, things called branches and sequels. We do this, and then what? What are the options that we can do? So Washington was going through what would be very familiar things to modern-day soldiers, to modern-day staff officers. He decides, after close consultation with his generals, to select a camp location in what was called the Great Valley. And that's Valley Forge. Valley Forge is ideally located. And you can see here on the map, Philadelphia circled in red, Valley Forge circled in dark blue. Not too far away, but far enough away to allow Washington ample time to allow his soldiers ample time to prepare themselves should the British march out and seek battle. Also, it turns that ground between the both armies into something of a battlefield. What takes place throughout this Valley Forge encampment from December of 1777 through roughly May of 1778 is a contest for the people's wills, their affections, but also for the food, the supplies, the horses, the cattle, the swine, you name it, everything in between these both of these armies. So food and supplies and people's hearts and minds become battlegrounds. They also become weapons of war for both armies. Next slide, please. Washington rode out and he surveyed the lines. You can see here a map of British defenses at Philadelphia. There's a strong across the narrow part of the neck. You've got a strong chain of fortifications. If you look off to the left where the Skoolkill River is a series of readouts, small forts in other words, guard the crossing sites across the Skoolkill River. And in fact, if those of you familiar with Philadelphia, the 30th Street train station, but also the IRS office located in the old post office, British fortifications were located are located underneath those things. So you can see how all of this looks. If you go to the right along the Delaware River, doesn't show up too well on this map, but all along the waterfront is a squadron of British warships anchored there or should say tied up. And these ships have got more firepower in terms of the artillery, the cannon they carry than both the British and continental armies combined. So Washington looks at these things and he decides, well, this is not a good idea to attack this place. So Valley Forge happens to be where he decides to go. Next slide, please. So I was talking to you a little bit about Valley Forge. Take a look at this map. You've got the Skoolkill River to the north. You have what you can see Sullivan's Bridge. And if you go a little bit to the south, you'll see the star readout. That's a fort rather that guards the crossing at Sullivan's Bridge. Go down to the bottom of the map and you can see entrenchments and you can see where all the various brigades of the Continental Army were positioned when they would be called to battle. So what Washington has done is have his engineers, and he's got a wonderful French engineer, Brigadier General DuPortier, who instructs the preparation of the grounds. These entrenchments cover the major roads entering Valley Forge. And if you think about Valley Forge, it sits on high ground and the ground to the south of it, as well as to the east of it, slopes away. So that means that any enemy approaching is forced to attack up ground, uphill rather, and that gives an advantage to the defenders. Now, if you go to the right and you'll see Fort Folly, and then work your way to the west, to the left, you're going across the parade ground, you'll see traditional Burrian ground, and then drop a little bit southward and you'll see Mount Joy. A line of entrenchments was built by the soldiers along Mount Joy. So what Washington has got is something that in modern military parlance would be called a defense in depth. So were the British to attack, were they to carry the line of entrenchments covering the forward positions, the Continentals would have a place to fall back and continue their defense at Mount Joy. So Washington has got, as I said, this armed camp. But there's more to it. Next slide, please. So you can see circled in blue the various locations where some of these actions take place. Philadelphia circled in red, go a little bit to the northwest, you'll see Valley Forge. From Valley Forge, go a little bit to the southwest and you'll see a smaller circle. Out in that location is the position of Captain Henry Lee. Lee commands 5th Troop, 1st Continental Light Dragoons. And Lee's troop of Light Dragoons was part of a much larger operation, a security operation really, wherein Continental Light Dragoons, cavalry in other words, as well as infantrymen, manned a series of posts to the south of Valley Forge that could allow them to guard against any British approaches, against any loyalist approaches. Also besides their patrolling, these soldiers were going out seeking information about the enemy, passing this intelligence on to Washington and helping him develop his understanding of what was taking place to his southeast in Philadelphia. Again, all very modern things that modern-day soldiers and Marines and airmen sailors would understand. So Washington is running this active operation. Now, when the Grand Forge of 1778 begins, it's going to take it as far as Maryland. So if you go down to the southwest, you'll see a couple of circles, one that says Hollingsworth and that's basically where Head of Elk is located. And that's the home of the Hollingsworth family. And the British will march on that. That was also the home of a major supply magazine for the Continental Army. When the British landed, they marched on it and they were able to capture a number of supplies. Things of the Continental Army had not been able to evacuate before the British got there. Off to the left, you'll see another circle and that's for Charlestown. Toward the end of all of this, as the Contanettals begin to re-establish their supply magazines, they'll establish a new one at Charlestown. It makes it a good spot, easy approaches along the river. The roads have a gentle slope. So that makes a lot of sense when you've got horses and wagons and you have to be concerned about winter. So let's go ahead and cast your eyes to the east. And you'll see Salem, New Jersey is located there. When Washington launched the Grand Forge of 1778, it's led by Major General Nathaniel Green. Green marches out. He goes south into Chester County. And so if you go to Philadelphia, work your way a little bit to the southwest, you'll see the town of Chester. So it's in and around that area a little bit to the northwest. After a while, Green decides, I'm going to detach somebody to cross into New Jersey. New Jersey has not been touched very much by the war. I understand there are quite a few supplies there to be had for the army. So he determines that he will send Brigadier General Anthony Wayne and roughly 300 soldiers. Some of the places that they'll visit, Raccoon Creek, and you can see that to the northeast of Salem. You'll see Gloucester and right around in that area is also Cooper's Ferry, modern day Camden, New Jersey. Another place where the actions take place. Finally, going up to the northeast, you'll see Burlington. And that's roughly the spot where Wayne will cross over with supplies when he ends his part of the forging expedition. Let's talk a little bit more about some of the actors. Next slide, please. So here we have Washington and Howe. They're both in their 40s, both vigorous men. Washington, we know, had, or Washington, not everyone knows, Washington had served as Colonel of the Virginia Regiment in what Americans know as the French and Indian War, what most Europeans would call the Seven Years War. He had experience as a regimental commander. He also had experience as a politician. He sat in Virginia's House of Burgesses. Howe, on the other hand, extensive experience as a soldier. He had fought in the Seven Years War in America. He'd also taken part in the British attack and capture of Havana, Cuba, in 1762. Now, Howe gets appointed as commander of British forces in North America in 1775. He's a good tactical commander, but when it comes to the higher order stuff, strategy, coordinating much larger movements, thinking about the really big picture, Howe's got a number of problems. One, he's not terribly comfortable with it. Two, he's not that talented when it comes to that sort of stuff. Howe's real Fort is at the tactical level, at the operational level, so battlefield movements, but also linking these tactical actions to attain somebody else's strategic purposes. He is very good at that. In fact, in every battle in which he faces off against Washington, or just about every battle, Howe will best Washington. He is Washington's superior when it comes to that. At the strategic level, however, Washington proves himself a master. Now, Washington is very much learning on the job. He's trying to develop himself into a good general, a better general, and it's rather uneven, but by the end of the war, he pretty much proves himself as a pretty solid strategist. Does he need to develop more? Of course, who among us doesn't need to learn more? So there you've got these two opponents. Next slide, please. So who are the men that Washington sends out? He's got major general Nathaniel Grain on the left. Grain, for those of you who don't know, is actually a Quaker. He's from Rhode Island. What do we know about Quakers? They're supposed to be pacifists, not Grain. Now, Grain was brought up in a business atmosphere, an iron foundry made anchors and chains for shipping. He understands business. He understands how these things work. He's also very much a self-taught man, incredibly bright. Now, no offense to you, Hamilton fans, but when Washington wants something done, it's Nathaniel Grain who's his right-hand man. Grain again, Grain, like Washington, is also learning on the job. He makes some pretty serious mistakes, but when Washington wants something accomplished on a large scale, it's generally Grain that he turns to. In fact, not long after the completion of the Grand Forage, which is about, which is in March of 1778, Grain will be appointed quartermaster general of the Army. So basically, the senior officer in charge of getting supplies for the Army, Grain doesn't want it. He wants a field command. He's going to have to wait for a couple of years for that to happen, but Grain does a pretty good job. In fact, when he goes to the Southern Theater in 1781, he will fight an incredibly complex and successful campaign against the British. He never wins a battle, but he wins the big campaign. He wins at the strategic level. Now, who's serving under him? To his right is Brigadier General Anthony Wayne. Now, at first, Wayne was supposed to command this expedition. Wayne's a local boy. He's from Waynesboro. He's been a politician. He's a surveyor. He knows the area. He knows the people, but Washington decides, you know, this is a pretty important operation. I'm taking a gamble because he has to collapse his security line, bring in all of his best armed, best prepared, best equipped soldiers to send them out on this expedition. And so he decides that Grain has to do it, but he wants to make sure that Grain has got his own right-hand man. And that's going to be Wayne. And so Wayne will be in charge of the expedition when Grain orders him to do so, to cut across the Delaware River and head into New Jersey. Now, somebody who's operating as a part of this much larger effort, but reporting directly to Washington, is Captain Henry Lee, Jr. And that's the fellow third from the right, that handsome fellow, that portrait is taken of him when he was a Lieutenant Colonel. But Captain Lee comes from Tidewater, Virginia, aristocracy, the gentry. Washington has known him since he was a young boy. Washington's familiar with him. Lee is probably one of the finest light cavalry officers in the war, both sides. He has initiative. He's smart. He's a careful observer of things. He makes quick decisions. He's something of a hothead. And he does make his own mistakes, but Washington selected right when he picked him. To Lee's right is Captain John Berry. Berry, an Irishman who emigrates to America, he commands what is left of the Continental Navy on the Delaware River. He had previously had a frigate, so a three-masted ship armed with, oh, say, 30 guns designed for scouting, but also attacking enemy shipping. With the British approaching up the Delaware River, he decided to scuttle his ship, in other words, sink it purposely. What he's got now are a bunch of whale boats, essentially large row boats along the river that he can use. And Berry has got a real take charge attitude. He's also incredibly aggressive. Throughout all of this, or even before this expedition, he and his men had been going up and down the river attacking British shipping, not the warships, but the supply ships. They tended to be lightly armed, often un-escorted. And so his men would attack them, take what they could, and set fire to them. They'd take the supplies and forward those to the army. Well, when Green sets out in February of 1778, and after a couple of weeks of going around, he'll decide that he's going to cut Wayne loose. Now, before that happened, Green had been very scrupulous about giving receipts to local farmers. Nobody wants to have their goods taken from them. So Washington had ordered him to give receipts so that people can get compensated. Still, nobody likes to have anything seized from them. One of the problems facing everybody is the fact that continental money was pretty worthless. So people took to sequestering, in other words, hiding their goods. This gets Green rather annoyed. So Green decides, if you sequester, if you hide your goods, and my men have to search for them, I'm going to seize them, and you will receive no compensation whatsoever. He writes to Washington, I hear their cries, but like Pharaoh, I harden my heart. Green proves himself a pretty tough customer. At one point early on, a couple of farmers try to bring supplies into British lines. Some of his soldiers capture them. He orders them triced up, in other words, seized by their wrists to trees or perhaps to spawn tunes, which are short spears carried by officers as badges of rank. Has their shirts stripped off, and he orders each arm to receive 100 lashes from a whip. Why? Because Green wants to send a message. Thou shalt not supply the British. He cuts Wayne loose. Wayne makes his way to Wilmington. When he's in Wilmington, Delaware, he meets up with Captain Barry. What a great coincidence. He talks to Barry and asks him, hey, would you mind ferrying my soldiers across the river to Salem? Barry says, sure, why not? I'd be happy to. He then asks them, would you also do me a favor, seal that marsh hay along the river banks? That's good stuff for feeding cattle and horses. Would you set fire to it while my men are across the river in New Jersey gathering supplies for the army? That way, that will help distract the Royal Navy from coming after me. Barry says, I'd love to set fire to things for you. So those two work incredibly well together. As Wayne is marching his way northward, he will have some close scrapes. It's at this time that finally General Howe decides to dispatch soldiers against these Americans who are out. Howe had not moved while Green was out in the field, but with Wayne across the river, he decides, and these are the words of one participant, to have a slap at Mr. Wayne. So he sends the elite of the British army, the Light Infantry Brigade. These are the most intelligent and athletic soldiers that the army has. They're ferried downriver by the Royal Navy. They land at Salem and they start going after Wayne. Wayne is at Raccoon Creek. He gets out just ahead of the British Light Infantry. One of the things that an observer, the Reverend Nicholas Collins, who was the pastor of the Swedish church there, wrote in his journal was that the continental soldiers who had been there, while they looked like a bunch of armed ragamuffins, they were well behaved. They were well disciplined. They didn't steal things. When the British army came in, all of them uniformed, well armed, looking like soldiers, they had to be watched. He determined that British soldiers were little better than petty thieves. They had to be watched by their own officers. Otherwise, they would steal small goods from people's homes, steal a poultry, kill it, use it for their own, to feed themselves. Colin really got to experience some of the harm, some of the dangers and the fears that accompanied armies being near him. Let's go ahead and talk a little bit more about Henry Lee. When Lee heads into Delaware and Maryland, he sends close observations to Washington, letting Washington know that there are deserters by the hundreds in his estimation hiding along the riverbanks, deserters from both armies, also people he referred to as the disaffected, people who didn't support either the American or the British cause, people who just wanted to be left alone, which was probably most people living during this conflagration, the American War for Independence. Lee maintains an account book, and I'll talk to you about that a little bit later, which was a great source of information for me. Next slide, please. So who are the people that General Howe dispatches? You'll see on the left, Colonel Sterling. He commands the 42nd Regiment of Foot. Most people will know it better as the Black Watch, the Royal Regiment of Scotland today. He's got a large outfit, and they will land at Cooper's Ferry, today's Camden, and work their way south, well actually work their way inland before they're supposed to turn southward. Now, to his right, General Abercrombie, or Colonel Abercrombie then, who commanded the Light Infantry Brigade, he's landing to the south. So now it seems that Wayne is sandwiched between two more powerful forces. He's outnumbered probably somewhere like eight to one. Wayne has got to rely on his wits. Under Sterling, you'll see John Graves Simcoe. He's the fellow with a silver epaulet on his right shoulder. Now, for those of you who watch the series turn, I've got news for you. Simcoe was not a homicidal maniac. He was actually an incredibly smart, thoughtful, intelligent soldier, and he commands the Queen's American Rangers. His outfit is probably one of the best provincial, in other words, loyalist units in the British Army. And in fact, Simcoe thinks his army is unit, rather, is just as good as any regular outfit. What about the fellows who can, who ferry them across the river? Well, they're under the command of Captain Andrew Snape Hammond, the gentleman on the far right. Hammond's a competent officer. He is an experienced sailor, and he does bang up work for the British Army. Why do we refer to them as the B team? Each one of these soldiers was a fine soldier in his own right. The thing that's lacking for them is somebody to control everything that's happening, just as how needed a higher authority, a viceroy, really, someone to coordinate and control and craft strategy in America. So, too, did these soldiers in New Jersey need somebody, a general officer, to coordinate and control and craft the operations that would take place there? They, unfortunately, did not have that. So, once the Light Infantry and the Scots land in New Jersey, they'll make some short approaches. They'll come close to capturing Wayne, but they start doing what the British Army had been doing all winter, and that's foraging for their own supplies. One of the British Army's rules of thumb at this time was to have six months of supplies on hand. There were only a couple of times, however, throughout the war that the British Army ever had that. So, General Howe spends most of his time sending his soldiers out looking for supplies rather than actually looking for battle. And this is a pattern that his subordinates fell into once they got into New Jersey. And because of this, Wayne was allowed really to escape and to make his way northward with several hundred head of cattle. I don't have the exact numbers. I have not been able to find any actual accounts on this. So, they'll move along. Let's go ahead to the next slide. Now, soldiers rations, and I'll talk about this slide in just a minute. Soldiers rations were roughly 2,000, 3,000 calories. That's a lot, but you're expecting a lot of physical exertion on the part of soldiers. For the Continental Army, this happens more often in the breach than in actuality. One of the things that we see is that Continental soldiers, when they're out on patrol, they're constantly looking for food just as much as they're looking for British soldiers. So, this foraging expedition was incredibly important. Washington is trying to feed the army. He had written actually just before launching it in February that he's afraid that the army is going to have to disperse. In other words, it will have to lead Valley Forge. By doing that, he would have to surrender control with the ability to challenge the British for control of southeastern Pennsylvania. He doesn't want to do that. That seeds way too much advantage to the British. So, this whole search for food drives much of this. And as I noted earlier, food becomes something of a weapon in all of this, in this struggle for the contest of people's affections. Now, I'd like to get back to Captain Hammond for just a moment. You've got a couple of navigation charts. Now, if you look on the left, you'll see a chart of the Delaware River. And it's a little bit difficult to make out, but if you zoom in with your eyes, you'll notice the soundings. And that tells you just how deep the river is. You can see it's a winding river. Now, if you go to the right, you can see much more closely the approaches to Philadelphia. The shipping channels were incredibly narrow. One of the things that Hammond wrote in 1779 during parliamentary testimonies was, I don't know any river so difficult of navigation. And this is particularly so at Edtide. The Delaware River, because it is so closely tied in with the Atlantic Ocean, is an estuary. So it's subject to the rise and fall of the tides just as the Atlantic Ocean is. And so when the river was flowing much more fastly as it was ebbing out, this meant that it was difficult for his sailing ships to maintain position. It was really difficult to sail upriver in particular. He also noted that just about everywhere along this river, his ships were within artillery range, in other words, cannon of the enemy, so very dangerous. So while the British did have an advantage of movement along the river, they also, some of this advantage was mitigated by Mother Nature and Mother Nature assisting the Continental Army. Next slide, please. So to get back to rations, you can see here the Continental Army, and the same goes for the British Army, was probably one of the most conspicuous engines of consumption that anybody could imagine. You can see how many millions of pounds of food that it needed. Now, each soldier gets a daily ration. Washington at most commanded perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers in December. The reason that it shows 23,000 and 61 rations is because officers received extra rations, and that's to take care of servants and also for senior officers. They're expected to host junior officers at the table, part of the customs of being an officer in the 18th century. Not all of the numbers are known, but these are the best ones that we have. Next slide, please. Guess what? Animals need to be fed as well. So besides looking for food to feed soldiers, these foragers were also looking for supplies to feed the cattle, to feed the horses. You can see what experts of the era recommended that horses and cattle be fed. In one case, 20 pounds of hay daily for a horse. That's a lot. Multiply that by the number of horses that are in the area. One of the things that Washington orders is that officers get rid of their horses, except for the senior ones. So no junior officer was to have a horse because it meant too much of a strain on the supply system. Let's go to the next slide. So I've mentioned Captain Lee's account book. One of the things that I think is vital for us as students of American history, and even though I've held my degree for over 20 years and I've been a professor for over 20 years, I consider myself a student of history. I'm still learning. This account book really spoke to me. And you can see these names that I've circled. Negro Joseph, Negro Sam, Negro Henry, Negro Jack, Negro David, Negro Cuff. These are the names of enslaved wagon drivers. This really brought home to me the fact that these were the unfree in service to a cause for white political freedom. So it adds to the complexity and I think the richness of the American story. It's more than just black and white. There are so many shades of gray. It's kaleidoscopic. And so the past, in other words, is very much as complex and as complicated and as challenging as it is in everyday life for all of us. When I was looking at the rations to kind of go back to that subject, I did not encounter any records of rations for women. One of the things that you would have found in the camp were camp followers, women who served as laundresses, women who helped serve as something of nurses for soldiers. There's a larger community of this. But nothing really that in terms of what I was looking for. Next slide, please. So what we see here is a wonderful painting held at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. The Return of the Foraging Party. It conveys everything that I've talked to you about this afternoon. It conveys so much about this. So I hope that you'll keep in mind that Valley Forge is more than just the mythic tale that so many of us as Americans grow up with. It's actually a story of a maturing army, a maturing commander in chief, George Washington, a maturing set of commanders like Nathaniel Green, Anthony Wayne, also Henry Lee. This is an army that was not just there suffering in silence. It was an army that was going out and doing the stuff that modern armies recognize that modern armies do today. It's part of our story as Americans. And I'd like to thank the National Archives for hosting me this afternoon and all of you for tuning in and joining me and listening to this little bit about feeding Washington's army, surviving the Valley Forge winter of 1778. Thank you. If there are any questions, I'd be more than happy to take them. All right, well, thank you very much and I wish you all well.