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Essay On Getting Sick At Valley Forge Dbq

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Would anyone really want to go back to a place where there is barely any food, the living conditions are horrible, the risk of getting sick so great, and a high probability of dying even without the war beginning? Would anyone give up the comfort of a warm bed, the warmth of a cozy fire, the shelter of a home, and plenty of delicious food? This is the question that many faced during the terrible winters of 1777 and 1778. This is the choice that many young men who were forced to become soldiers to fight for their country had to make in those days. The time was the Revolutionary War, when Americans were fighting the British for freedom. George Washington’s army was camped at Valley Forge, eighteen miles northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. …show more content…

Document A shows that many soldiers had already gotten sick and died because of the sickness. There must have been a severe lack of medicine to heal the soldiers. Some of the diseases might not even have cures yet. And many of the diseases in the camp were highly contagious. If I had re-enlisted, I am pretty sure that I would have gotten sick and died from sickness myself. I would not be a good soldier at all, since what good is a sick soldier in a battle? I would be doing more harm than good. I would just be another soldier who would pass a sickness on to another soldier. If I even made it through the sickness, I would be so weak that I would surely lose to a British …show more content…

It was either horrible conditions or nothing at all. Document C, the diary of Dr. Albigence Waldo, shows evidence of one of the soldier’s experience of all the bad conditions at Valley Forge. The diary described the hard lodging that did not give much protection from the cold, harsh weather (Waldo). Many soldiers died because of the lack of shelter. How are we supposed to win the war if we are not even given a place to sleep? I could not be a good soldier if I were sick because I did not have a good place to rest. I would have been too weak to fight the British soldiers, like many of the others at Valley

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