Estimate Of Illness And Death In 'Valley Forge'

One of the reasons I wouldn't quit Valley Forge is because 50% of the people were sick but only 15% died. In document A it says “3989 (about 4000) out of 8000 were sick or unable to report for duty.” By February 1st, about 50% of soldiers were sick. But sickness is common around this time. For example, in our classroom about half of our students were sick. (Doc A) “1800 out of 12000 died”. 1800 out of 12000 soldiers may sound like a lot but it is actually only 15%. That's only 15% of all the soldiers dying. That's pretty good for being the “UnderDogs” in a war. This still gives you an 85% chance of living. So I would stay.

Valley Forge is where George Washington and his troops sent camp for the winter. During camp the colonists trained hard and gained the confidence they needed to win the war. Unfortunately the lack of food and spread of disease caused many deaths during this harsh winter. If I had the choice to leave or stay at Valley Forge I would leave. I would not want to risk my life or have to suffer through the cold and sickness. According to Estimates of Illness and Deaths at Valley Forge (Doc A), during the encampment about 2,500 soldiers died. That is about ⅓ of the colonists fighting in the war. About 49% of the soldiers get sick. “I am sick-discontented-and out of humour. Poor food - hard lodging - Cold Weather - fatigue - Nasty Clothes - nasty

Valley Forge was a horrible event a lot of people got sick and even died from it, the army that lived there was the militia or continental congress’s army. They were really poor, they didn’t have enough food and they didn’t have the proper clothes that they needed for the winter, so most got hungry and died from starvation or died from illness because they didn’t have food and became very weak. When they slept, they had sixteen by fourteen huts that didn’t have a working chimney, so the smoke was always in their eyes.

The first reason I am staying in Valley Forge is, with so many soldiers dead or too sick to get out of bed, they need as many people as they can get. By this time, February 1, 1778, about half of the soldiers at Valley Forge are too sick to work. Another 1,800 to 2,500 are already dead. (Document A) This means that they are severely short on troops. If the British were to attack at this time and everyone was leaving, we wouldn’t fare very well.

Valley Forge atop such a high plateau was near completely cut off from supply routes making food, clothing, and weaponry very scarce. Soldiers were treated to the worst conditions possible at Valley Forge. Many were near naked and many were starving to death. Also dieses such as Dysentery and Typhus ran rampant at Valley Forge. These conditions alone accounted for the lives of hundreds of American soldiers that winter.

I am a Colonist and I can’t stand it here anymore so I have decided I am going to leave Valley Forge. In Estimates of Illness and Deaths at Valley Forge (DocA). Not all of the soldiers were able to survive. A lot of the soldiers got very ill at Valley Forge because of the weather. In the Diary of Dr. Waldo (Doc C). The army starts to get sick. There is very poor food for us at Valley Forge. The American Crisis by Thomas Paine (Doc D). It is a very difficult time for us to be there. It gets very cold at Valley Forge that is why it is a difficult time to be there. There is illness, poor food, and it is a difficult time that is why I would leave.

The first reason I will not re-enlist is because the sickness in 1777 to 1778 is a very easy disease to spread. The quote “ Sent here to starve and freeze” (Waldo 151) is harsh, especially for the people that are fighting for their country. As well as for the quote “ However, the most frequent time of re-enlistment was nine months… Others just simply deserted” (Roden 141) shows that they knew how hard the living was and that they needed to leave. In Document A it talks about the average people at Valley Forge in the beginning and the average after the sickness spread. So by looking at the chart I would have a 25% chance of living, and a 75% chance of dying.These reasons are causing me to not re-enlist because I would rather not die of a sickness but of old age. This whole paragraph is talking about how you can catch a sickness and may not survive.

In Document C, it says “I am Sick - discontented - and out of humour. Poor food - hard lodging - Cold Weather - fatigue - Nasty Clothes - nasty Cookery - Vomit half my time - Smok'd out my senses…” and much more. Essentially, everything about Valley Forge is terrible, such as the food, ventilation, clothes, and hard lodging. Even though the conditions were terrible, “Dr. Waldo suffered during his winter at Valley Forge but stayed loyal to the Continental Army as he helped other surgeons care for sick soldiers.” As well as “... spirit of Alacrity…” shown by the soldiers. This evidence is meaning even though the conditions were very bad, a lot of the other soldiers showed spirit and willingness, so I would have too.

There was a lot of sick people, but there was not a lot of people dying from the sickness. Firstly, in document A it stated there was “3,989 people sick out of the 8,000” who were there. So what that is saying there was about 50% of soldiers sick and in the Winter it is common to be sick especially in those conditions. Secondly there were only “1,800 out of the 12,000 men died in Valley Forge”(doc A). What this is saying is that there is only a 15% chance of dying and a 85% chance of living which that is pretty good odds. Also in the background essay it says “today we know that most of the army survived the winter. So, I would take those odds and stay at Valley Forge.

It is disgusting that people left Valley Forge on such short notice and be so selfish as to go because they don’t want to be hurt! Valley Forge would have needed all the help they could get. Take the diary of Dr. Albigence Waldo (Document D) for instance, Waldo tells us about the many hardships the soldiers went through in Valley Forge. They struggled with things like slim to non food, and all around just a terrible lifestyle. People were getting sick very very easily and most of them that caught any sickness, died from it. The passage The American Crisis (Document D) also informs us about thing such as honorability. If I were to die, I would want to die honorably, in battle and fighting for my country, were as if I were to leave I would most

Valley Forge was a winter camp that was 18 miles northwest from Philadelphia that the American Continental Army spent the winter from 1777-78 during the American Revolutionary war. There were many soldiers at Valley Forge, Many of them died, but many of them also lived. An approximate amount of soldiers at Valley Forge was 12,000 in December 1777 and 8,000 in February 1778. While many soldiers were sick or heave died, the remaining soldiers that survived were being trained by General George Washington. Though staying at Valley forge may have not been the right idea. In the “Estimate of illness and deaths at Valley Forge (Document A)” it shows how many soldiers were sick and how many soldiers

I am one of those people who would quit Valley Forge. Valley Forge is a winter camp that was developed in the year 1777 to prepare Washington’s army for war. The 18,000 soldiers would have to train for 7 months in the cold weather with limited supplies. I would leave Valley Forge, because from 18,000 healthy soldiers, soon became 7,000 soldiers getting ill, and 2,500 end up dying (Document A).

By December 23 1777, almost 25% of the soldiers in Valley Forge had perished from diseases (Document A) such as smallpox. In fact, even the doctors and some of the major leaders were beginning to catch some of these illnesses (Document C, December 14, 1777). Another purpose of leaving would be the mass starvation. Even by December 21, 1777, the army was out of any of their meat (Document C).

Under the leadership of General Washington, one-hundred and fifty-two soldiers were killed and five-hundred and twenty-one wounded. General Washington led his starving and freezing soldiers to valley forge for the winter and led some of his soldiers to dislike his leadership and leave the camp at Valley Forge. Valley Forge was a cold place, and the Continental Army was forced to live in damp and crowded living quarters causing disease to be all over the place. Conditions in the camp were horrible. General Washington's army of approximately twelve thousand had problems getting clothes or food to help them. Diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, typhus, and pneumonia ran rampant. An estimate of two thousand soldiers died in Valley Forge just from disease or lack of food. Morale plummeted and some of General Washington’s men decided to leave the

Valley Forge did not have many warm clothes to go around for everyone despite the fact that it was 33 degrees fahrenheit outside. The soldiers had to live through the cold, without warmth and without food. “Tyranny, like hell is not easily conquered…”(Doc. D). Comparing the camp to “hell” shows the struggle and tough decision that soldiers had to make.