Valley Forge was the military camp 18 miles northwest of Philadelphia where the american continental army spent the 1777 winter during the American Revolutionary War. Valley Forge was named after an iron forge on the Valley Creek in Whitmarsh, Pensilvania. Starvation, disease, and cold killed more than 2500 american soldiers. George Washington and 12,000 other men stayed at this encampment. Other notable people that stayed at the camp included Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and James Monroe. The camp had many diseases including small pox, typhoid, pneumonia, and dysentery. The 1777 patriot forces under general George Washington suffered major defeats against the British. They ended up camping for the winter 18 miles away from the enemy to regroup and train with a Prussian military trainer. The army left the camp with George Washington, exactly six months after arriving, on June 19, 1778.
Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge by Thomas Fleming