Rare George Washington Free Frank From Valley Forge
It accompanied his letter of May 3, 1778, urging Gen. John Lacey to keep a “strict watch” out for the enemy, and defeat them
This is just the second Washington free frank from Valley Forge that we have carried in our three decades in the field
The Continental Army’s winter encampment at Valley Forge is legendary. The men suffered badly from the cold, sleeping in six-foot square tents made of canvas that were weak and cracked...
This is just the second Washington free frank from Valley Forge that we have carried in our three decades in the field
The Continental Army’s winter encampment at Valley Forge is legendary. The men suffered badly from the cold, sleeping in six-foot square tents made of canvas that were weak and cracked and didn’t provide sufficient protection from the weather. Clothing was in very short supply, and many soldiers had to go barefoot or wear only one layer of clothes (at one time 4,000 men were so destitute of clothing that they could not leave their tents). The food, when available, was inadequate. Smallpox and other diseases also ravaged the army at Valley Forge. By winter’s end, 5,000 men had died or left because of illness or the awful conditions. The entire American Army thereafter consisted of some 6,000 men huddled around campfires. The British, who were occupying Philadelphia, had some 15,000 well-supplied men in and around that city, and many more available in nearby New York.
On the night of April 30, 1778, two columns of British troops left Philadelphia and approached the Pennsylvania militia post at Crooked Billet under cover of darkness, determined to surprise the unsuspecting Americans. They were successful. The militia commander, Gen. John Lacey, wrote Washington at Valley Forge that, “The Alarm was So Sudden I had scarcely time to mount my Horse before the Enemy was within Musket Shot of My Quarters…My Loss is Near thirty Killed & wounded the numbers taken Prisoner cannot be ascertained I think it cannot be many – Several were inhumanly Butchered after they had Surrendered…”
Washington responded on May 3, showing impatience with the fact that the Americans were surprised, and insisting that Lacey take a more aggressive stance (as he [Washington] would have done): “I received yours of yesterday giving me an account of your misfortune. You may depend that this will ever be the consequence of permitting yourself to be surprised…It is not improbable that the Enemy, flushed with their success, will soon be out again, if you keep a strict watch upon their motions you may perhaps repay them.”
This is the original free frank to that letter. It is addressed “To Brig. General Lacey“ in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and has Washington’s signature at lower left. At the right the date is docketed by the recipient. “The Writings of George Washington” contains the full text of the letter to Lacey, and its origination at Valley Forge.
This is just the second Washington free frank from Valley Forge that we have carried in our three decades in the field.
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