DBQ Essay: Valley Forge

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The temperature is below freezing. Snow piles up in drifts around you and the wind is lashing against your face. You have little to wear except for perhaps some scraggly stockings that are no match for the raging cold. The only heat source you have is a measly fire that clouds your lungs. Meals are scarce and meager. Your long and cold nights are spent lying on mud and straw on the floor. Crammed in tiny log cabin with twelve others, a number of which are sick, and for some, dying, you fear for your own life. A plethora of your comrades have left the army and gone home to their families. Your time to re-enlistment is nearing, and now you ponder…..will you leave and return home? It’s 1777, and you are one of the thousands of soldiers in George …show more content…
About half of the soldiers (or about 3,989 of them) were sick and suffering at Valley Forge (Doc A). Even worse, at least 1,800 soldiers, about a tenth of the army, were dying. That means that dozens and dozens of soldiers were dying per week. Document A also shows the number of dead soldiers could have been as high as 2,500, which means that about ⅕ of the army was dying, which would have caused me to leave, since if I was at risk for being included in the dozens of soldiers that were dying per week, then I would want to leave to avoid dying. Even if I just happened to not die, then there would be a 50/50 chance that I would get awfully …show more content…
In Document B, a painting, based on the caption of the painting as well as what can infer from the painting itself, we can see George Washington begging the Congressional Committee for supplies as he shows them that the soldiers have a desperate need for supplies such as food, shelter, and medical supplies. The soldiers seen in the picture are barefooted with no cloaks, and all seem very frustrated, hungry, and miserable, proving that there was an extreme need for basic necessities such as food, clothing, and protection. This would have caused me to leave because if I wasn’t getting the bare essentials needed to live, I would decide to return back home and choose to not re-enlist in order to get the proper care I
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Valley Forge Dbq Essay

Almost 2,500 people died in three months. In the winter of 1777 and 1778, George Washington and his army decided to camp at Valley Forge, about 18 miles away from Philadelphia. Disease and famine were not far behind though. In one month, an estimate of 2,898 soldiers were already getting illness. Some stayed and others left. Would you have given up if you were at Valley Forge? I would have quit because of disease, supplies, and weather. The first reason I would have left was because of disease. One…

Words 625 - Pages 3