When students of the Revolutionary War hear the words Valley Forge, they probably think of an iconic image: Gen. George Washington kneeling in the snow, surrounded by log cabins, praying for aid.
The Continental Army endured the winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge, while the British hibernated in nearby Philadelphia. It was that winter, so the semimythologized story goes, that the Americans were sharpened from a ragtag militia that had done little more than strategically retreat during the war's first two years into a force capable of challenging the redcoats.
But before Valley Forge became the "Valley Forge" of American military history, it had already played a smaller, unofficial role in the fight for independence.
