| Valley Forge Living History Day December 2006 |
| A shortcut turned into a history lesson on Sunday as we drove through Valley Forge National Historical Park. Vic noticed the troupe from upstate New York dressed in period clothes and encouraged me to hop out and shoot some photos. What an opportunity to learn new things! |
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| The re-enactors were sponsored by the First Nations of upstate New York and were portraying the 11th Rhode Island Regiment, which was fully integrated. I didn't know that! This woman was portraying Loretta, a seamtress who worked for George Washington and his army at Valley Forge. Washington had hired her and paid most of her wages to her 'master'. She was eventually able to buy her freedom from the sums that Washington withheld for that purpose. The regiment was full of free blacks and some Indians who all fought for the same purpose - to get rid of the British. Next I stopped to chat with teh ladies who were cooking supper for the troops. Many times the soldiers' wives and children camped with them. If the women worked for the army, they might get paid quarter or half rations. Venison soup was on the menu today, having just been hunted. |
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| Lucy is twelve years old and enjoys accompanying her parents to the re-enactments. She is demonstrating how to use a lucette to make cord for fastening womens' clothing. It was like the spool knitting things, but she kept flipping it to wind the thread. These three gentlemen in the field caught my eye next. I wondered why they weren't dressed in uniform. Here, they were Rangers, the colonists' version of guerillas. Their job was to wreak havoc on the British in any way they could imagine. They dressed in outfits which would tend to blend in with the woods, thereby making it easier to vanish into thin air. |
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| One of the Rangers showed me where he kept his charges . The long rifles use one of the charges, but the guns being used by the Rangers behind him acted like grenade launchers and used three to six charges to launch their one to three pound "grenades" into the lines of British soldiers as they marched in formation. The guns they used were too heavy for one man to carry and would require a contingent of three to five men to carry them and their ammunition from place to place. |
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| The troops waited as the Rangers set up a surprise attack against the British soldiers who were marching on their way to Phialdelphia. This Ranger leaves to join the rest after coordinating the attack with the uniformed troops. |
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