Military History Field Trip, 11/04/2009

Our theme was the Battle of Germantown and the weeks after. After reading about the battle (and refighting it in a tabletop simulation), we retraced the steps of Washington's army from October 4 through December in 1777.

The first stop was Cliveden, the home of the Chew family in 1777. Here, British light infantry held off the main column of the Continental army, throwing a wrench into Washington's complex plan, which depended on the co-ordination of four divisions on the foggy morning of October 4. The troops here were also the ones who had perpetrated the Paoli Massacre, perhaps giving Washington added cause for reducing the Chew House before moving on.






Then, we headed to Rittenhousetown, near the site of where Washington had ordered his Pennsylvania militia to assault the Hessian positions on the other side of the Wissahickon Creek. Here, we got a sense of how terrain effects battlefield decisions. It's not surprising that the militia commander decided that an attack was not feasible.







Our next stop was St. Thomas' Church in Whitemarsh. Washington had decided to camp for the winter nearby (at a place known very well to our students) until a skirmish here convinced him that a site further away from Philadelphia would be more prudent. He chose, of course, Valley Forge.










Here, we once again surveyed the terrain to understand Washington's decisions to choose Valley Forge as a site and why he arranged the camp as he did. We inspected the winter quarters to get a sense of the ordeal the Continental Army had to endure at Valley Forge. We also chased deer, abandoned Voltaire, and goofed around on cannon.