| Description | Philadelphia, details of General Washington's intended movements, his winter quarters fixed at Valley Forge on the Schuylkill 22 miles from Philadelphia, "with design to cover and command the supplies of the peninsula between Delaware and Chesapeak, to have easy access to the Jerseys and keep up the communication with the Eastern provinces, to secure his retreat over the Susquehanna and until then to cut off supplies from the city", the quarters for his men are newly built huts or loghouses, very uncomfortable, cavalry and horses destitute of cover during severe weather, men nearly naked and both men and horses often reduced to the greatest distress from want of provision and forage, in consequence of which his army is diminished by disease and desertion
Enclosure, "Father Abraham's Pocket Almanac for the year 1778, being the third year of the independence of America, fitted to the use of Pennsylvania and the neighbouring states, containing the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of America, as proposed by Congress to the legislatures of the different states, Lancaster, printed by John Dunlap, in Queen Street"
For full description see HMC 14th report available in SRO Reading Room |