Varnum's Quarters, Valley Forge, PA
Returning Home – Part Two
My brother, who has a very Patriotic birthday (today), and his wife have been living in the Philadelphia area for a long time, and although Norma and I stop often to visit them, we had never done many of the things most tourists to Philly do. This year, we went next door to Bob’s place and did an actual tour of Valley Forge park.
Bob’s home almost borders the Park, so we’d walked some of it before but had never really “done” the Park. Valley Forge National Historical Park is the site of the third winter encampment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War from December 19, 1777 to June 19, 1778. We visited the chapel that has plaques memorializing the participant colonies and their armies, and which has lots of other memorials to various people involved, including a nice statue of cousin General Nathanael Greene.
We then walked around the Park a bit and spotted the home shown in the image this week,
a stone farmhouse belonging to the Stephens family that was rented by Brigadier General James Mitchell Varnum during the Valley Forge encampment to serve as quarters for the General and office space for six other military staff. One quickly finds out about the trying conditions the Continental Army had during that harsh winter, but they used the encampment to retrain and rejuvenate, and in the end Valley Forge was a key turning point in the American Revolution.
I love visiting historic spots like this and getting an understanding of the things that our ancestors experienced.
A most worthwhile stop.
