In winter when there was no produce to be brought in and no way of securing provisions the story was not so bright. The conditions at Valley Forge are quite well known. How the rations were cut down until it was "Fire cakes and Water" for breakfast, and water and fire cakes for dinner[55] or how the soldiers ate every kind of horse feed but hay[56], and often they were without meat for eight or ten days[57] and longer without vegetables.
Supplies were gathered from every conceivable source, sometimes cows were part of the supply company, taken along for the purpose of supplying milk. One man writes in his diary his appreciation of a cow which supplied them milk on the march with Sullivan's expedition.[58]
The methods used at that time for cooking seem very simple and inefficient now. Huge bake ovens were built in the camp and whenever there was flour to use, bakers baked the bread for the camp.[59] The quality of the bread furnished in that way was certainly not beyond reproach for often it was sour and unwholesome.[60]
There were huts built for kitchens, one for each company and there the soldiers took turns cooking for their company[61] or else each soldier cooked his own food over an open fire. At times the fuel became so scarce that the fences[62] around the camp were torn down and burned, and after that the food had to be eaten raw because of the lack of fuel.[63] If there was material to be used for fuel and other supplies some distance from the camp, it was no uncommon sight to see soldiers yoked together acting the part of horses[64] in order to get the supplies to camp.
Today, this question of food for the revolutionary soldier, in the light of present day events, looks rather inefficient and unscientific.
When there was plenty the soldiers feasted, when food was scarce they fasted, but it must be remembered that there was no dependable supply, no directing force, and no distributing agency, and beside those hindrances there were no ways of preserving food as there are today.
A naked or half clothed army did not make a very imposing looking force, even if they did have a place to live and something to eat. They had to have something to wear if they were to meet the enemy on the field. Steuben wrote "The description of the dress is most easily given. The men were literally naked some of them in the fullest extent of the word. The officers who had coats had them of every color and make. I saw officers at a grand parade at Valley Forge mounting Guard in a sort of dressing gown made of an old blanket or woolen bed cover".[65] This description, no doubt was appropriate for part of the army, part of the time, but not for all the army all the time.
The troops as they were assembled at Boston did present a peculiar picture, each person wearing the costume best suited to his individual notion of a suitable uniform, with a tendency toward frill, ruffles, and feathers, each thinking that the gorgeousness added to the dignity and effectiveness of the whole. Some were in citizens clothes, some in the hunting shirt of the back-woodsman, and some even in the blanket of the Indian, for, it was the notion of some, that riflemen should ape the manners of the savage.[66]