For landmarks, etc., of Valley Forge, see Lossing's Field-Book; Read's Geo. Read (p. 326), from the Ohio State Journal; Harper's Mag., lx., 660, April, 1880.
At the centennial celebration, June, 1878, there were addresses by Henry Armitt Brown (in his Memoir and Orations, edited by J. M. Hoppin), and one by Theodore W. Bean, printed in the Daily Local News, Westchester, Pa., June 20, 1878.
During this time, Oct.-Dec., Washington was kept informed of the British movements through the letters of Maj. Clark (Penna. Hist. Soc. Bull., vol. i.). There was in November a project discussed of taking Philadelphia by storm (Drake's Knox, 136). Congress was urging the States to renewed efforts (N. H. State Papers, viii. 728). Early in December Howe had tried to allure Washington to a battle near Chestnut Hill or Whitemarsh (Sparks, v. 180; Dawson, i. ch. 31). By the middle of December the American army had gone into winter-quarters at Valley Forge (Reed's Reed, i. 345), but not without having thought at the same time of an attack on New York (Ibid., 344).
Note.—This plan of the British works between the Delaware and the Schuylkill is sketched from the main portion of a drawing preserved in the Penna. Hist. Society, which bears the following indorsement: "The redoubts in the English lines are ten, beside two advanced ones. No. 1, which I took a plan of in the month of July, was then compleat, but the excessive heat of the weather and many avocations prevented our prosecuting the survey till October, by which time the wooden work of the other redoubts, as well as the abaties, were carried away, which rendered it uncertain how many platforms there were in each, but from what traces remained [I] believe I am right in nos. 2 & ten: the other seven [eight] varied so little from no. 2, that the plan of that may serve for the rest: I am equally uncertain whether the abatis ran in direct lines from redoubt to redoubt or formed angles, but know that each part terminated at about 20 feet from the counter-scarps of contiguous redoubts, these intervals being occasionally stopped up by chevaux-de-frize. All the 10 redoubts were well faced both within and without with strong planks, but the advanced redoubts and other small pieces were only faced with fascines. On the right of the line where small streams run through swampy ground an inundation was formed by sloping the arches of the bridges, and making dams were necessary, each furnished with a tumbling dam, well planked on the top and slopes of the main dam, to carry off superfluous water.
Lewis Nicola."
Enlarged plans and cross-sections of redoubts nos. 1, 2, and 10 are given in the margin, as well as of the western advanced redoubt, and other small works, including the "Barriers across Kensington and Germantown roads with a cremaillered work between them cut out of the bank between the roads." The stars near the lines denote the places of "houses destroyed by the English." Cf. description in Penna. Mag. of Hist., iv. 181.
