The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [204]
. . . General William Howe is officially recalled, his duties concluded as commander-in-chief of British forces in North America . . .
The order was brief, and the final paragraph cut slowly into him like a cold steel sword. His successor had been notified, was already making preparations to sail for Philadelphia. Henry Clinton was now in command of the army.
33. WASHINGTON
MAY 3, 1778
HE HAD BEGUN TO HEAR RUMORS, VARIOUS CIVILIAN VISITORS BRINGING their own version of what might be happening in France. It was all annoyingly vague, and Washington had finally written to congress, requesting some official confirmation, some hint that the rumors might actually be true. But no reply had come, a strange silence from the men who were supposed to know so much about every current event, especially if it involved negotiations with the French government. He considered riding to York himself, to face the men who brought the rumors from France, or those who had the letters in hand. But a journey away from Valley Forge was not a wise idea, even for a day or two. While spies had reported little movement by the enemy, he could not risk a sudden assault from Philadelphia. And there were concerns closer to home. The spring warmth had turned the camp into a quagmire of mud, and with it came always the danger of disease. His priority had to be Valley Forge. What was occurring in France, and what they knew of it in congress, would simply have to wait.
He had ordered a general cleansing of the camp, the cabins emptied of all bedding, the accumulated decay opened up to the warm air. With the cabins clean, the focus turned to the men, and Washington was delighted by the sudden arrival of supplies of soap and vinegar. The men were lined up along the banks of the Schuylkill, and each man was instructed to bathe, allowing himself no more than ten minutes in the water. Washington had always believed, as did his doctors, that immersing a man’s body in water for a lengthy soaking could inspire a variety of illnesses. But the caution expressed in his orders was hardly necessary. Despite the welcoming bath, every man who stepped gingerly into the river realized that winter was not so far behind them after all. Even this late in the season, the waters of the river were cascading down from melting ice far upstream. Any man who could actually endure a full ten-minute bath found his skin turning blue.
With the warming air came the pungent aroma of the filthy ground around the cabins. Squads of men were given shovels, the alleys and narrow roads scraped clean, the rancid dirt hauled away. With the melting of the snow, the grass had returned to the fields, and though it was not ideal feed for the horses, they were allowed to graze, as were the small herds of cattle that began to arrive on the hardening roads.
The wagons were arriving with a frequency that surprised everyone in the camp. With a new spirit, and the authority that Greene carried straight into the halls of congress, the supplies had begun to move, a slow trickle that was now widening into a steady flow. From the docks of New England, from the warehouses in Baltimore and Norfolk, wagons were pressed into service, drivers were encouraged by soldiers to perform with a new energy. Even before the weather offered relief to the huddled nakedness of the soldiers, Washington’s army began to see meat again, and flour that was untainted by