Philadelphia – A Traveling Fool

After the British captured Philadelphia in 1777 and the Continental Army failed to retake it, George Washington set up camp at Valley Forge for the winter. Log huts were constructed to house the roughly 12,000 people who would be there for about six months. During the time in encampment there, nearly 2,000 died from disease (typhoid, influenza, small pox, typhus, dysentery) and malnutrition (as supplies were inconsistent).

The encampment included soldiers from all thirteen colonies. English was not necessarily the first language of all of them. The group was also racially mixed as the soldiers included free blacks and Native Americans. The Continental Army was the most racially mixed ever in the US until after World War II.

The time was spent drilling and training in order to make the army a better disciplined, efficient group. These were not professional soldiers, but farmers, shopkeepers, etc. One of the biggest myths about Valley Forge was that it was freezing and buried in snow all winter. This wasn’t quite true although it definitely wasn’t a day at the beach.

The Marquis de Lafayette had joined Washington by this point. He and other officers, such as Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton and Captain Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, were housed in local stone buildings. The log buildings there now are all reproductions, but the stone buildings (including Washington’s headquarters) are original.

In Philadelphia, our first stop was the Art Museum where Rocky ran up the steps as part of his boxing training. Some of our group attempted to run up the steps themselves. Knowing that I wouldn’t get far with running, I chose to walk up at a steady pace. I ended up passing up several of the others who had started out running and ran out of air.

From the museum steps, we got a good view of the back end of another equestrian statue of George Washington. Off in the distance was City Hall with a statue of William Penn on top.

Next came a stop at the Liberty Bell. At the time I was there in 2010, excavations were taking place on the foundations of the house where George Washington lived as President. John Adams also lived there until the White House in Washington, DC was built. A memorial to the President’s house was under construction at the same time. Not much to take photos of at the time as what was there was behind fences and scaffolding. It looked like it was going to be pretty cool once completed.

We had special tickets to see the inside of Independence Hall with times on them. We just had to be at the entrance by the time stamped on the ticket. So, in addition to saying “hi” to the Liberty Bell and checking out what I could of the President’s House, I took a walk to the Graff House where Thomas Jefferson stayed and wrote the Declaration of Independence. I didn’t have time for the film, but dashed up the stairs to the two rooms Jefferson rented.

This time at Independence Hall, we weren’t herded around like the prior visit and I was able to see everything I wanted to see. I could take my time getting photos. The famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was not exactly accurate as the whole process took several days and not all of the men were in the same room at the same time. But they did have their special chairs at the various tables in the room just like the arrangement that can be seen there now.

After I left Independence Hall, I went by Congress Hall, which was the first location of the US Congress when the capitol was in Philadelphia. The Old City Hall was where the Supreme Court met in those days. Library Hall has a cool statue of Benjamin Franklin as part of the façade.

I checked out those buildings while on my way to Christ Church Burial Ground to see Franklin’s grave. The burial ground was begun in 1719 for the church which had been there since 1695. Franklin died in 1790. The grave was easy to find as it is near the fence not too far from the entrance. It is a very simple slab with just his name and his wife, Deborah’s name. Benjamin Rush, another signer of the Declaration, is also buried in that cemetery. He has a fairly simple slab, near one of the walls with a memorial next to it that was added later.

Baltimore, Maryland was our lunch stop before heading back to Washington, DC. Prior to colonization, the area that is now Baltimore was mainly a hunting ground for Native Americans. Once colonized, it grew fast due to its tobacco and sugar cane plantations. We were let loose in the Inner Harbor at a shopping center next to the USS Constellation, which is the only Civil War era tall ship still afloat.

Prior to the Civil War, the Constellation was involved in efforts to end the slave trade as part of the African Slave Trade Patrol. Once the war began, the ship remained in African seas for a while before being sent to patrol the Mediterranean. Eventually the ship returned to the Colonies as part of a blockade of Confederate ports.

Next time – back in Washington, DC to spend a day hopping on and off a sight seeing trolley.