The Encampment
After the British captured Philadelphia, General Washington marched the Continental Army to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for winter quarters. The army of approximately 12,000 men endured brutal cold, inadequate shelter, disease, and starvation. An estimated 2,000 soldiers died during the six-month encampment.
Vose’s 1st Massachusetts Regiment is documented in the Valley Forge troop lists. Despite the suffering, the winter proved transformative: Baron von Steuben arrived in February 1778 and retrained the army using Prussian drill techniques. The army that marched out of Valley Forge in June 1778 was a professional fighting force capable of meeting the British on equal terms.
Capt. Francis Green
Captain Green endured the Valley Forge winter with Vose’s regiment. His continued service through this period is confirmed in Heitman’s Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army and the Valley Forge muster rolls. Officers who survived Valley Forge formed the core of the professional Continental Army that fought at Monmouth and beyond.