"He Himself Will Share in the Hardship, and Partake of Every Inconvenience": Finding George Washington at Valley Forge

Summary

Recent excavations at General Washington’s Headquarters at Valley Forge have provided a somewhat rare glimpse of the Continental Army’s Commander in Chief. The house occupied by the General during his six month stay at the Valley Forge encampment served as both Washington’s residence and fulfilled the role of headquarters of the entire rebel army during that period. Excavations at the site yielded a great deal of information about everyday life at headquarters, as well providing insight into how the militarization of a domestic landscape manifests in ways which are both subtle and overt. Headquarters serves as a prime example of how such sites must be viewed as neither strictly military nor domestic spaces, but as places where Washington and other high-ranking personnel negotiated between their private and professional lives to normalize their experiences during wartime.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeological Perspectives on the World of George Washington   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 412