Valley Forge Food: Meager Meal Firecake Poem by Terence George Craddock

inadequate supplies soldiers
received little meat
bread to sustain bodies

soldiers starvation suffered
sole nourishment sometimes
fed fed firecake tasteless

a mixture of flour and water
occasionally pepper pot
soup a dish of black

pepper-flavored tripe broth
would be supplemented
instead of fed firecake

Washington despaired
so severe conditions
were at times

Washington said 'that
unless some great
and capital change

suddenly takes place...
this Army must
inevitably... starve,

dissolve, or disperse,
in order to obtain
subsistence in the best

manner they can.'
a grim fate dread dire
hung over Valley Forge

even worse no supplies
desperate needed fresh
drinkable clean water

snow a water source
was limited found but
small in amounts

a layer of snow
often too thin to be successfully
collected melted

into drinking water
temperatures terrible
variable alternating

freezing melting snow
ice weather made it
impossible to keep dry

living in inadequate
shelter short food water
caused disease to fester

conditions dispiriting
cruel inflicted
upon men livestock

Washington's Chief of Artillery
wrote report animals
fared no better

General Henry Knox wrote
hundreds of horses
either starved to death

or died of exhaustion
700 horses had died
by the end of that winter


Terence George Craddock (Afterglows Echoes Of Starlight)
Copyright © Terence George Craddock