PENNSYLVANIA: York, Battle of the Clouds, Massacre at Paoli, Valley Forge
For months I’ve been waiting until seasonal attractions are back… in season. There are many places of interest open only for short stints of time, not year round, so research trips have to be planned according to availability, not necessarily event chronology.
The first weekend in April brought the opening of the 2026 tourist season at the Colonial Complex in York, Pennsylvania. York was where the Continental Congress fled to while the British occupied Philadelphia from late-September 1777 to mid-June 1778. The mile-wide Susquehanna River served as a natural barrier between the Americans and Crown forces. General Horatio Gates, the “hero of Saratoga” (who took credit from an officer named Benedict Arnold), was after George Washington’s job. “To our commander-in-chief, his Excellency General George Washington, without whom the cause would be of course hopeless.” Raising a glass to General Washington’s health, it is said, was a firm reminder to Gates and the newly formed Board of War, that Lafayette supported Washington, and questioned their plans for an incursion into Canada. Washington and Lafayette had ostensibly “adopted” each other — the Marquis as the son Washington never had, and Washington acting as a surrogate father-figure for the orphaned Lafayette.
In front of the house rented by General Gates stands a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette, holding a glass in salute. The banquet where he gave his toast had been held on the second floor.
After staying the night in York, I got up early to watch the live-stream of sunrise Easter service from Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg–Jesus Christ is risen indeed!–and then hit the road. Thank goodness for hmdb.org and embedded gps coordinates with maps. I found the Battle of the Clouds marker in front of the old White Horse Tavern (private property), and then the park where there are several markers in honor of the Massacre of Paoli.
The clouds got darker and lower… and by the time I reached Valley Forge, it was cold and rainy wet. The park ranger at the Potts House, which General Washington rented as his headquarters, said the weather gave an accurate portrayal of the damp and mud the army experienced at Valley Forge. One of the rangers at the Visitors Center talked with me for more than half an hour, answering my questions.
I spent most of my afternoon between the general’s headquarters–where Martha Washington joined her husband for the campaign’s winter months before going back to Mount Vernon in the spring–the stable, Life Guard huts, depot, and Visitors Center. The Washington Memorial Chapel bookstore’s door was locked. The reconstructed Muhlenberg encampment with its window-less huts and nearby redoubts, stirred some ideas and a desire to learn more about the parson-turned-officer, Peter Muhlenberg.
The drive home was not bad, as thankfully the rain tapered off by then. I almost finished listening to The Noble Smuggler by Sian Ann Bessey, but I kept cutting off the volume so I could replay the details I learned in the 48-traveled-hours, and mull over how to incorporate them into the third manuscript for my Sovereign Liberty Series.
April 4-5, 2026/ter
