We are just about to start my annual blogging about the Gulph Mills Encampment (GME) during the Revolutionary War, which occurred from December 13 to 19, 1777. I’ve been writing about the Gulph Mills Encampment since 2011, when I really discovered and started studying it, because it is a very much overlooked, yet very important period in our Nation’s history. My latest article, Valley Forge’s Threshold: The Encampment at Gulph Mills, the Journal of the American Revolution, is at http://allthingsliberty.com/2019/11/valley-forges-threshold-the-encampment-at-gulph-mills. I write about the unsettled state of the Continental Army and our new nation on the lead up to the Gulph Mills Encampment and then cover each day of the encampment individually.

This year, I’m so excited because I am in the midst of writing a full-length, non-fiction book on the Gulph Mills Encampment called, The Threshold to Valley Forge: The Gulph Mills Encampment. It will be published by Brookline Books, a Pennsylvania-focused imprint of Casemate Books, a publisher of military history, in Fall 2024.

In the process of writing that book, I’ve done a lot of research of primary documents related to the GME. I’ve been honored and fascinated to discover even more information about the importance of the GME. And, it has been thrilling to actually touch and hold documents that our soldiers, government officials, and every day citizens wrote during those important days in December 1777.

So, this year, I am going to post some of those documents to give the reader an idea of what will be included in my new book and a greater understanding of the importance of the much-overlooked Gulph Mills Encampment.

I’m starting with today, December 10, in 1777. The attached photo is of the Order of March of the Continental Army that was submitted to General Washington by General John Sullivan. The entire Continental Army of about 11,000 soldiers was to assemble at 4 o’clock on December 11 to cross the Matson’s Ford across the Schuylkill River and move from Whitemarsh, where the army had headquartered for about a month, on the eastern side of the river, into Gulph Mills, on the western side of the river. The first group that was to cross was the Pennsylvania Militia, which was under the command of Brigadier General James Potter.

I hope you enjoy my writing up to December 19, which was the day the Continental Army left Gulph Mills and marched into Valley Forge. Check back here tomorrow for the Battle of Matson’s Ford.

If you would like to contact me about any of this, please email me at svanceauthor@gmail.com.

Best,

Sheilah Vance