Lunch & Learn | Threshold to Valley Forge: The Six Days of the Gulph Mills Encampment

Between December 12–19, 1777, General George Washington and the Continental Army encamped in the towering hills of Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. Often overlooked between the military engagements of the Philadelphia Campaign and the better-known winter at Valley Forge, the Gulph Mills Encampment was a pivotal moment in the Revolutionary War.

Join historian Sheilah Vance as she explores this critical yet often forgotten encampment, a microcosm of the challenges confronting the Continental Army, the Continental Congress, state governments, and ordinary Americans suddenly on the front lines of war. Through writings and documents from soldiers, generals, local residents, the British Army, the Continental Congress, the Pennsylvania General Assembly, and Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues in France, Vance draws out the fascinating story of military encounters with the British, shortages of food and shelter, the new nation’s first Thanksgiving, and Washington’s consequential decision to make Valley Forge the army’s winter quarters. Based on her new book, this program reveals the Continental Army’s last stand before moving into winter camp at Valley Forge.Before the Continental Army reached Valley Forge, it made a critical stop at Gulph Mills.

Free to attend; registration required.

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