I grew up in (Mad Anthony) Wayne, PA, a few minutes drive from Valley Forge. We used to go there frequently when I was a kid. As young boys are wont to do we used to play "army" in the park. Back then you could still go into the "star fort" earthen embankments and run around the periphery - up and down, up and down - great fun. We would crawl up on the cannons and "fire" them. We were even allowed to play in the little log huts that the men quartered in!
It was some years later that we visited the park in the dead of winter when the horror of the place struck me. The abject misery that those men endured is unimaginable. Countless died and thousands were damaged for life. To think that the Americans not only survived the ordeal but then mounted a full assault across the river is astounding!
"Naked and starving as they are we cannot enough admire incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery"
Washington at Valley Forge February 16, 1778