After a hungry winter at Valley Forge
Meanwhile, the Americans at Valley Forge survived the hungry winter of 1777−78, which was made worse by quartermaster and commissary mismanagement, graft of contractors, and unwillingness of farmers to sell produce for paper money. Order and discipline among the troops were improved by the arrival of the Freiherr von (baron of) Steuben, a Prussian officer in the service of France. Steuben instituted a training program in which he emphasized drilling by officers, marching in column, and using firearms more effectively.
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The program paid off at Monmouth Court House, New Jersey, on June 28, 1778, when Washington attacked the British, who were withdrawing from Philadelphia to New York. Although Sir Henry Clinton, who had replaced Howe, struck back hard, the Americans stood their ground, as exemplified by Molly Pitcher, whose legend as the heroine of the battle spread afterward. Thereafter (except in the winter of 1779, which was spent at Morristown) Washington made his headquarters at West Point on the Hudson, and Clinton avowed himself too weak to attack him there.
French aid now materialized with the appearance of a strong fleet under the comte d’Estaing. Unable to enter New York harbor, d’Estaing tried to assist Maj. Gen. John Sullivan in dislodging the British from Newport, Rhode Island. Storms and British reinforcements thwarted the joint effort.
