On December 18, 1777, General George Washington’s army celebrated the first national Thanksgiving in Gulph Mills and on Rebel Hill. The celebration caused a one day delay in the army’s march to Valley Forge, which General Washington had decided a day earlier, was to be where the army would make its winter quarters.
The purpose of the Thanksgiving, according to the November 1, 1777 proclamation of the Continental Congress, was for “Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise” and “to inspire our Commanders both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty GOD, to secure for these United States the greatest of all human blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE…”
Some of Washington’s soldiers recorded the menu of their “feast” in their diaries:
“We had but a poor Thanksgiven, Nothing but Fresh beef and Flour to Eate Without aney Salt & but very Scant of that.”
–Sergeant Ebenezer Wild, first Massachusetts regiment
“We had nothing to eat for two or three days previous, except what the trees of the fields and forests afforded us. but we must now have what Congress said, a sumptuous Thanksgiving to close the year of high living we had now nearly seen brought to a close. And what do you think it was ? …it gave each and every man half a gill of rice and a tablespoonful of vinegar!”*
–Joseph Plumb Martin, eighth Connecticut regiment
*One half-gill equals two ounces. The commissary often issued vinegar to the soldiers for use as a purifier and scurvy preventative. The men mixed the vinegar with canteen water rather than drink it full strength.
On December 19 the army marched 7 miles west on Gulph Road to the site selected for their winter camp — Valley Forge.
