Washington's cabin unearthed in Valley Forge
Published: Tuesday, July 06, 2010
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By Keith Phucas, Journal Register News Service
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Archaeologists excavate the cabin behind Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge National Historical Park.
UPPER MERION — Archaeologists believe they’ve found evidence of a log cabin Martha Washington mentioned in a letter to a friend 232 years ago while she was visiting her husband in Valley Forge.
When National Park Service archaeologists began digging behind Washington’s Headquarters this summer, they spotted soil discoloration indicating a log cabin Gen. George Washington had built behind the headquarters to use as a dining hall for himself and his top military advisers during the six-month Revolutionary War encampment, according to Joe Blondino, the park’s field director for the public archaeology project.
On Thursday, Blondino pointed to a long, narrow patch of darkened earth in the area being excavated behind the headquarters.
“This discoloration actually represents the trench that was dug to lay in the first log, the sill log, of the log cabin that was here,” he said.
During the Continental Army’s stay at Valley Forge, Washington, his aides, servants and wife all lived and worked together in the small headquarters house. To ease the cramped conditions in what some historians have dubbed the “1778 Pentagon,” the general had a cabin constructed.
During the encampment, from Dec. 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778, British troops occupied Philadelphia. The cabin served as both a dining hall and war room for Washington and his men.
“They were having some serious discussions during their meals,” Blondino said.
Historians discovered a fleeting mention of the wood structure in a 1778 letter Martha Washington wrote to her friend Mercy Otis Warren, whom she told, “... the General’s appartment is very small; he has had a log cabin built to dine in which has made our quarters much more tolarable than they were at first.”
“Many of us have known about this letter for some time,” Blondino said, but up until this year, the archaeologists didn’t know where the structure had been erected.
Park Ranger Ajena Rogers, who interprets history at the park for visitors, said the general’s wife lived with her husband at the camp.
“Martha Washington stayed at Valley Forge four months out of the six,” she said.
Rogers said other wartime encampments during the American Revolution include Cambridge, Mass., Morristown, N.J., Middlebrook, N.J. and Newburgh, N.Y.
Blondino, Carin Boone and Katie Cavallo, all season park employees, are digging 5-foot-square grids to excavate centuries-old remnants of the structure estimated to be about 24 feet long and 20 feet wide.
“Actually, we got really lucky,” Blondino said. “Normally, in archaeology you make your big, exciting discovery on the afternoon of your last day in the field. In this case, on our first day, we opened this 5-by-5-foot unit right here, and we started to see that soil discoloration, that soil stain, immediately.”
Last summer, the group found broken pottery, animal bones and other artifacts buried in “trash pits.” Their recent finds include a makeshift smoking pipe and shards of china.
“We got a very fancy Chinese export teapot,” he said.
A fragment of the teapot and other excavated items are on display at the newly-renovated train station just up the hill from the headquarters.
On Thursday, volunteers helped to sift the unearthed soil. When items are dug up, they get cleaned in a makeshift lab at the site. Park visitors are invited to watch the excavation and talk to the workers.
Blondino, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Temple University, considers himself a “dirt archaeologist” because he enjoys the fieldwork side of his profession.
Blondino and Ajena Rogers are both graduates of James Madison University in Virginia. Rogers’ major was physics. She’s worked at Valley Forge since 1997.
Rogers showed a copy of the bill for “100 pounds Pennsylvania currency” Washington paid Issac Potts for the use of his property during the historic winter.
In recent years, she has portrayed Hannah Till, a slave who cooked for Washington at Valley Forge, during historical presentations at the park. Rogers is pictured in period dress as Till in the train station’s new display.
“Portraying the character has been very emotional for me because it has allowed me to help bring out a story of a person you don’t usually hear about,” she said.
Rogers learned through her research that Till earned her freedom working for the general on the campgrounds that eventually became the national park. The recent dining cabin discovery brings the park ranger even closer in spirit to the woman she’s dramatized.
“So just having those (historical) finds is indescribable; to make the connection across all those years to a person who I feel I’ve gotten to know very well,” she said.
The dig continues until July 17, Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. To learn more about archaeological excavation near Washington’s Headquarters, go to
www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/valleyForge.htm.
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