Here are the huts of Washington's guard, reconstructed at Valley Forge.
According to Thomas Fleming (Washington's Secret War), a "little-discussed aspect of Valley Forge" was the relative comfort of the officers compared to the enlisted soldiers. He describes the "jollitry" they report on their leaves, while in the meantime, the soldiers--mainly poor and from the bottom of American society--were suffering from starvation, disease and cold.
Today, we are bombarded with rhetoric about the "middle class," the "99%" and so forth. We have a Congress whose members travel the world on "fact-finding" missions. When is the last time a Congressional delegation went to Camden, New Jersey--reported in 2012 by the U.S. Census as the poorest city in America?
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