Personal Narrative: Valley Forge

As I peer through the thick smoke, reminding myself why I chose to come in the first place, I see a half dead man on the floor- begging for water. We don’t have enough food or clothes. There are very few of us left to fight against the redcoats. Even though on some days we are cheerful, we are starving and freezing. I am wondering if I should re-enlist or go back home. I just hope I will live to tell my story of Valley Forge. The huts are filled with thick smoke, people are sick and dying, but we are still cheerful. I have chosen to stay, or re-enlist because of the positive attitude of the soldiers, to fill in for the sick, dead, and deserters, and I want to represent our country- the reason I came.

My country needs me right now-every man

We are going to finish what we were asked to do, to do just that. I’ve been thinking about what Thomas Paine said in his pamphlet, “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” (Paine 153). I asked another soldier what he thought it meant and he said, the harder things are the bigger the win. I was talking to a poor man who just came to the army in Valley Forge. I was being so negative and telling him all the bad things that happen to the soldiers here. All he had to say was, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” (Paine 153) He said that we have come so far, and why would we stop now? Another soldier told us about another quote of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “ the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph” I have heard this quote so many times, and I wondered, what’s so special about it? George Washington came in and said that same quote then he said to us, “If we get something too easily we let it go too easily. Let this not happen to us.” I then knew. I must keep going, for the country I live in. The doctor said, “The Army has been surprisingly healthy hitherto…” If we “What we esteem too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” (Paine 153). If we get something too easily we let it go too easily. That will not be me. I will continue to fight and serve this country. This reason is causing me to re-enlist because I came here to serve my country, I am going to finish what I started. We are willing to die for our country so it can gain