My Valley Forge Story: William Wilson

President Ford comes to Valley Forge, 1976. NPS/ William Wilson

The ghosts arrived early. The misty dawn had obscured the modern distractions. You could feel the ghosts of two hundred years past. The soldiers who had gathered – the Continental Army – the band of men who camped on these fields in the cold of winter, were watching. Yes, the President of the United States would be there, flying in by helicopter, to sign a bill making the area a national park, but in the early morning mist it was the turn of the ghosts.

You could see them on the snow-covered redoubts surveying the distant hill for any sign of an expected enemy advance. You could hear them as they huddled around the campfires cursing the fate that put them in this spot – ill clothed, under fed and facing a superior force.

President Gerald Ford on the Michigan Conestoga Wagon, 1976 NPS/ William Wilson

In the stone house that had been Washington’s headquarter you could hear the echoes of impatience, the concerns of a General in charge of an ill-equipped Army, dealing with the Continental Congress, that seemed incapable of decision.

It was appropriate that the area was a forge but metal wasn’t the only thing that was forged in the area. The most important thing was a spirit, an attitude that molded men from thirteen colonies into a unit. That unit persevered and prevailed over a better equipped superior force. During that cold bitter winter that attitude of positive strength was forged into a force for freedom and liberty.

President Ford addresses the audience at Valley Forge's Bicentennial celebration. NPS/William Wilson

It was to honor that spirit that people from across the country had gathered that July 4, two hundred years after the Declaration of Independence had been issued. The bright summer sun soon lifted the morning mists and the ceremonies marking the United States Bicentennial took place. President Ford delivered a major address, visited a covered wagon from Michigan and signed a bill making Valley Forge a National Park. It was one of several stops for him on a busy July fourth. His helicopter whisked him in and out on schedule, however the ghosts had come early.

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• Valley Forge National Historical Park

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