Sentry Duty at Valley Forge: Paroles, Countersigns and Who Came to the Camp

A sentry at Valley Forge. Image from the National Park Service's page.

A revolution is not only fighting; some of the hardest parts of a war happen between the battles. At Valley Forge, the Continental Army's winter encampment, sentries stood guard and controlled who came into camp. Many of the people who arrived were soldiers; others were civilians who did not serve but helped the army in other ways; and some might be spies for the British. A sentry could fail both ways: let an enemy through, or turn away help the army badly needed — while cold, tired and hungry.

No fires on sentry duty

On November 21, 1777, about a month before Valley Forge, General George Washington ordered:

"The officers of the day report that Sentries from the picquets keep fires by them—This dangerous practice is absolutely forbidden; and all officers of guards are without fail to visit all their sentries between every relief, to see that they are alert, and keep no fires; and in cold and bad weather they are to relieve the sentries every hour—They are also to see that the sentries are well informed of their duty, and to instruct such as are deficient."

A fire's light would have blinded a sentry at night and made him a target for snipers, however cold he got. And an enemy who slipped past could spy on the army, or attack it.

Parole and countersign

Each day the Sergeant of the Guard gave sentries a parole and countersigns. The Park Service's example is December 20, 1777 — the day after the army marched into Valley Forge — for a sentry of the 7th Connecticut Regiment, whose Sergeant of the Guard was William Barnet:

• A sentry who halted someone in uniform said the parole quietly — a prompt, rather like a login ID today.
• A genuine Continental soldier answered with the countersigns, which worked like passwords. The right answer meant the person could probably be trusted.
• Civilians helping the army knew neither. For them the sentry had to weigh other evidence — usually a pass signed by an officer.

Sentries. Image from the National Park Service's page.

Who came to the camp

Everyone named here was a real person, according to the Park Service; the situations are its illustrations of what a sentry faced.

• Margaret Thomas, a free woman of African descent whom Washington hired to launder the clothing and linens of his household. Her pass would carry the signature of Captain Caleb Gibbs, commander of the Commander-in-Chief's Guard — the army's most elite soldiers, who protected Washington, his papers and his baggage.
• Wagoners bringing flour, salt-cured pork and other supplies, with papers signed by Clement Biddle, Commissary General of Forage, who oversaw organizing, moving and distributing food for the army. Winter roads to Valley Forge were poor, and every wagon that got through mattered to the soldiers' rations.
• Soldiers' wives, such as the wife of a soldier of the 4th Connecticut Regiment with a pass from Captain Elisha Lee.
• Farmers like Mordecai Moore, of the Welsh-Quaker farming community at Valley Forge, with hundreds of soldiers camped on his family's land and a pass from Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg. Quakers — Friends, of the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Christian denomination — are pacifists who hold all violence, war included, to be wrong; they were not the army's enemy. The British had already bought or seized these farmers' hay, crops and livestock; now the Continental Army did the same. With thousands of soldiers on their land, they could not plant for the next season while the army stayed.
• Sutlers — civilians who followed the army and sold food, drink and other provisions to soldiers; some were married to enlisted men. The Park Service's example: the wife of a private in the 3rd North Carolina Regiment, pushing a wheelbarrow of eggs, apples and dry-cured sausages, her pass signed by Captain John Rochel.
• Generals such as Henry Knox — who still answered the countersigns like anyone else in uniform.

A forged pass. A spy's pass might bear the name of a real officer who could not have signed it. The Park Service's warning case is a woman carrying a pass from Captain Stephen Hall, a company commander of the 7th Connecticut — who had been away on furlough for some time — and asking how many supplies and weapons the unit had. A spy who got into camp could learn the army's positions and operations, or try to talk soldiers into deserting.

After the watch

Mistakes had consequences — extra guard duty, or latrine duty: covering the vault with fresh dirt to keep down the smell, and digging new latrines to replace old ones. Good work might earn extra rations. Off watch, a soldier ate what he could get — perhaps a share of a sutler's food a friend had bought — and slept in a wedge tent shared with five members of his squad, under a blanket, among men who seldom bathed.

The Valley Forge Muster Roll Project, run by the Valley Forge Park Alliance, has more on the people named here.

Sources

Based on "On Guard! An Online Sentry Activity," Valley Forge National Historical Park, National Park Service, and the activity's own pages at nps.gov/vafo; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Washington's general orders of November 21, 1777, are quoted as the Park Service gives them. The activity's choices and scoring are left out.