George Washington was already on his heels in late 1777.

The British army had recently taken New York and Philadelphia, plus Washington had suffered recent defeats at the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.

Washington knew that unless he could regroup, rearm, and retrain his beleaguered forces, the fledgling American Revolution could soon be lost. So on December 19, 1777, his army of 12,000 marched to their winter encampment site in southeastern Pennsylvania-- an area known as Valley Forge.

According to George Washington himself, his men lacked clothing, shoes, food, blankets, etc. giving rise to an almost mythological level of suffering that winter.

And it’s true-- conditions were incredibly harsh. There were very few supplies available, and nearly 1 out of every 5 soldiers died from disease, cold, or starvation at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778.

Washington was exasperated; the situation was so bad that his army barely had any ammunition to fight… and he pleaded with the Continental Congress to provide more funds for war.

But Congress had no more money.

The brand new United States of America, which at that point hadn’t even existed for 18-months, was completely bankrupt. Tax revenue was almost nonexistent. Credit was difficult to obtain. And the national currency-- the Continental Dollar-- was so weak it was practically in hyperinflation.

Washington’s army was simply too broke to fight. And if the situation had remained that way, the British could have probably won the war in 1778.

Fortunately for the United States, though, France stepped in the following spring with major military and financial support, giving George Washington the resources he needed to win.