Editing Martha Washington (section)

=== Independent United States ===
The American Revolution became increasingly stressful for Martha after the signing of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], as George faced increased risks on the battlefield.<ref name="schneider"/>{{Rp|page=5}} Each winter, Washington would join her husband at his encampment while fighting was stalled. The quality of her housing varied during these visits, both in comfort and in safety.<ref name="schneider"/>{{Rp|page=5}} [[Marquis de Lafayette|General Lafayette]] observed that she loved "her husband madly".<ref>"Lafayette to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, January 6, 1778," in ''[[iarchive:lafayetteinageof01lafa/page/225/mode/1up|Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution]],'' ed. Stanley J. Idzerda  (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977), 1: 225.</ref> Washington was kept informed of the war's developments by her husband, sometimes performing clerical work for him, and she was even permitted to know military secrets.<ref name="watson"/>{{Rp|page=14}} She became a symbol of the war effort, alongside George Washington, as a grandmotherly figure that cared for the soldiers.<ref name="gould"/>{{Rp|page=7}}

The Continental Army settled in Valley Forge, the third of the eight winter encampments of the Revolution, on December 19, 1777. Washington traveled 10 days and hundreds of miles to join her husband in Pennsylvania.<ref>"Nathanael Greene to Gen. Alexander McDougall, February 5, 1778", in ''The Papers of General Nathanael Greene,'' ed. Richard K. Showman (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 2:276.</ref> On April 6, Elizabeth Drinker and three friends arrived at Valley Forge to plead with the General to release their husbands from jail; the men, all Quakers, had refused to swear a loyalty oath to the American revolutionaries. Because the commander was not available at first, the women visited with Martha.<ref>"Martha Washington." ''Encyclopedia of World Biography''. Vol. 32. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Biography in Context. Web. October 15, 2015.</ref> Drinker described her later in her diary as "a sociable pretty kind of Woman".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Drinker |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zw67boMtNYUC |title=The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker: The Life Cycle of an Eighteenth-Century Woman |date=October 11, 2011 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-0682-1 |editor-last=Crane |editor-first=Elaine Forman |pages=75}}</ref>

Washington's son John was serving as a civilian aide to his father during the [[Siege of Yorktown (1781)|siege of Yorktown]] in 1781 when he died of "camp fever", a diagnosis for [[epidemic typhus]].<ref name="Yates"/> After his death, she and George took in the youngest two of John's four children, [[Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis|Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis]] and [[George Washington Parke Custis|George Washington Parke (Washy) Custis]].<ref name="gould"/>{{Rp|page=7}} The Washingtons also provided personal and financial support to the children of many of their relatives and friends.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chernow |first=Ron |title=Washington, A Life |date=2010 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=507 |chapter=Chapter Forty-One "The Ruins of the Past" |quote=Washington offered to pay for the education of ... George Washington Greene. It was yet another example of Washington's extraordinary generosity in caring for the offspring of friends and family}}</ref>