MORRISTOWN
NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
A Military Capital of the American Revolution
by Melvin J. Weig, with assistance from Vera B. Craig
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES No. 7
WASHINGTON 25, D. C., 1950
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Oscar L. Chapman, Secretary
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Newton B. Drury, Director
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER SEVEN
This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the historical and archeological areas in the National Park System administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Price 20¢.
Contents
Page [THE FIRST WINTER ENCAMPMENT IN MORRIS COUNTY] 1 [Situation: January 1777] 1 [From Princeton to Morristown] 2 [The New Base of American Operations] 3 [Winter Quarters for Officers and Men] 5 [Instability of the Army] 6 [Food and Clothing Shortages] 7 [Recruitment Gets Under Way] 7 [Sickness and Death] 8 [Washington Tightens His Grip on New Jersey] 9 [The Prospect Brightens] 10 [End of the 1777 Encampment] 11 [JOCKEY HOLLOW: THE “HARD” WINTER OF 1779-80] 11 [Intermission: War in Deadlock] 11 [Morristown Again Becomes the Military Capital] 12 [Building the “Log-house city”] 12 [Terrible Severity of the Winter] 16 [Lack of Adequate Clothing] 17 [Shortage of Provisions and Forage] 17 [Money Troubles and Their Consequences] 18 [Guarding the Lines] 18 [The Staten Island Expedition] 19 [Sidelights on the Pattern of Army Life] 22 [Luzerne and Miralles] 23 [The Committee at Headquarters] 24 [Lafayette Brings Good News] 24 [Two Battles End the 1779-80 Encampment] 25 [JANUARY 1781: THE STORY OF TWO MUTINIES] 27 [THE NEW JERSEY BRIGADE ENCAMPMENT OF 1781-82] 29 [GUIDE TO THE AREA] 29 [HOW TO REACH THE PARK] 42 [ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION] 42 [VISITOR FACILITIES] 43 [RELATED AREAS] 44
“Washington Receiving a Salute on the Field of Trenton.” From the engraving by William Holl (1865), after the painting by John Faed.
During two critical winters of the Revolutionary War, 1777 and 1779-80, the rolling countryside in and around Morristown, N. J., sheltered the main encampments of the American Continental Army and served as the headquarters of its famed Commander in Chief, George Washington. Patriot troops were also quartered in this vicinity on many other occasions. Here Washington reorganized his weary and depleted forces almost within sight of strong British lines at New York. Here came Lafayette with welcome news of the second French expedition sent to aid the Americans. And here was developed, in the face of bitter cold, hunger, hardship, and disease, the Nation’s will to independence and freedom. Thus for a time this small New Jersey village became the military capital of the United States, the testing ground of a great people in its heroic fight for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”