The Morristown area experienced its share of revolutionary drama, including the worst winter in recorded history, an encampment with thousands of starving, near-mutinous soldiers, and an invasion by the British. What was it like in this village in wartime? Here is a chronology of some noteworthy events, including accounts by those who witnessed, firsthand, this fateful time in our nation’s history.
February,
1780
Thursday,
Feb. 10
Saturday,
Feb. 12
Saturday,
Feb. 19
Wednesday,
Feb. 23
Tuesday,
Feb. 29
Thursday,
Mar. 2
Friday,
Mar. 17
Saturday,
Mar. 18
Monday,
Mar. 27
February, 1780
Inflation of paper Continental money makes officer’s life difficult.
With continuing snowfalls, supply problems worsened, and Continental currency had even less value than before.
“The times are growing worse from hour to hour. The dearth of necessaries of life is almost incredible, and increases from day to day. A hat costs four hundred dollars, a pair of boots the same, and everything else in proportion. The other day I was disposed to buy a pretty good horse. A price was asked which my pay for ten years would not have covered. Of course I did not take it, and shall try to get along with my other horses. Money scatters like chaff before the wind, and expenses almost double from one day to the next, while income, of course, remains stationary. Major General Johann De Kalb from undated letter taken from “Life of John Kalb” by Friedrich Kapp, c. 1870
Thursday, February 10
“The most terrible winter …”
“So Glorious a Caus”
View from a log hut looking out into the bleak sky and a lifeless forest.
“Dear Sir. We have had the most terrible winter here that ever I know. Almost all the wild beasts of the fields, and the birds of the Air, have perished with the cold. All the Bays, Rivers and Creeks are froze up. Nature has given us a fine bridge of communication with the enemy, but we are too weak to take advantage of it.” General Nathanael Greene to Governor William Greene of Rhode Island
“Camp near Morris Town Feby. 10, 1780… (I am in) hopes the Army will be kept together till we have gain’d the Point we hav been so long Contending For. If the Army could bee supported I have Not the Least Reason to think that A Man would wish to Leave it till Peace and harmony was Restord to A bleeding but Unconquered and Still to bee Unconquered Country. For my Own Part if we was Paid According to Agreement I could wish I had two Lives to Loos in Defence of So Glorious A Caus Sooner than bee Over Come. I was Free born and if I Can Support my Self I will Stand or Fall in Defence of my Country.” Ebenezer Stanton, Paymaster of Col. Henry Sherburn’s Additional Connecticut Regt. to Thomas Goldstone Smith, February 10, 1780 (Original letter from Lloyd W. Smith Collection, Morristown National Historical Park)
Saturday, February 12
Winter of this encampment worse than that of Valley Forge.
Detail from a mural depicting the hardships endured by the troops.
“Those who have only been in Valley Forge or Middlebrook during the last two winters, but have not tasted the cruelties of this one, know not what it is to suffer.” Major General John Kalb
Saturday, February 19
British cannon moved across frozen Hudson River.
Ports and waterways everywhere in the northeast were covered with a thick sheet of ice.
The Hudson River near New York City freezes. “The passage of the North [Hudson] River, even in its widest part…was about the 19th [of February] practicable for the heaviest cannon, an event unknown in the memory of man.” New York: British Major General Pattison to Lord George Germain in London, February 22, 1780
Wednesday, February 23
First officers’ “dancing assembly” during the encampment.
An officer writing with candle in the foreground. A candle would have been a luxury inside a private’s log hut.
Thirty-four officers, including Washington, each contribute $400 (in inflated paper money) to hold a series of dances during the encampment. The first dancing assembly is held by officers in the military storehouse built by the army near the Morristown green. “The house we propose to hold our assemblies at, is nearly built in Morristown, the drawing room 70 feet long by 40 broad, and two drawing rooms down stairs.” Col. Walter Stewart
“Last Wednesday commenced the great Military Assembly at Morristown. His Excellency opened the ball with Mrs. Knox. As the weather was cool, there were but sixteen ladies and from fifty to sixty gentlemen present. There was great order and regularity observed." Joseph Brown to William Irvine, February 29, 1780
Tuesday, February 29
Despite dance, no happiness at the encampment.
General Nathanael Greene.
“We have opened an assembly at Camp. From this apparent ease, I suppose it is though we must be in happy circumstances. I wish it were so, but, alas, it is not. Our provisions are in a manner, gone. We have not a ton of hay at command, nor magazine (storehouse) to draw from. Money is extremely scarce, and worth little when we get it. We have been so poor in camp for a fortnight, (two weeks) that we could not forward the public dispatches, for want of cash to support the expresses.” General Nathanael Greene to Joseph Reed
Thursday, March 2
Greene: The army’s situation worsens.
The Morristown encampment was under so much snow that it made communication and deliveries nearly impossible to achieve.
“I have many things to say to you, but was at the Assembly last Night and feel not a little fatigued and clouded. We are merry at Camp but have little to eat either for man [or] beast. Our political concerns grow worse and worse. We are now so poor in Camp, that I have not money to pay the expenses of the Express riders to carry the public dispatches. Our provisions is out and forage gone. The roads are impassible and no communication to be had across the Delaware [River]. Thus we are shet (sic) up in Morristown without the bare hope of deliverence...” General Nathanael Greene to Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth
Friday, March 17
St. Patrick’s Day a camp holiday, as ordered by General Washington.
Soldiers engage in a card game inside a log hut.
St Patrick’s Day—in general orders issued the previous day, General Washington proclaims the day a holiday in camp. “…the General directs that all fatigue and working parties cease for to-morrow the SEVENTEENTH instant, a day held in particular regard by the people of (Ireland.)” General Orders: Headquarters, Morristown, March 16, 1780
“While the troops are Celebrating the anniversary of ST. PATRICK in Innocent Mirth and Pastime he hopes they will not forget our Worthy Friends in the Kingdom of IRELAND, who with the Greatest unanimity have step’d forth in Opposition to the tyranny of Great Britain and who like US are determined to be FREE.” Division Orders, Pennsylvania Brigades, Col. Chambers, Commanding
Saturday, March 18
Washington: No one remembers so hard a winter.
Trunks of pine trees deep in snow.
“The oldest people now living in this country do not remember so hard a winter as the one we are now emerging from. In a word, the severity of the frost exceeded anything of the kind that had ever been experienced in this climate before.” Washington to the Marquis de Lafayette, at Paris
Monday, March 27
Council of War held at Headquarters.
A ledger on a table inside Washington’s private study at the Ford Mansion.
General Washington discusses with the generals whether troops from Morristown should be sent to the besieged Southern Army in Charleston, South Carolina. The unanimous decision was in the negative.
