Washington+Winter+Quarters

= __//**Washingtons Winter HeadQuarters - Morris Town**//__ =

by Juliet M. Balducci
=== **In 1777, right after two great victories over the British, [|George Washington] was on his way to Morristown, New Jersey, in order to set up headquarters for himself and his Army men. It was winter time and they needed a place to stay. The place that Washington chose was a great place to stay if he wanted to keep a good eye on the British Army, since they were staying in New York City right across the Hudson River. Washington decided to take the time to reorganize the Continental Army since it was slowly beginning to shrink because soldiers were preferring to quit and go home rather than suffer another cold winter without supplies necessary for survival. Others decided to just stay home and not come back after their enlistments were expired and they no longer felt obligated to stick around just to suffe****r. Thankfully, George Washington was a great leader and began getting very popular in the country and that helped to attract plenty of people to join and take the place of those who left to go back home.** **Washington changed his ways in order to keep a hold on the new soldiers and make them even better soldiers than they already were because he really didn't want to lose them like he lost the ones before.** ===

=== **Being a soldier did have it's benefits, but it also had bad parts. One bad thing was that the punishment for soldiers was 39-100 painful lashes. But one of the good parts was that any soldier that enlisted for three years was promised a cash bonus in the end. And the ones who stayed for the whole entire war were promised a land bounty. Later on, those promises turned out not to be such a great move but, at the time, it helped keep the people from leaving and helped keep them motivated. There were 11,000 men, plus [|militia], plus the 17,000 Patriots that agreed to join in. They stayed at the [|Ford Mansion], where Washington was able to do his military business properly.** ===

//The Ford Mansion, where Washington stayed.//

**The soldiers stayed in huts, like these:**


=== **The huts that they stayed in were located in Jockey Hollow. There were 600 acres of forest cut down and, in replacement of the trees, over 1,000 log huts were built. That's why it became known as "log-house city". The huts requirements were 14 by 15 feet, with a height of 6 feet and 6 inches. Each hut held 12 soldiers. They put clay between the logs to keep out as much cold as possible, and the each hut had one fireplace. Officer huts were a bit larger, depending on their rank, and held one to four officers.** ===

=== **The winter they were stuck in was probably the worst of the 1700's, which was unfortunate news for George Washingtons troups since they weren't properly clothed and they were underfed. Life wasn't good for the rest of the population either due to the weak economy that was caused by war. Income delined 40% and Farmers were raided by the British and their Indian allies. Nothing was going well - not even after they accomplished capturing [|British General John Burgoyne's]army in October because that just meant that they had thousands of more mouths to feed....and they could barely feed their own. V****alley Forge was difficult, but Morristown was even harder. Not only was the winter tougher, but the soldiers were deprived of necessary clothing and footwear, as well as food. It was said that the Soldiers ate pretty much any type of horse food except for hay.** ===

=== **A lot of the problems came from the fact that the government could print money but there was no value to it. The Soldiers were frustrated. They didn't understand how they could fight a war without shoes, pants, clothes and blankets - and now without guns or ammunition. They had to get their food and supplies from SOMEWHERE or else they wouldn't have a chance at surviving or fighting well, so they had to get it from the people they were fighting for. Washington was the reason the army even stayed together at all. He suffered along with his troops and motivated them. Without him, the army would have probably taken over the government or abandoned the cause all together. The British weren't having the problems that Washingtons army was having, so many soldiers did go over to fight for the British so they wouldn't have to starve. But the people who stuck by Washington definitely had a wonderful leader. Their winter was rough though, and here are a few things written to describe how rough they had it:** ===

**//George Washington wrote on March 18th (1780), "... 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. "//**

==== **//[|Doctor James Thacher] wrote, "The weather for several days has been remarkably cold and stormy. On the 3rd instance, we experienced one of the most tremendous snowstorms ever remembered; no man could endure its violence many minutes without danger to his life. ... When the storm subsided, the snow was from four to six feet deep, obscuring the very traces of the roads by covering fences that lined them. "//** ====

==== **//One more entry in his journal said, "For the last ten days we have received but two pounds of meat a man, and we are frequently for six or eight days entirely without bread. The consequences is that the soldiers are so enfeebled from hunger and cold, as to be almost unable to perform their military duty or labor in constructing their huts. "//** ====

==== **//Private [|Joseph Plumb Martin's]memoirs read, "We are absolutely, literally starved. I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for four days and as many nights, except for a little black birch bark which I gnawed off a stick of wood. I saw several men roast their old shoes and eat them, and I was afterward informed by one of the officer's waiters, that some of the officers killed a favorite little dog that belonged to one of them."//** ==== = **Records show that 1,072 soldiers deserted Jockey Hollow and 305 men died there. In a book called //"Crucible// of //Revolution// ", written by Bruce Stewart, he says he believes the death number is low because many of the men who left became ill and died in other locations such as hospitals and even at their own homes.** = = = = **Suprisingly, even through the tough winter they had, they managed to survive and make it into the next winter quarters at [|Valley Forge.]** = = =

//__** TIMELINE: **__//
 * **1777** ||
 * **1-Jan** || **Lord Cornwallis takes command of the British Army in Princeton** ||
 * **2-Jan** || **Battle of Trenton with heavy fighting along Assunpink, Trenton** ||
 * **3-Jan** || **Battle of Princeton - Washington strikes the British rear at Princeton, Americans defeat small British force** ||
 * **Jan 6 - May 28** || **Washington's troops spend winter at Morristown** ||
 * **26-Sep** || **British take Philadelphia September to October Washington builds up defenses at Red Bank on lower Delaware River** ||
 * **22-Oct** || **Americans defeat attacking Hessian troops, then abandon Fort Mercer** ||
 * **15-Nov** || **British take Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania** ||
 * **Dec - May** || **Washington and 12,000 troops survive bitter winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania** ||