NJ, USA
Supply Crisis and Starvation at Jockey Hollow
January 1, 1780
The Continental Army at Morristown faced a supply crisis more severe than Valley Forge. The collapse of Continental currency made it impossible to purchase provisions, and states failed to meet their requisition quotas. For days at a time, soldiers received no food at all. Washington wrote to Congress warning that the army was on the verge of dissolution. Officers resorted to forced requisitions from local farms, issuing promissory notes that many farmers suspected would never be honored. The supply crisis persisted throughout the encampment and was a primary cause of the subsequent Pennsylvania Line mutiny.
People Involved
Virginia planter and Continental Army commander-in-chief who owned and managed Mount Vernon's enslaved workforce. Absent from his estate for most of the war, he directed Lund Washington's management by correspondence and returned to find the plantation's human community shaped by eight years of wartime disruption.
Continental Army major general (1742-1786) who served as quartermaster general during the Morristown winter encampments and later commanded the Southern Department.
Enlisted Continental soldier whose published memoir provides the most vivid enlisted man's account of the Morristown winters, documenting starvation, freezing, and the daily reality of service in Washington's army.
Joined Washington at Morristown during both winter encampments, managing the headquarters household, organizing sewing circles to produce clothing for soldiers, and hosting events to maintain officer morale.