NJ, USA
The Hard Winter: Second Encampment at Morristown
December 1, 1779
The winter of 1779-80 at Morristown was the worst the Continental Army endured — worse than Valley Forge by nearly every measure. Washington chose Morristown again for the same strategic reasons, establishing his headquarters at the Ford Mansion while approximately 10,000 troops built a vast encampment of over 1,000 log huts at Jockey Hollow.
The weather was unprecedented. Twenty-eight blizzards struck between November and April. Snow reached six feet in places. New York Harbor froze solid — something that had not happened in living memory. The supply system, already strained, collapsed entirely. Soldiers survived on half-rations, then quarter-rations, then nothing at all. Private Joseph Plumb Martin recorded eating birch bark and roasted shoe leather.
Morale disintegrated. Soldiers had not been paid in months. Their clothing was in rags. Some units threatened mutiny. On May 25, 1780, two Connecticut regiments paraded under arms and refused orders, demanding food and pay. Officers suppressed the uprising, but the incident revealed how close the army was to dissolution. The fact that most soldiers stayed through this nightmare — without pay, without adequate food, without certainty that the cause would succeed — remains one of the most remarkable acts of collective endurance in American military history.
People Involved
Continental Army major general (1742-1786) who served as quartermaster general during the Morristown winter encampments and later commanded the Southern Department.
Prussian military officer (1730-1794) who served as inspector general of the Continental Army and continued his training program at Morristown after establishing it at Valley Forge.
Young woman of Morristown (c.1758-1813) whose family farm was at the center of the Jockey Hollow encampment and who, according to local tradition, hid her horse from mutinous soldiers.
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.
Washington's chief aide-de-camp during both Morristown encampments, Hamilton managed correspondence, gathered intelligence, and grew increasingly frustrated with the weak central government that left the army starving.
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.
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.