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 [Illustration: “_Washington Receiving a Salute on the Field of Trenton._” From the engraving by William Holl (1865), after the painting by John Faed.] [Illustration: {Ford Mansion}] 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.” _The First Winter Encampment in Morris County_ SITUATION: JANUARY 1777. Sir William Howe had been mistaken. Near the middle of December 1776, as Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s army in America, he believed the rebellion of Great Britain’s trans-Atlantic colonies crushed beyond hope of revival. “Mr.” Washington’s troops had been driven from New York, pursued through New Jersey, and forced at last to cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The British had captured Maj. Gen. Charles Lee, the only American general they thought possessed real ability. Some mopping up might be necessary in the spring, but the arduous work of conquest was over. Howe could spend a comfortable winter in New York, and Lord Cornwallis, the British second in command, might sail for England and home.