Morristown National Historical Park, a Military Capital of the American RevolutionWeig, Melvin J.
History
Morristown National Historical Park, a Military Capital of the American Revolution
Weig, Melvin J.
Morristown National Historical Park (N.J.); New Jersey -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
This identical campsite was occupied by part of the Pennsylvania Line
early in the winter of 1780-81, and from about February 7 to July 8,
1781, by the New Jersey Brigade of the Continental Army. Here occurred
the great mutiny of the Pennsylvanians on New Year’s Night 1781
(pp. 27-28).
On the Hand’s Brigade campsite may be seen a reconstruction, by the
National Park Service, of the type of log hut used by private soldiers
of the Continental Army in 1779-80 (p. 16).
NOS. 24-25. FIRST AND SECOND CONNECTICUT BRIGADE CAMPS, 1779-80.
About 600 feet northeast of the Tempe Wick Road, along the south and
east slopes of Fort Hill (No. 15), are the campsites occupied early in
1779-80 by the 1st and 2d Connecticut Brigades. The former, under Brig.
Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons, was composed of the 3d, 4th, 6th, and 8th
Connecticut Regiments, with a combined total enlistment, in December
1779, of 1,680 men. In the latter, under Brig. Gen. Jedediah Huntington,
were the 1st, 2d, 5th, and 7th Connecticut Regiments, with a
corresponding enlistment, at the same period, of 1,367 men. The official
uniform of all these troops was blue, faced with white; the buttons and
linings, white.
Both brigades left camp for detached duty “on the Lines” at Springfield
and Westfield early in February 1780. On returning to camp, about the
middle of May, they occupied the log huts vacated by the Maryland troops
on April 17 preceding (Nos. 13-14). It was there that the 4th and 8th
Connecticut Regiments rose in mutiny soon afterward (p. 18).
Some of the log huts built by the 1st Connecticut Brigade were occupied
by Pennsylvania troops early in the following winter, previous to the
mutiny which broke out on New Year’s Day 1781 (pp. 27-28).
NO. 26. SITE OF KEMBLE HOUSE, WAYNE’S QUARTERS, 1780-81.
At the northwest corner of Mount Kemble Avenue (U. S. Route 202) and the
Tempe Wick Road is the site of Kemble Manor, built about 1765 as a
residence for the Honorable Peter Kemble, one of the wealthiest and most
influential men in the late colonial period of New Jersey history. Here
were the quarters of Brig. Gen. William Smallwood, of the Maryland Line,
in 1779-80; and of Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne, of the Pennsylvania Line,
in 1780-81. From “Mount Kemble,” early on the morning of January 2,
1781, Wayne wrote a hurried letter to Washington describing the
Pennsylvania Mutiny, which had taken place but a few hours before (pp.
27-28). In the nineteenth century the Kemble House was moved some
distance north of its original location. It no longer bears much
resemblance to the structure of Revolutionary War times.
NO. 27. STARK’S BRIGADE CAMP, 1779-80.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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