1780 The Worst Winter of the War
MORRISTOWN,
NJ HQ
A 40-TO-1
RUN-AWAY INFLATION. A FORAY TO STATEN ISLAND.
DEEP-DEEP SNOW. THE 1ST ST. PATRICK's HOLIDAY.
Pennsylvania
Troops put down a Mutiny of two regiments
of the 1st Connecticut Brigade.
LAFAYETTE BRINGS NEWS OF FRENCH SHIPS &
ABOUT 6000
TROOPS.
CHARLESTON, SC LOST. The 2ND BATTLE OF
SPRINGFIELD WON.
A SUMMER MOVE TO PREAKNESS/WAYNE,
NJ.
WASHINGTON GOES TO CONNECTICUT TO MEET
THE FRENCH. BENEDICT ARNOLD ESCAPES.
The next winter began at New Windsor, NY on the Hudson near West Point.
For an area of mild winters, it was a surprise to encounter over-chest-deep snow, that drifted to six feet, brought extreme hunger to the men. Almost thirty blizzards relentlessly piled up snow throughout the next two months.
Some soldiers, wrapped in blankets were naked and begging for clothing. The Forty-to-One Act of Congress devalued paper money to 1/40th of face value. The action triggered a run-away inflation. New Jersey quickly responded when Washington pleaded for help from other counties and states.
On January 14, Major General Lord Stirling led 500 men with sleighs across frozen rivers from ElizabethTown to Staten Island. They captured 17 British soldiers, blankets, casks of wine and spirits, tents and arms. They were on Staten Island for 24 hours in drifts of four feet of snow. Frostbite struck many of the men.
Thomas Paine, Charles Wilson Peale and George Byran proposed freedom of Negro slaves as their "basic right as man." Pennsylvania began allowing freedom of the children of slaves, when they reached the age of 28. However, South Carolina offered each army volunteer who joined - one free slave.
Benedict Arnold's trial for misappropriations at Philadelphia tool place on Spring Streets near Water Street in Morristown at this the Dickenson tavern (Norris Tavern?).
Washington gave a public reading of the verdict against Arnold, but he promised Arnold to try to reinstate his prestigious status.
was proclaimed America's first official holiday by George Washington in MorrisTown. Properties of British Loyalists were sold, when they did not sign a loyalty oath. The jail on the town green was over-filled.In March, Saint Patrick's Day
The Ford Family shared this Headquarters with the George & Martha
Washington
and Officers of the Continental Army.
LaFayette arrived with good news on May 10, 1780
Bad news from CHARLESTON, SC ==> British Generals Sir Henry Clinton and the Marquis Charles Cornwallis had sailed from Britain with a fleet and 8,000 men - and with a new strategy to "take the south." They arrived in February and entered Charleston harbor in April.
On May 12, American General Benjamin Lincoln had to surrender his approximately 5,000 soldiers in a defeat as profound as Saratoga had been for the British.
On May 25, Pennsylvania troops put down a brief mutiny of two regiments of the 1st Connecticut Brigade at MorrisTown. There was the issue of payment for overdue wages. Washington pleaded with Congress for money, food and supplies.
On May 29, British Colonel Tarleton destroyed an American regiment from Virginia at Waxhaw, SC. On June 5, Clinton set sail from the Carolinas to return to New York.
LaFayette returned from Europe saying that almost 6,000 French troops - aboard six French warships were headed for Rhode Island!HOPE! Very good news ! ==>
As Washington's forces began a march toward West Point, on June 21, he ordered some troops from MorrisTown eastward toward Hobart Gap and the second battle at Springfield, NJ.
The New Jersey militia in the area victoriously stopped the British troops, who had advanced westward from Staten Island in an effort to take the highlands of NJ.
With the news of French ships and troops due to arrive, Washington considered an attack upon New York Town. Washington shifted his headquarters to about twenty miles northeast of MorrisTown.
From July 1 to July 29, 1780, he stayed at the Theunis Dey home at Preakness, NJ (Wayne) near Little Falls and the Passaic Great Falls.
La Fayette quartered at the Van Saun house, about a mile to the north of the Dey house. It was said that Washington attended the wedding of Captain William Colfax, one of his bodyguards.
Word was received on July 14 that the French fleet had arrived at Newport, Rhode Island.
At the end of July, Washington broke camp near the Great Falls of the Passaic River and moved eastward. By moving across the Hudson River at Dobbs Ferry his army prevented a British attack toward Rhode Island.
Benedict Arnold was given command of West Point on August 5 (he had been plotting with the British since May).
The British fleet arrived near Rhode Island, offsetting the effect of the French fleet.
Washington was in Peekskill, NY, Clarkstown, NY and Orangetown, NY on August 6, 7 and 8. Then he rode south toward Fort Lee, NJ. He stayed at Zabriskie's at River Edge, NJ on August 25. He stayed at the Liberty Pole Tavern at Englewood, NJ on September 3, 1780 before riding to Kendekemack, NJ and on to Joshua Hett Smith's place at New Bridge, NJ by September 17.
From there he headed toward New England via King's Ferry, NY.
In August, United States' Baron Johann De Kalb was mortally wounded near
Camden, SC by forces under General Cornwallis after General Horatio Gates was also defeated by Cornwallis.Sir(?) Banastre Tarleton overtook Thomas Sumpter's guerrilla troops at
Fishing Creek, SC. Tarleton had been accused of a massacre of survivors.
OCTOBER
Washington rode to Hartford, CT; Oliver Wolcott's at Litchfield, CT; Wharton's at Fishkill, NY and De Windt House at Tappan, NY between September 20 and October 6, 1780.
In September, on Washington's return from Rhode Island to West Point, he learned that his faith in the appointment of General Benedict Arnold to the command at West Point had been a mistake.
British General Clinton's chief of Intelligence, Major John Andre was found with a plan for the betrayal of West Point.
Arnold escaped via ship. He would later fight for the British in his native Connecticut and in Virginia. He subsequently would die in England where his wife, Sally Shippen Arnold, who loved the "high life," would have to settle for a life of noble survival. (Takes a bit of time) ==> RI and CT
In October, frontier guerilla forces won a victory at
King's Mountain, North Carolina over British Major Ferguson.
On October 8, 1780, Washington returned to the Dey House at Preakness, NJ near Morristown. He and his army would stay until November 27, 1780.
General de la Fayette's soldiers failed in a strike at Staten Island. They also considered an assault upon Fort Washington, NY from Fort Lee, NJ. The Headquarters was at Preakness, - Wayne, NJ - near Passaic Falls and Little Falls.
GW wrote to Congress from Morristown on November 28, 1780,
"I have arrived at this place today, having yesterday broken up the camp near Passaic Falls, and detached the troops to their different places of cantonment. I shall repair to New Windsor, where I propose to establish my winter-quarters, after having made some necessary regulations here and visited the hospitals."
He submitted accounts of expenditures for the army or his movements from Morristown to FlemingTown, HalketsTown, New Germantown, Sussex Court House and to New Windsor."
The army moved to the North River and Washington established his winter headquarters at the William Ellison House at New Windsor, NY at riverside.
Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth "Betsy" Schuyler in Albany, the niece of GW's doctor, John Cochran. She was the daughter of General Phillip Schuyler. They had met at a house near MorrisTown's Olyphant Drive on King's Highway. That house is now on Olyphant Place.
NOTE ==> Doctor David Olyphant's family would later buy the nearby hilltop, then known as Olyphant Park in Morristown. He was head of southern army hospitals; he reported to Doctor John Cochran. Both Scottish Doctors, David Olyphant and Doctor/General Hugh Mercer had come to America after the Battle of Colloden, when Bonnie Prince Charlie, the young pretender, lost to the British in 1745.
#1775, #1776, #1777, #1778, #1779, #1780, #NEXT1781, #1782, #1783,
Westward-ho! ... Continue module ==> 1800 ... 1812 ... 1813 ...1814 ... 1815 ... Zebulon Pike ... 2nd National Anthem
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T. Collins in NJ, USA on 08/05/07 10:32 AM
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