Nov 18-Morristown

Another house, I know...and the historical timeline of this trip is certainly disjointed. Now we're back to 1779! The first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired back in Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts in 1775. We signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but we didn't really get the British out of town until 1782 when we signed the Treaty of Paris. There was a heck of a lot of fighting during that time-period. Morristown, New Jersey isn't a battlefield though. George Washington and his troops spent a nasty winter here in 1779. It was one of the worst winters the area ever had, and wouldn't you know, 10,000 men of the Continental Army had to stay here. They were cold, hungry, and sick (dysentery and yellow fever) and spent most of their time huddled in the 200 small cabins that they built. This was a tough time for Washington too--although he stayed in Morristown's finest house (it belonged to Jacob Ford's widow and her 4 kids). The troops were due to be discharged in the spring and he was worried that they'd all leave and the fight would be over. Luckily, the French get into action about then and send supplies to the Americans. We toured Ford's house, Fort Nonsense (which Washington supposedly had the troops build to keep them busy), and the Jockey Hollow Encampment area where the troops built the cabins and suffered all winter.