USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Annals of Morris County > Part 12
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ANNALS OF MORRIS COUNTY.
were very heavy in the South-east room of the .. Arnota Tavern," nrging on Congress the ne- ceszity of " tendering an oath of allegiance to all the inhabitants, and outlawing those that refuse it;" now advising and inspiriting bis Generals-Benedict Arnold among them, but too baze to be elevated by his communion with the great spirit of the age-now Imtrying for- ward the enlistment of troops and the collec- tion of munitions ; now teaching Lord Howe some lessons in humanity, by the law of retali- ation, "although," says he, " I shall always be happy to manifest my disinclination to any andue severities towards those whom the fortune.of War may chance to throw into my hands." His situation is extremely trying, for, on the second of Mareb, he wrote, "Gen. Howe cannot have * * * less than ten
thousand men in the Jerseys.
*
*
Our
number does not exceed foar thousand. His are well-disciplined, well-offlecred, and well- appointed. Our's raw Militia, badly officered, and under no government." The balance- sheet, thus struck, seemed to be against him ; but then Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolution, did not express hinself too strongly in writing that very Winter to Wash- ington, " Heaven, no doubt for the noblest purposes, has blessed you with a firmness of mind, steadiness of countenance, and patience in sofferings, that give you mfinite advantages over other men." To use his own words, " there is a multiplicity of business engaging my whole attention."
There is a tradition among the old people of Morris County, which has the semblance of probability, and may therefore be repeated. It is that, whilst Washington was at the "Arnold Tavern," he had a dangerous attack of quinsy sore throat, and, feeling serions apprehensions about his recovery, some of his friends asked him to indicate the man whom he considered the best fitted to succeed him in command of the Army ; and that, without hesitation, he pointed to General Nathaniel Green. This is given as it was heard, merely as a tradition.
Tradition also states that the anxieties of the Winter were relieved with a little pleasantry, in a correspondence between the English and American Commanders-in-chief. Howe is said to have sent to Washington a copy of Watt's version of the one hundred and twentieth Psalm, containing the following amiable verses :
" Thou God of love, thou ever blest, Pity my suffering state ; When wilt thou set my soi l at rest, From lips that love deceit ?
Hard lot of mine ! my days are cast Among the sous of strife, Whose never ceasing brawlings waste My golden hours of life.
()! might I change my place,
How would I choose to dwell
In some wide, lonesome wih erness, And leave these gates of hell !"
Tc this, the same tradition states, Washing- ton returned Watt's version of the one hundred and first Psalm, entitled The Magistrato's Psalmn, containing the following pointed verses :
" In vain shall sinners strive to rise,
By flattering and malicious lies : And while the innocent I gnard, The bold offender sha'nt be spared.
The impions crew, that faetions band,
Shall hide their heads, or quit the land : And all who break the public rest, Where I have power shall be supprest."
This tradition has come to me from two en- tirely distinct sources ; but, of course, it cannot be authenticated.
During the Winter, several sharp skirmishes were fought in the region between the Ameri- can and English lines. One of these is de- scribed in the New Jersey Gazette of March 18th, 1777, by an American Officer, in a very racy manner. The engagement took place " near Quibble or Squabbletown;" and the officer com- manding two thousand of the enemy " is under arrest, for undertaking, like Don Quixote, to do impossibilities. He, instead of marching di- reetly to Brunswick, which he might have done, must needs go fourteen miles out of the direct road, to take prisoners Gen. Maxwell and his party at Sparktown, and to make his triumphant entry into Brunswick, leading his captives in chains, like an old Roman General, in which be found his fatal mistake, when too late to remedy it, for he found that he had surrounded a nest of American hornets, who soon put his whole body to flight."
And thus wore away the Winter and Spring. The new levies from Virginia and the Middle States have reached Morristown ; the small- pox is conquered ; the Powder Mill has been making "good Merchantable Powder," which Benoni Hatheway has been converting into cartridges ; John Jacob Faesh, of Mount Hope, and Charles Hoff, of Hibernia, have sent down many wagon loads of balls and grape-shot ; and, huzza! just in time for the opening Campaign, two vessels from France, arrived in port with twenty-four thousand muskets! And so, abont the last of May, Washington, with his Army, left Morristown, to engage in the noble ont bloody scenes of the Campaign of 1777 ; prominent among which are the Battles of Chad's Ford and Germantown ! God speed you, noble man ! We take pecuhar pride in recalling the facts connected with thy sojourn among the mountams of Old Morris, during the sor- rowful, yet glorions, Winter, of 1776-7 1
In order to obtain a more life-like view of the facts connected with the sojourn of Wash-
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ANNALS OF MORRIS COUNTY.
ington in Morris County, during the Winter of 1779-80, let us briefly glance at the events which transpired between May, 1777, and Do- eember, 1779.
On leaving Morristown, Washington took a strong position at Middle Brook, abont nine miles from New Brunswick, and foiled Sir William Howe, who attempted to bring on a general engagement. The enemy were prepar- ing a fleet, for the transportation of the Army, somewhere ; but where, no one could tell : perhaps, to act in concert with the formidable expedition of Burgoyne, at the North, or, perhaps, to seize Philadelphia. Convinced that the latter was Howe's aim, Washington marched his army to the Delaware ; and, whilst in Phil- adelphia, he bad his first interview with LaFayette. On the eleventh of September, was fought the battle of Chad's Ford, "in a country from which Washington could not de- rive the least intelligence, being, to a man, disaffected." The heavy rains destroyed much ammunition-on oue occasion, "forty rounds to a man"-and so distressed his ill-protected and ill-clothed soldiers, that Washington was compelled, not only to withdraw to a strong position, but to issue peremptory orders to take blankets and clothing. it needs be, by force, from Philadelphia. Piteously does be say, " if there are any shoes and blankets to be had in Lancaster, or that part of the country, Fentreat you to have them taken up for the use of the Army ;" for " our distresses, in the articles of shoes, stockings, and blankets, are extremely great." One of the greatest difficulties he had to cortend with, he says, is "the want of shoes ;" " at least, one thousand men are bare- footed, and have performed the marches in that condition." In these hard circumstances, the Battle of Germantown was fought, on the fourth of October, "'a bloody day," as Washing- ton called it, adding " would I could add it were a more forinuale one tor us." He lost abont one thousand men ; and, on the eigh- teenth of December, 1777, he led his troops into Winter quarters, at Valley Forge, whither " they might have been tracked by the blood of their feet, in marching over the frozen ground."
At the North, on the seventh of October, three days alter the disastrous Battle of Ger- mantown, the Battle of Bems' Heights was tonght, Benedict Arnold performing prodigies of valor ; and, ou the eighteenth of that month " the Americans marched into the lines of the British to the tone of Yankee Doodle." " Axiong the officers taken, were six members of the British Parlament. The train of brass artillery and other ordinance were innensely valuable, consisting of forty-two brass ord- nance. besides seven thousand muskets, with
six thousand dozen cartridges, besides an ample supply of shot, sheils, etc." (Thacher's Military Journal, 107-100.) An aged woman. Mrs. Elizabeth Doland, died at Mount Hope. Morris County, in 1852, more than ninety-one years old, who once told me that, when eleven years old, she was living at Walmsy's Tavern. at Pompton, when the trophies of Burgoshe's surrender were passing through, on their way to Morris County, where they were to be stored. She had been to a neighbor's house, and, on her return, found the house in a commotion. In the bar room, was a heap of enrions brass In- struments, which belonged to a German Band. captured with Burgoyne's Army. She say- that, during the three days the Band remained, she bad music enough and was glad when it was gone. The altillery and stores were drawn by oxen ; and Mrs. Doland says that some of the cannon required three yokes. The trains passed from Pompton to Morristown, through Montville, Troy and Hanover. It is an inter- esting fact that the Presbyterian Meeting House at Succasunna Plains, some twelve miles West of Morristown, was used as a place of storage for the muskets, cannon, and other articles taken at Saratogı. There is now living-1854 - a gentleman, in Morristown, the Hon. Lewis Condict, who, when a child, saw these stores at that old church. The larger cannon well ranged and sheltered ontside the building ; and the entire church was filled with the captured munitions. On the road from Morristown to the Plams, just as you are descending the bill. was the house of a Mr. James Young ; the garret of which was filled with drums, band instru- ments, and other accontrements requiring shelter. Dr. Condiet says he has often, when visiting at Mr. Young's house, amused himself with beating the drums there stored. And it may be surmised that the fact of these trophies of a British defeat being stored in Morris County, was one of the reasons why the enemy had such a desire to penetrate that region -a desire which was never gratified.
Without doubt, the unfortunate contract between the disasters of the army on the Dela- ware and the brilliant sneeds of the Army a the North was the occasion of those insidious camparisons which some thoughtless or mali- cious person instituted been Washington and Gates, and which resulted in a plot to supplant the Commander-in-chief.
A> for the Arviy, at Valle, Forge. a French- man thought he had summed up the ir hardship- and heroism, in saying, " no pay, Im clothes. no ram." But we must basten en.
The Campaign of 1778 made Monmouth . memorable spot in history. The morning of that day, as Dr. Clules ti. MeCheshy eres in- formed me , as Washington was hurrying on &
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ANNALS OF MORRIS COUNTY.
.
the spot on which bis terrible rebuke was to seathe. as with lightning. the Atheist and the Traitor. Lee, for his poltroopery, a patrio. woman, Dr. Mechesney's grandmother, ran from the house with a cup of refreshment, which she handed to him. Washington took it, and said to her, in a subdued tone of voice, " Madam, God only knows whether I shall ever drink another !" Some eight miles West of Mor- ristown, Jacob Losey, who is still living-185 1 -- was bathing in a mill-pond, and, ever and anon. was startled by the long, dull, heavy roar of canon, booming, dismaily, along the earth. The hon-hearted, hon-voiced, but too hasty, General Winds, of Morris County, had led a strong detachment of Militia, as far as Spotts- wood, a few miles Sonth of New Brunswick, ordered, as is said, to intercept the enemy's baggage-tram and ent off their retreat. He found the bridge at Spottswood was taken up. Lond roared the cannon, showing that there was warm work about Monmouth Court House, that brot Sabbath in June. Impetuously did he and his men begin to relay the bridge, when a sleek, pions-looking Quaker rode up, at full speed, with the intelligence that the enemy, in considerable force, was landing at Elizabeth- town point, intending no doubt, to penetrate Morris County 'Winds was on fire at the news, and, without thought and without orders, made a forced march back to Elizabethtown, ou a fool's errand, to have it said by many, that he was a coward, in which assertion there was no truth. But then it was a sad mistake for huis reputation and, perhaps, for his country. That Sunday, on which the Battle of Monmouth was fought, was an "inconceivable distressing one to our troops and horses," killing a few and disabling many, but, npon the whole, showing to Sir Henry Clinton, Howe's sucecs- sor, the force of the words which, we have said. tradition asserts Washington sent to Howe:
" 'The impions crew, that faetious band, Shalt hide their heads or qat the land !"
The Winter of 1778-'9, Washington spent at Middle Brook ; and its hardships were relieved by occasional amusements, for instance, by celebrating " the anniversary of our alliance with France," when a splendid entertainment was given by General Knox and the officers of the Artillery. General Washington and his lady, with the principal officers of the Army and their ladies, and a considerable number of Jespectable ladies and gentlemen of the State of New Jersey, formed the brilliant assembly. * *
* * In the evening, a very beautiful set of fireworks was exhibited ; and the celebration was concluded by a splendid ball, opened vy his Excellency, General Wash- ington, having for his partner, the lady of
General Knox ;" and the witness of this gal- lant display says, admiringly, of Washington. "his tall, noble stature and just proportions, his fine cheerful, open countenance, simple and todest depertment, are all calculated to interest every beholder in his favor, and to command veneration and respect. He is feared even when silent, and beloved even while we are unconscious of the motive." "As for Mrs. Washington, she too combines, in an uncommon degree, great dignity of manner with the most pleasing affability, but possesses no striking marks of beanty." (Thatcher's Military Jour- nal, 157.)
But the Winter at Middle Brook was not de- voted principally to dancing. Brave, stern Baron Stenben has been appointed Inspector- General of the Army ; and, on the parade- ground, he is disciplining the men so severely that their labors amount to little less than hard service in the field. In the Spring of 1779. General Washington detached four thousand regular troops and a large body of Militia to punish the Indians for the massacres of Cherry Valley and Wyoming; and the late Colonel Joseph Jackson, then five years oldl, remem- bered that a Brigade of these troops encamped, for a night, in the field opposite his late resi- dence. The officers were quarted in his father's house. As for the general concerns of the Campaign of 1779, it was made notorious by such piratical movemen's as the burning of Portsmouth and New London, as the means of "indneing the rebellious Provinces to return to their allegiance." On the fifteenth of July, " Mad Anthony " Wayne stormed Stony Point ; and, in August, Major Henry Lee successfully attacked and took prisoners a body of the enemy, at Paulus Hook, as Jersey City. was then ealled.
Thus passed that Campaign, nutil early in December, Washington went into Winter-quar- ters at Morristown. His first letter, from Mor . ristown, that Winter, bears the date "7 Decem- ber, 1779 ;" and to Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, he wrote, "the main army lios within three or four miles of the town." On the fitteenth of December, he orders Brigadier- General Duportail, in conjunction with the Quarter-master-general, Greene, to " examine all the grounds in the environs of our present encampment," for "spots most proper to be occupied in case of any movement of the enemy towards us," " theso spots to be large enough for the movements of ten thousand mon." (Spark's Writings of Washington, vi., 415-419.)
On the first of December, 1779, Washingto. became, in one sense, the guest of Mrs. Ford, daughter of Rev. Dr. Timothy Johnes, and widow of the late lamented Colonel Jacob Ford,
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ANNALS OF MORRIS COUNTY.
Junior, who died soon after Washington first came to Morristown, in January, 1777. The honse in which she was residing was built in 1774. in the most substantial manner and on a scale of elegance and comfort which indi- cates ample means in its builder. It is a pleasing fact that the house which sheltered Washington has been changed but little since he occupied it. The same weather-boards which resisted the stormis of that tremendons Winter are just where they were then. You enter a spacions hall which runs the depth of the house ; and not a plank in the floor has been rem wed smee Washington first crossed the threshold of that mansion. The same oaken donble-door that opened to him opens to von, now. When he came there, " the widow Elizabeth Lindsley, the honored mother of Colonel Jacob Ford, Semor," had been dead nearly eight years. She hved to see the Ford Mansion begun : but not to live in it. Her son and grandson had been dead thr e years, ucarly. The widow of the latter closed ber life, there. Her son, the late Hon. Gabriel ft. Ford, sn - corded is mother in the mansion, and died at the advanced age of eighty-five years At the present "me (1871) his son, Henry Ford. Erg., is residing there ; and is surrounded with his children and grand-children. So t at if we reckon Mrs. Lindsley, who lived to see the honse begun, it may be said that the old man- sion has seen seven generations of the same family. Six generations have actually resided there, of which the first three are now gone ; and yet so firmly is it built, that, a century hence, if modern vandalism can be kept from making it impossible, the stranger may open the same portal, press the same floor, wander through the same hall and rooms, and look out at the same windows, as did Washington, that memorable Winter. May it stand as long as the house in which Shakspeare was born ! Fx- cepting in the matters of paint and paper, the addition of a partition or two, and the filling up the spacions parlor fire-place, to accommo- date a coal grate, no changes have been ins de. Your eye rest on the small walls. the same cornices, the same window-casements, the same doors, the same mantle-pieces, the same windows, the same hearthstones, as did his, in the Winter of 1779-'80. The great onthnes of the landscape, once seen never to be forgotton, which his eye rested on, then, are the same ; but the right-hand of enterprise has greatly changed the details. The eye now rests on thousands of cleared acres which, then, were covered with dense forests; and the old town itself has changed more than other things. We are naturally inelmod to venerate places where great men have accomplished heroic deeds. Very finely did Daniel Webster remark,
at Valley Forge, "there is a mighty power in local association. We all arknowledge, and all feel it ! Those places naturally inspire us with emotion which in the course of human history have been connected with great and interesting events; and this power over ingenious minds never ceases, until fre- quent visits familarize the mind to the seemes. * * *
* The mention of Washington. the standing on the ground of his encampment, the act of looking around on the scenes which he and his officers and soldiers then beheld, cannot but carry us back also to the Revolution ana to one of its most distressing periods," (Works, ii., 277.)
What is true of Valley Forge, is true ot Mor- ristown and, especially, of the venerable man- sion in which Washington resided. It is no ordinary place ; and every object which has survived the ravages of time has a sort of sacredness which one can can feel better than describe. Take this old arm chair, standing in the hall, and draw it up to the old secretary. also standing in the hall. Washington was often seated in that chair, and often wrote at that secretary. Or take this plain httle table. said to have been a favorite one with him, on which to write, because he could easily move it ; look at the very ink-spots, which are said to bave been made that Winter - spots, which, in the eye of the antiqnary, are more beautiful than settings of precious stones-open now to the immortal letters which Washington wrote. that Winter, many of them at that vory score- tary or little table ; read those letters atten- tively, and let the imagination evoke the form of their great anthos, on whose brow are the deep tracings of anxions thought ; and one must be either very stupid or very stern if he do not feci a peculiar thrill, a warm glow per- vading his whole nature, as thus he beholds. not only Washington, but lis dignified lady, the admirable. Martha Washington ; the courth and brilliant Alexander Hamilton ; the apostate quaker, but splendid soldier. Nathaniel Greene; the incomparable commandant of the Artillery, Henry Knox ; the giant-sized and stern Baron Steuben ; the polished Kosciuszko ; the elegant and accomphshed Sterling ; and perhaps, an occasional member of the group, Satin in Para- dise, the traitor, Arnold 1
It is interesting to ascertain the arrange- ments of the honse and the large family occu- pying it, that Winter. On the twenty-second of Jannary, 1780, Washington wrote to the Quarter-master-general, Greene, whose duty it was to provide for the comfort of the Comman- der-in-chiel, "I have been at my present Quarters since the first day of December, and have not a kitchen to cook a dinner in ; * *
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hor is there a place, at this moment, in which a . ervant can lodge, with the smallest degree of comfort. Eighteen belonging to my family and all Mrs. Ford's are crowded together, in her kitchen, and scarce one of them able to speak for the colds they have." (Spark's Writings of Washington, vi., 449.) This was in reference to the cooking department ; and, soon a log kitchen was built, at the East end of the house, for the use of Washington's family. He himself ocenpied the two South-east rooms of the main house, on the first and second floors. The room on the first floor, he used for a dimng, reception and sitting-room ; and the one immediately above it, as a bed-room. At the West end of the house, and but a little distance from it, another log cabin was built for a general office, which Washington occupied, particularly in the day time, rith Colonel Alex- ander Hamilton and Major Tench Tighlman. This cluster of buildings was guarded, night and dav, by seutinels. In the field, South-east of the house, huts were built for Washington's Life Guards. of whom there are said to have been two hundred and fifty, nudler the command of General Colfax, grandfather of our Vice President.
We have already noted the principal locali- ties of interest in Morristown, but may here allude to two, with each of which is asso- ciated en anecdote of Washington. The first Winter be spout there, as has already been stated, it was found necessary to use the Pres- byterian Meeting House, as a temporary Hos- pital. During the cold weather, Doctor Johnes probably preached, principally in private houses, in different parts of the congregation ; bnt. when the warm weather came on, it is re- ported, by tradition, that public meetings, on the Sabbath were held a few reds back of the Doctor's house. The tradition comes directly from Doctor Johnes, that previous to holding a communion that spot, Washington called on him, as is stated iu Hosack's Li"e of Clinton, and, "after the usual preliminaries, this ac- costed him, 'Doctor, I understand that the Lord's Supper is to be celebrated with you, next Sunday. I would learn if it accords with the 'Canons of your Church to admit commun- icants of another denomination " The Doctor rojomed, . Most certainly, Our's is not the Presbyterian's table, General, In the Lord's ; and hence we give the Lord's invitation to all his followers, of whatsoever name.' The Gen- (ral replied, 'I am glad of it : that is as it ought to be ; but, as I was not quite sure of the fact, I thought I would ascertain it from yourself, as I propose to join with you on that occasion Though a member of the Church of England. I have no exclusive partialities.' The Doctor assured him of a cordial welcome ; and
the Generel was found seated with the com- munieants the next Sabbath."
This tradition is well authenticated, and is in perfect keeping with his opinions, elsewhere expressed, I do not now recall any occasion in which he ostentatiously calls himself "a Churchman," being a man of correct taste ; but he was an Episcopalian, by an honest preference, -he had too just views of God, as a Spirit and of His worship, as spiritual, to narrow down his devotion to any locality, either Mount Gerazim or Jerusalem. Once he nsed these words : "Being no bigot, myself, I am disposed to indulge the professors of Christianity in the Church with that road to heaven which to them shall seem the most direct, the plamest and easiest, and least hable to objections." And to "The Bishops, Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church," he wrote, on the nineteenth of August, 1789, in reply to their Address : "On this occasion, it would ill become me to conceal the joy I have felt in perceiving the fraternal affection which appears to increase among the friends of gemmine religion. It affords most edifving prospects, indeed, to sce Christians of ›very denonnatiou dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect to each other with a more Christian-like spirit than ever they have done, in any former age, or in any other nation."-Spark's Writings of Washington, xii., 404. 1
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