USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Morristown > Historic Morristown, New Jersey : the story of its first century > Part 23
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The statement concerning the locations of the quar- ters of the various brigade commanders and other gen- eral officers of the patriot army would make a most interesting feature of our story, but these, with few ex- ceptions, it is impossible at present to give. Of the locale of the quarters of General William Irvine, how- ever, during the first months at least of the encamp- ment of Washington's army in Morristown, it is grati- fying to be able to speak with some degree of certainty. Standing on the northeasterly corner of
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what is known as the Bailey Hollow road, about one and a half miles down the Jockey Hollow road from the Morristown Green, there was, in the year 1780, a house owned by Captain Augustine Baily (sometimes spelled Bayles). This house, only the site of which is now (1905) to be seen, was the quarters of Irvine, one of Washington's most trusted officers.
It was probably as commander of the Second Bri- gade of Pennsylvania troops during the winter of 1779-80 that he established his quarters in the Bailey house on the Jockey Hollow road. A cannon ball, picked up recently on the site of his quarters on the Jockey Hollow road, was on exhibition with other Revolutionary relics in the window of a young Morris- town jeweler on the Fourth of July, in the year 1904.
Of the quarters of General Anthony Wayne, men- tion will in due course be made. Arnold's tavern, in the village of Morristown, was doubtless the tem- porary home of not a few of the American general officers during the second encampment of the army there, and other officers and soldiers seem to have been quartered in the building on the south side of the Green, known as the "Continental House," then used as a storehouse for government supplies. The quar- ters of the surgeon-general of Washington's army, Dr. John Cochran, was in the house of Dr. Jabez Camp- field, on the road leading toward Whippany, on what is now the corner of Morris street and Oliphant lane. Of this famous house more will be said in due time.
On the arrival of Washington in Morristown, in the
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early part of the month of December, in the year 1779, he established his headquarters in what was then known as the "Ford Mansion," situated on the road leading to Whippany, and about a mile eastward of the village Green. The "Ford Mansion" was then owned and occupied by Theodosia, widow of Colonel Jacob Ford, Jr., deceased, since the beginning of the year 1777, and her children. In the issue of The New Jer- sey Gazette of December 13, a few days only after the arrival of the patriot army in Morristown, there ap- peared the announcement: "We understand that the Head-Quarters of the American Army is established at Morris-Town, in the Vicinity of which the troops are now hutting."
Washington's body guard, called also his life guard, comprising (at their maximum) about 250 picked men from different regiments of the Continental army, es- tablished their camp about 400 feet, approximately, to the southeast of the headquarters of the commander- in-chief, at what is now the fork of Morris and Wash- ington avenues. As early as about the middle of De- cember, after Washington's arrival (on the first), a row of about a dozen huts had been erected for the accommodation of the life guard. Each hut contained about eighteen men, the apparent discrepancy between the number of the life guard and the hut accommoda- tions being explained by the fact that some of the men were always on furlough or in the hospital. To the southeast somewhat and in what is now the beginning of Washington avenue, were probably located the offi-
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cers' quarters, including those of the officer in com- mand of the life guard, who was Major Caleb Gibbs.
"The Commander-in-Chief's Guard" was organized on the twelfth day of March, in the year 1776, at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. The general order, pursuant to which this corps was organized, is here appended:
"Head-Quarters, Cambridge, March II, 1776.
"The General is desirous of selecting a particular number of men as a guard for himself and baggage. The colonel or commanding officers of each of the established regiments, the artillery and rifiemen excepted, will furnish him with four, that the number wanted may be chosen out of them. His Excellency depends upon the colonels for good men, such as they can recommend for their sobriety, honesty and good behavior. He wishes them to be from five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches, handsomely and well made, and, as there is nothing in his eyes more desirable than cleanliness in a soldier, he desires that particular attention may be made in the choice of such men as are clean and spruce. They are all to be at headquarters tomorrow pre- cisely at 12 o'clock at noon, when the number of men wanted will be fixed upon. The General neither wants them with uniforms nor arms, nor does he desire any man to be sent to him that is not perfectly willing or desirous of being of this Guard-they should be drilled men."
Carlos E. Godfrey, M. D., in his valuable work "The Com- mander-in-Chief's Guards Revolutionary War," says: "The necessity for such a corps was early manifested after Wash- ington had assumed command of the American forces at Cambridge July 3, 1775, by the rapid accumulation of valua- ble papers and for the safety of his person from the ene- mies that abounded in and about the camp; and, during the existence of the organization, it was always esteemed a
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mark of particular distinction by the soldiers to be mem- bers of this command."
One of the most interesting features of the above named book is the fac-simile signatures of the officers and men composing "The Commander-in-Chief's Guards."
The last survivor of "Washington's Life Guard" was Ser- geant Uzall Knapp, whose remains rest under a handsome brown freestone monument at the foot of the flag-staff at Washington Headquarters, Newburg, New York.
"I have been at my present quarters since the first day of December," wrote Washington from the Ford Mansion on the twenty-second of the following January, to his quarter- master-general, Nathaniel Green, "and have not a kitchen to cook a dinner in; nor is there a place, at this mo- ment, in which a servant 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.'
Silas B. Condict, in Genealogical History of the Ford Family of Morris County, (written in the year 1879), says "Darius Pierson, when a boy, carted wood for General Washington during the winter that he was at the Ford Head- quarters in Morristown. Our grandparents have often told us of the extreme cold of the winter that Washington spent when at the Ford mansion then comparatively a new house (the same house now standing on those beautiful grounds), and of the great suffering those noble soldiers endured then encamped on Fort Nonsense. General Washington would of- ten tell Darius to go in the house and warm himself, while he, Washington, would unload the wood."
A log kitchen was soon afterward built at the east end of the house for the accommodation of Washing- ton and his family; and at the west end of the house another log structure was erected for use as a general
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office. This office was occupied during the day, par- ticularly, by Washington and some of his staff; his sleeping-room was on the second floor of the house. Among the members of his family of eighteen were a portion of the winter at least, Martha Washington, and Colonel Alexander Hamilton, Major Tench Tighl- man, several servants, and last, but by no means least, Mrs. Thompson, an Irishwoman, the efficient and re- sourceful housekeeper. Readers of this story will, without doubt, agree with the writer in speaking of Mrs. Thompson as a resourceful housekeeper, when it is related that at a time of great scarcity of food at headquarters, and throughout the army, for that mat- ter, she remarked one day to Washington:
"We have nothing but the rations to cook, sir."
"Well, Mrs. Thompson," replied he, "you must cook the rations, for I have not a farthing to give you."
"If you please sir, let one of the gentlemen give me an order for six bushels of salt."
"Six bushels of salt!" exclaimed Washington in manifest astonishment; "what for?"
Fully equal to the occasion, the housekeeper replied: "To preserve the fresh beef, sir."
The order was given, and on the following day there was no scarcity of food at the table of the outgeneraled commander-in-chief. Upon ascertaining the apparent source of the ample food supply, Washington adminis- tered a mild rebuke to his housekeeper, in the follow- ing words:
"You have done wrong in expending your money, for I
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do not know when I can repay you. I owe you too much already to permit the debt being increased, and our situation is not such as to induce very sanguine hope."
Never did the hopefulness of the womanly nature find more expression than in the ready response of Mrs. Thompson.
"Dear sir," she said, " it is always darkest just be fore the daylight;" and a finer illustration of womanly tact is seldom seen than that exhibited in the closing words of her remark, "I hope your excellency will for- give me for bartering salt for other necessaries now on the table."
Inasmuch as salt, during the period under consider- ation, was $8 a bushel, the people in the country sur- rounding Morristown were very willing to exchange their products for it. Some of them, indeed, as we learn from a contemporary newspaper, were willing to "exchange one bushel of salt for seven and a half bush- els of flax seed."
Allusion has been made to the scarcity of food in the patriot army during the winter of its second encamp- ment in Morristown, and no better or more convincing evidence of this can be given than the citation of a few extracts from extant letters of Washington. For ex- ample on the sixteenth of December, in the year 1779, the commander-in-chief wrote from his log cabin of- fice, west of the Ford mansion to Joseph Read, at Philadelphia :
"The situation of the Army with respect to supplies, is
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beyond description, alarming. It has been five or six weeks past on half allowance, and we have not more than three days bread at a third allowance, on hand, nor any where within reach. When this is exhausted, we must depend on the precarious gleanings of the neighboring country. Our magazines are absolutely empty every where, and our com- missaries entirely destitute of money or credit to replenish them. We have never experienced a like extremity at any period of the war. This representation is the result of a minute examination of our resources."
Again, on the eighth of the month following, Wash- ington wrote to the magistrates of New Jersey :
"The present situation of the army, with respect to pro- visions, is the most distressing we have experienced since the beginning of the war. For a fortnight past, the troops, both officers and men, have been almost perishing for want. They have been alternately without bread or meat the whole time, with a very scanty allowance of either, and frequently destitute of both. They have borne their sufferings with a patience that merits the approbation and ought to excite the sympathy of their countrymen. But they are now re- duced to an extremity no longer to be supported."
"We have had the virtue and patience of the army put to the severest trial," wrote Washington in a private letter to a friend. "Sometimes it has been five or six days together without bread; at other times as many without meat; and once or twice, two or three days at a time, without either. * * At one time the soldiers ate every kind of horse food but hay. Buckwheat, common wheat, rye and Indian corn, composed the meal which made their bread."
The subsequent response of the people of New Jer- sey to the noble appeal of Washington for provisions
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for his destitute army was so prompt and generous that he was able on the twentieth of January of the same year to write to Dr. John Witherspoon as fol- lows:
"All the counties of this State that I have heard from have attended to my requisition for provisions, with the most cheerful and commendable zeal."
Of the severity of the winter of 1779-80, and the consequent suffering of the patriot army, a better con- ception cannot be obtained by the reader than from an extract from the military journal of Dr. Thatcher. This extract is under date of the fourteenth of Decem- ber of the former year, and of January 3, 1780, it says:
"The snow on the ground is about two feet deep and the weather extremely cold; the soldiers are destitute of both tents and blankets, and some of them are actually bare- footed and almost naked. * * But the sufferings of the * poor soldiers can scarcely be described; while on duty they are unavoidably exposed to all the inclemency of the storm and severe cold; at night they now have a bed of straw on the ground and a single blanket to each man; they are badly clad and some are destitute of shoes. The snow is now from four to six feet deep. For the last ten days we received but two pounds of meat a man. * The consequence is the soldiers are so enfeebled from hun- ger and cold as to be almost unable to perform military duty or labor in constructing their huts. It is well known that General Washington experiences the greatest solicitude for the sufferings of his army and is sensible that they in general conduct with heroic patience and fortitude."
It is through the courtesy of Henry B. Hoffman, of
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Morristown, that the writer is able to present the fol- lowing letter, the original of which is in the possession of Mrs. James B. Bowman, of Mendham, a descendant of Stephen Day, Esq., to whom said communication was originally addressed:
"Morristown, November 6th, 1780. "Sir-
"The great demands of the Army for Forage from this county, and the method in which it has been taken proves very distressing. I have therefore at the request of a num- ber of the Magistrates appointed a meeting to-morrow at my office to consult on this important affair and endeavor to alleviate the distress of individuals by a general demand from the whole county. I request your personal attendance at ten o'clock in the forenoon.
"Am respectfully your obedient servant,
"JOS. LEWIS, Com. "Justice Day."
Joseph Lewis, at the period above mentioned, was Deputy Quartermaster-General of New Jersey. His residence was on what is now Morris Street, next be- yond the house occupied by the Rev. Timothy Johnes, (whose daughter he married) and on the same side of the street. His office may have been at his residence. The Justice Day to whom the foregoing letter was written was Justice Stephen Day, of Chatham; he to whom Washington once wrote, asking him to solicit supplies for the Continental Army, which he did. Squire Day headed the list with a beef.
Captain William Tuttle of the New Jersey brigade,
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is authority for the statement that "there were paths about the camps on Kimball Hill that were marked with real blood expressed from the cracked and frozen feet of soldiers who had no shoes."
From a poem entitled "Rhoda Farrand," first pub- lished in a magazine, Our Continent, edited by Judge Tourgee, several years ago, the following extract is given, which thrillingly relates its own story:
"We are here for the winter in Morristown, And a sorry sight are our men to-day, In tatters and rags with no signs of pay. As we marched to camp, if a man looked back, By the dropping of blood he could trace our track; For scarcely a man has a decent shoe, And there's not a stocking the army through; So send us stockings as quick as you can, My company needs them, every man. !
And every man is a neighbor's lad; Tell this to their mothers: They need them bad. Then, if never before, beat Rhoda's heart, 'Twas time to be doing a woman part, She turned to her daughters, Hannah and Bet, Girls, each on your needles a stocking set. Get my cloak and hood; as for you, son Dan, Yoke up the steers just as quick as you can; Put a chair in the wagon, as you're alive, I will sit and knit while you go and drive, They started at once on Whippany road, She knitting away while he held the goad. At Whippany Village she stopped to call On the sisters Prudence and Mary Ball. She would not go in, she sat in her chair, And read to the girls her letter from there.
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That was enough, for their brothers three Were in Lieutenant Farrand's company.
Then on Rhoda went, stopping here and there, To rouse the neighbors from her old chair."
The result of the heroic efforts of this patriotic wo- man, assisted by her not less patriotic daughters and son, was, that the stockings poured into the New Jer- sey camp down the Jockey Hollow road "in a perfect shower." From S. A. Farrand, one of the headmas- ters of the Newark (N. J.) Academy, who, the writer is proud to say, is a grandson of the Rhoda Farrand of the poem quoted from, the writer learns that the poem is in the main historically correct. The poem was written by Miss Eleanor A. Hunter, a great-grand- daughter of Rhoda Farrand, In reply to the query of the present writer as to how she happened to write this patriotic poem, she says: "It was a story told me by my mother. She related it to me many times, and I never wearied of listening to it. She had heard it as a child from Grandmother Rhoda herself. One even- ing, after a visit to Morristown, my mother and I were talking about Revolutionary days and she told me the story once more. Suddenly the thought came to me: 'What a good poem that would make.' I retired to my room and put the story in rhyme then and there and brought it out and gave it to my mother." The poem, as already mentioned, was subsequently pub- lished.
"Where's the general? Where's the general?" ex- claimed a young man visiting at the Ford mansion in
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the winter of 1779-80, as, in great trepidation, he rushed downstairs and into the spacious hallway on the first floor at midnight of a certain evening.
"Be quiet, young man, be quiet," was Washington's mild rebuke, as with his customary moderation he al- so descended the stairway from his sleeping-room. The cause of the commotion and its attendant circum- stances, occurring at the unseasonable hour sug- gested, was what proved to be a false alarm of the ap- proach of a British force. These alarms, which were not infrequent occurrences during the winter of Wash- ington's occupancy, as headquarters, of the now fa- mous Ford mansion, were followed by the barricading of the doors by the life guard and the opening of the windows, at each of the latter of which about five of the guard would place themselves, with muskets loaded and cocked, in readiness for repelling attack. On the approach of the American troops dispatched from camp for the defense of the headquarters, the life guard would retire from the positions assumed, and, rejoining their particular command, await further or- ders. The necessity for their services having ceased the troops would then return leisurely to camp.
"Timothy Ford, a son of Washington's hostess" at the Ford Mansion, was a severe sufferer during the winter spent there by the commander-in-chief, "from the effects of a wound received in a battle the previous fall; and among other pleasing courtesies we are told that every morning Washington knocked at Timo-
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thy's door, and asked how the young soldier had passed the night."
How like the living present it causes the past to ap- pear, as one reads in a private letter written from Basking Ridge, on the twenty-second day of Decem- ber, in the year 1779, that:
"I rode out today on purpose to take a view of our encampments. I found it excessively cold; but was glad to see most of our poor soldiers were under good roofs. The encampments are exceedingly neat; the huts are all of a size, and placed in more exact order than Philadelphia; you would be surprised to see how well they are built without nails. Headquarters is at Morristown, and the army extends from thence along the hills nearly to this place."
Martha Washington ("a small, plump, elegantly formed woman") reached the Ford mansion by way of Trenton, where Virginia troops were paraded in her honor, on the twenty-eighth of December, in the year 1779, while the great snow storm mentioned by Dr. Thatcher was raging. That she was a worthy companion of her distinguished husband, the follow- ing authentic incident will demonstrate. During the winter of her sojourn at the Ford mansion she was honored by a call from several representative Hano- ver ladies. As one of these ladies afterward remarked, "We were dressed in our most elegant silks and ruffles, and so were introduced to her ladyship. And don't you think we found her with a speckled homespun apron on, and engaged in knitting a stocking! She re- ceived us very handsomely. and then resumed her
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knitting. In the course of her conversation she said very kindly to us, whilst she made her needles fly, that 'American ladies should be patterns of industry to their countrywomen. * * We must become in- dependent of England by doing without those articles which we can make ourselves. Whilst our husbands and brothers are examples of patriotism, we must be examples of industry.'
" 'I do declare,' said one of these visitors, 'I never felt so shame and rebuked in my life.'"
There was evidently pressing need of industry, and of economy also, on the part of the good women of Morris County, for during the winter of 1779-80 their "husbands and brothers" were paying for first-quality hay 100 pounds per ton; for wheat, $50 per bushel; for corn, $30 per bushel, and for other necessaries in proportion. If a carriage ride were indulged in, the bill was, for one horse, twenty-four hours, $6, or twenty-five cents per hour.
The value of slaves in New Jersey at the time may be inferred from such advertisements as the following: "One Thousand Dollars Reward for the recovery of my negro man, Toney." One dollar in specie was equivalent to forty in paper money; and the poor sol- diers of the patriot army were paid in paper money. That Washington was not left with but a mere "cor- poral's guard" to continue the struggle for national in- dependence, was due to the inborn and unquenchable love of freedom, which brightly burned in the hearts of the patriot soldiery composing his army.
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CHAPTER XVII
"True fortitude is seen in great exploits That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides; All else is tow'ring frenzy and distraction."
HE winter of the years 1779-80 wit- nessed one of the most important T gatherings ever held in Morristown, if not, indeed, in America. It was convened in Dickerson's tavern, then kept by Robert Norris, on what is now the corner of Water and Spring streets. Important in itself, because of the object and the per- sonnel of the gathering, it was important also when the consequencs to its central figure and to the Amer- ican colonies are carefully considered.
The central figure of this momentous gathering in Morristown was none other than Benedict Arnold, hitherto by common consent one of the bravest and most efficient officers in the Continental army; the ob- ject, his court-martial; the consequences, as will be seen, the making of a traitor to the cause of freedom,
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the loss to the patriot army of a splendid officer and the widespread alarm of Freedom's steadfast friends, which found expression in the sad exclamation of Washington, when irresistible evidence of Arnold's treason was presented to him: "Whom can we trust now?"
Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in the year 1740. On the breaking out of the Revolu- tion he eagerly espoused the cause of the colonies. In the month of May, in the year 1775, he ably assisted Colonel Ethan Allen in the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In conjunction with General Mont- gomery, Arnold, in the month of December, in the year 1775, after a tedious and hazardous march through the State of Maine, and with but a mere hand- ful of the troops with which he had started, besieged Quebec for a period of three weeks. At the end of this time an unsuccessful assault was made on the enemy's works, in which he exhibited indomitable courage. In this assault, Arnold received a severe wound and was carried from the field. In harassing the retreating British troops under General Tryon, from Danbury, Connecticut, Arnold bore honorable part with Gen- erals Wooster and Silliman, the former of whom was slain.
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