1780)
Although the Valley Forge encampment of 1777-78 has come to epitomize the suffering endured by soldiers in the Revolutionary War (1775-83), those quartered at Morristown during the winter of 1779-80 braved perhaps the most severe winter of the 18th century. One Continental army officer claimed that soldiers who had experienced the Valley Forge winter “but have not tasted the cruelties of this one, know not what it is to suffer.”
In a hilly, wooded area of northern New Jersey, Morristown was a small settlement containing iron and powder works strategically located about 25 miles from British-occupied New York. It provided a secure defensive position from which General George Washington could watch for signs of enemy troop movements. In fact, the Continental army had wintered there once before, in early 1777, after the triumphs of the Battles of Trenton and
Princeton (December 26, 1776, and January 3, 1777). At that time, privations were acute and smallpox had ravaged the troops, but those ordeals paled in comparison to the hardships of the second Morristown encampment.
The weather was the greatest adversary at Morristown. There had been at least three storms in the last two weeks of November, and when Washington arrived on December 1, it was amid snow and hail. The army filtered into camp throughout the month. The men were to occupy the wooded area known as Jockey Hollow, about four miles from Morristown, and immediately began to fell trees for building shelters. Approximately 1,200 log huts eventually made up the encampment, and most of the soldiers were housed within a month. But during the building process, sleet, freezing temperatures, and numerous blizzards dumped more than six feet of snow on the area, burying men in their tents and erasing all traces of the roads. Area waterways froze to such a depth that heavy carriages could be driven across them. In early January, the quartermaster reported that half the men in camp were naked and two-thirds starved. One soldier later noted a time when four days passed without anything to eat. When the storms abated, many men either deserted or plundered neighboring farms for provisions.
Supplies were a persistent problem. Hoping to stop the marauding bands and yet provide for the army’s needs, Washington divided New Jersey into 11 districts and assigned a quota of grain and cattle for each. Local magistrates cooperated willingly with the apportionment of requisitions, and foodstuffs began arriving at Morristown as the roads became passable. The bounty lasted for only a short time, however, and by late February supplies were scarce once again. In addition, the depreciation of the Continental currency made purchasing provisions increasingly difficult. Without adequate negotiable funds, the army’s supplies were only a few days ahead of consumption, which kept the men in constant need of food, clothes, medical supplies, and other necessities.
The bleak conditions lowered morale and caused behavior to deteriorate. Officers were court-martialed for unbecoming conduct, trading with the enemy, and unapproved absences. Enlisted men were guilty of neglecting their weapons, plundering, drinking, desertion, and rowdy conduct. Mindful of the severe depredations the men faced, as well as the boredom, Washington judiciously tempered the punishments for infractions of discipline and encouraged recreational activities and declared holidays, including St. Patrick’s Day.
Washington and his officers, of course, fared somewhat better during their stay at Morristown. Those encamped at Jockey Hollow had larger cabins than the enlisted men, who slept 12 to a hut. Washington, believing he must maintain a style befitting the importance of his office and that comfort was a prerogative of command, moved into the Ford mansion in Morristown. The general and his staff occupied most of the house, leaving two rooms for the widow Theodosia Ford and her four children. And the general had the pleasure of Mrs. Washington’s company for the winter. Washington’s administrative labors were enormous, and he handled much of the burden alone. He was overindulgent in granting furloughs to his officers so that too few remained to assist him with the problems of supply, personnel, intelligence, and enlistment.
The limited military operations Washington undertook had disastrous results. In January, he planned a raid on Staten Island, but the British learned of it in time to prepare. Consequently, hundreds of ill-clad revolutionary soldiers suffered frostbite from exposure, six were killed, 16 captured, and those returning had only a few prisoners and some meager provisions to show for their effort. Even worse, the ill-fated mission and the plundering done by some of the Continentals along the way sparked retaliatory raids by the British, which inflamed tempers on both sides. Furthermore, Washington’s fear that continuing shortages in food, clothing, and money might lead to mutiny were realized on May 25 with the rebellion of part of the Connecticut line. Though the uprising was quickly subdued, Washington was still struggling with these problems and the need for more men when British troop movements were detected in early June. By the end of the month, with the supplies that had been accumulated removed to safety and a small detachment left behind, the Continental army marched out of Morristown, ending a brutal encampment that had seen the ranks depleted by 86 deaths and 1,066 desertions.
See also CONTINENTAL ARMY, MUTINIES Of.
Further reading: U. S. Department of the Interior, A History and Guide: Morristown National Historical Park, New Jersey (Washington, D. C.: National Park Service, 1983); Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution, vol. 2 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1989).
—Rita M. Broyles
Morse, Jedidiah (1761-1826) geographer, minister Known as the “father of American Geography,” Jedidiah Morse published widely read studies of the North American landscape. His Geography Made Easy (1784) and The American Geography (1789), each saw multiple printings, with the former achieving some 25 editions. Based on his own travels, the works of contemporaries, and correspondence with people across the country, Morse’s work advanced the reading public’s knowledge of the North American continent. These studies were followed by a children’s book entitled Elements of Geography (1795), The American Gazetteer (1797), and A Compendious History of New England (1804).
Morse was born in Woodstock, Connecticut. The eighth child of Jedidiah and Sarah Morse, he honed his intellectual skills as a student at Yale College. It was here, however, that he resolved to commit his life to the ministry, a decision that prolonged his academic career. To support his studies, Morse taught and wrote a geography book for students. He also developed a staunch nationalist ideology and a vigorous devotion to orthodox Christianity.
In 1786 Morse, now an ordained and licensed Con-gregationalist minister, accepted a position at a church in Midway, Georgia. But he soon returned to the Northeast to lead the First Congregational Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Morse married Elizabeth Ann Breeze in 1789, and together they enjoyed a 30-year tenure at this church. A tremendously popular preacher, Morse launched an unrelenting assault on the liberal Christian views espoused by Unitarians (see Unitarianism). From his perspective, enlightened thought, and particularly DEISM, presented a threat to orthodox belief. THOMAS Paine’s Age of Reason (1794) came under especially close scrutiny. “The existence of God is boldly denied [in such texts],” Morse observed. “Atheism and materialism are systematically professed. Reason and Nature are deified and adored. The Christian religion and its divine and blessed author are not only disbelieved, rejected and contemned, but even abhorred.” This concern with the Enlightenment’s supposed evil effects led Morse to become a spokesman for the FEDERALIST Party during the Quasi-War (1798-1800) and charge that there was a conspiracy to overthrow religion led by the Bavarian Illuminati, a supposed secret sect of deists who were spreading from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. In 1805 he carried forward his defense of orthodoxy with the publication of True Reasons on which the Election of a Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard College was opposed at the Board of Overseers, 14 February 1805 (1805). This diatribe set out his rationale for denying the Hollis Professorship to Henry Ware, whose liberal theology Morse considered antithetical to the man for whom the chair was named. Morse carried his efforts against deism forward through the organization of the General Association of Massachusetts, the launching of The Panoplist (1805), the establishment of Andover Theological Seminary (1808), and the founding of the Park Street Church in Boston (1809).
Morse considered the propagation of the gospel across the country to be no less important than purging the church from within. He therefore committed much of his time to evangelical endeavors such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, on which he served as a board member from 1811 to 1818, the New England Tract
Society (founded in 1814), and the American Bible Society (founded in 1816). Until his tenure at the First Congregational Church ended in 1819, he also played an active role as secretary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. After his voluntary removal from the church, Morse returned to New Haven, Connecticut, and spent the last years of his life in relative quietude, studying, preaching, and involving himself in Indian affairs.
Further reading: Joseph W. Phillips, Jedidiah Morse and New England Congregationalism (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1983).
—Daniel M. Cobb
World History
