Washington’s original plan at the beginning of this lightninglike
campaign was to capture New Brunswick, where he might have destroyed all
the British stores and magazines, “taken (as we have since learnt) their
Military Chest containing 70,000 £ and put an end to the War.” But
Cornwallis, in Trenton, had heard the cannon sounding at Princeton that
morning of January 3, and, just as the Americans were leaving the town,
the van of the British Army came in sight. By that time the patriot
forces were nearly exhausted, many of the men having been without any
rest for 2 nights and a day. The 600 or 800 fresh troops required for a
successful assault on New Brunswick were not at hand. Washington held a
hurried conference with his officers, who advised against attempting too
much. Then, destroying the bridge over the Millstone River immediately
east of Kingston, the Continentals turned north and marched to Somerset
Court House (now Millstone), where they arrived between dusk and 11
o’clock that night.
Washington marched his men to Pluckemin the next day, rested them over
Sunday, January 5, and on the Monday following continued on northward
into Morristown. There the troops arrived, noted an American officer,
“at 5 P. M. and encamped in the woods, the snow covering the ground.”
Thus began the first main encampment of the Continental Army in Morris
County.
[Illustration: _The Ford Powder Mill, built by Col. Jacob Ford, Jr.,
in 1776._]
[Illustration: _The Old Morris County Courthouse of Revolutionary
War times._]
[Illustration: _The Ford Mansion, shelter for Delaware troops in
1777 and occupied as Washington’s headquarters during the terrible
winter of 1779-80._]