General Howe had meanwhile determined, as early as April 2, to embark on
another major attempt to capture Philadelphia, this time by sea
approach. He apparently kept his own counsel, however, and up to the
last minute neither the American nor the British Army knew his real
intentions. The garrisons at Perth Amboy and New Brunswick left their
cramped winter quarters for encampments in the open soon after the
middle of May. This colored reports that Howe was about to attack
Morristown, or that, while his main force advanced by land towards
Philadelphia, a band of Loyalists would march from Bergen into Sussex
County to aid a rising of the Tories there.
Made uneasy by these and other British movements, Washington decided
that the time had come to leave Morristown. On May 28, therefore,
leaving behind a small detachment to guard what military stores were
still in the village, he accordingly moved the Continental Army to
Middlebrook Valley, behind the first Watchung Mountain a short distance
north of Bound Brook, and only 8 miles from New Brunswick. This was a
natural position from which the Americans could both defy attack and
threaten any overland expedition the enemy might make. Such was the
relationship of the two armies as the curtain went up on the ensuing
summer campaign. The encampment of 1777 at Morristown had drawn to a
close.
_Jockey Hollow: the “Hard” Winter of 1779-80_