Events now moved swiftly. Many of the American troops reached Morristown
during the first week of December, and the rest arrived before the end
of that month. Estimates vary as to their total effective strength, but
it was probably not under 10,000 men, nor over 12,000, at that
particular time. Eight infantry brigades—Hand’s, New York, 1st and 2d
Maryland, 1st and 2d Connecticut, and 1st and 2d Pennsylvania—took up
compactly arranged positions in Jockey Hollow proper. Two additional
brigades, also of infantry, were assigned to campgrounds nearby: Stark’s
Brigade on the east slope of Mount Kemble, and the New Jersey Brigade at
“Eyre’s Forge,” on the Passaic River, somewhat less than a mile further
southwest. Knox’s Artillery Brigade took post about a mile west of
Morristown, on the main road to Mendham, and there also the Artillery
Park of the army was established. The Commander in Chief’s Guard
occupied ground directly opposite the Ford Mansion. All the positions
noted are shown exactly on excellent maps of the period prepared by
Robert Erskine, Washington’s Geographer General, and by Capt. Bichet de
Rochefontaine, a French engineer. A brigade of Virginia troops was
included in original plans for the encampment, but it was ordered
southward soon after arriving at Morristown, and played no major part in
the story here related.
[Illustration: _Map of Morristown prepared by Robert Erskine, F. R.
S., Geographer General of the Continental Army, dated December 17,
1779._ Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.]
_N^o 105.
Survey of Morristown—
by the chain only_
[Illustration: _Position of the Continental Army at Jockey Hollow in
the winter of 1779-80._ Drawn by Capt. Bichet de Rochefontaine, a
French engineer.]
As they arrived in camp, the soldiers pitched their tents on the frozen
ground. Then work was begun at once on building log huts for more secure
shelter from the elements. This was a tremendous undertaking. There was
oak, walnut, and chestnut timber at hand, but the winter had set in
early with severe snowstorms and bitter cold. Dr. James Thacher, a
surgeon in Stark’s Brigade, testified that “notwithstanding large fires,
we can scarcely keep from freezing.” Maj. Ebenezer Huntington, of Webb’s
Regiment, wrote that “the men have suffer’d much without shoes and
stockings, and working half leg deep in snow.” In spite of these
handicaps, however, nearly all the private soldiers had moved into their
huts around Christmastime, though some of the officers’ quarters, which
were left till last, remained unfinished until mid-February. A young
Connecticut schoolmaster who visited the camp near the end of December
described it as a “Log-house city,” where his own troops and those of
other States dwelt among the hills “in tabernacles like Israel of old.”
About 600 acres of woodland were cut down in connection with the
project.
Each brigade camped in the Jockey Hollow neighborhood occupied a
sloping, well-drained hillside area about 320 yards long and 100 yards
in depth, including a parade ground 40 yards deep in front. Above the
parade were the soldiers’ huts, eight in a row and three or four rows
deep for each regiment; beyond those the huts occupied by the captains
and subalterns; and higher still the field officers’ huts. Camp streets
of varying widths separated the hut rows. This arrangement is clearly
shown in a contemporary sketch of the Stark’s Brigade Camp.
[Illustration: _The “hutting” arrangement for General Stark’s
Brigade, 1779-80._ From an original manuscript once owned by Erskine
Hewitt, of Ringwood, N. J.]
Logs notched together at the corners and chinked with clay formed the
sides of the huts. Boards, slabs, or hand-split shingles were used to
cover their simple gable roofs, the ridges of which ran parallel to the
camp streets. All the soldiers’ huts, designed to accommodate 12 men
each, were ordered built strictly according to a uniform plan: about 14
feet wide and 15 or 16 feet long in floor dimensions, and around 6½ feet
high at the eaves, with wooden bunks, a fireplace and chimney at one
end, and a door in the front side. Apparently, windows were not cut in
these huts until spring. The officers’ cabins were generally larger in
size, and individual variation was permitted in their design and
construction. Usually accommodating only two to four officers, they had
two fireplaces and chimneys each, and frequently two or more doors and
windows. Besides these two main types of huts, there were some others
built for hospital, orderly room, and guardhouse purposes. The completed
camp seems to have contained between 1,000 and 1,200 log buildings of
all types combined.