Keeping the Continental Army intact under all these conditions was but
part of Washington’s herculean task in 1779-80. Again, as at Morristown
in the winter of 1777, and at Middlebrook in the winter of 1778-79, the
threat of attack by an enemy superior in manpower and equipment hung
constantly over his head. Communications between Philadelphia and the
Hudson Highlands had to be protected, and the northern British Army had
to be prevented from extending its lines, now confined chiefly to New
York and Staten Island, or from obtaining forage and provisions in the
countryside beyond.
While the main body of American troops was quartered in Jockey Hollow,
certain parts of it, varying in strength from about 200 men to as high
as 2,000, were stationed at Princeton, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy,
Rahway, Westfield, Springfield, Paramus, and similar outposts in New
Jersey. Washington changed the most important of these detachments once
a fortnight at first, but toward the spring of 1780 some units remained
“on the Lines” for much longer periods. Thus Morristown served again as
the vital center of a defensive-offensive web for the northern New
Jersey and southern New York areas. The enemy damaged the outer margins
of that web on several occasions, notably on June 7 and 23, when they
penetrated to Connecticut Farms (now Union) and Springfield, but
Washington’s defenses were never seriously broken, and through all that
winter and spring his position in the Morris County hills remained
relatively undisturbed.