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There's an old 18th century mansion in Morristown, New Jersey, that's been preserved and is now a National Historical Landmark, because it was George Washington's winter quarters for the winter of 1779-80. Turns out that winter was the most severe of the entire 18th century, way colder and stormier than the notorious winter at Valley Forge where over a thousand patriots died, but-- in part because the army had had the experience of Valley Forge and knew better how to survive-- they only had a hundred or so deaths. But they also lost men whose term of enlistment expired, or who just deserted outright (if they could make their way out through the snowdrifts, up to six feet high). They were chronically hungry, on short rations, often just because the roads weren't passable.
The whole army, 13,000 strong at peak, camped in the farm around the mansion. There had been a stand of trees that got chopped down to make log cabins, and then to burn for fuel. (There were distinct advantages to being an officer, but there was also a rule that the officers didn't get roofs over their heads until all the enlisted men had them.)
The mansion had belonged to a man named Ford, who'd found sources of iron ore in New Jersey and developed mines, and then built foundries. He got tapped to join the war effort pretty early on, casting cannons and such. At one point he went on the march with Washington, but died of some opportunistic camp fever. This was a couple years before the winter in question-- apparently Ford's widow didn't hold a grudge. (Washington's personal magnetism? But Martha was there too, as well as a couple dozen staff officers and a similar number of servants.)
The presentation only mentioned one military action during that winter: a guerrilla style raid on the British headquarters on Staten Island, which was reachable because Long Island Sound was frozen over! But either the Brits had good intel or they heard the patriots coming, because they were ready for the attack. I think they said Washington's forces made off with half a dozen casks of rum and 17 prisoners. Turns out Washington hardly ever exploited the military advantage of using colonial hunters as guerrillas anyway, he ran a proper European-style campaign.
There was also a museum down the hill from the mansion, with exhibits like the types of guns the soldiers used. They also had a movie that they screened every half hour, just a slice of life docudrama, contrasting the crowded but warm mansion with the common soldier's privations. This grizzled veteran soldier keeps giving a running commentary of how well they're doing building the log cabins (and how, when they're all done, Washington's gonna have them practicing parade drills and similar time-wasting shit) and how little they've had to eat; then they cut to the officer corps at table, including the ambitious Alexander Hamilton. (In one scene the soldier sneaks in to warm up by the stove, and surreptitiously pockets two fresh biscuits, while the officers discuss whether it would be too harsh to hang soldiers for stealing food.) There are a couple local gentleman farmers, clearly not missing any meals, who first demand that Washington stop his "ruffians" from pilfering, and then refuse to sell anything to the army because they can only pay in Continental dollars, the inflationary paper currency of the wartime confederacy. The last scene has the representative soldier out in the snow, asking the cameraman whether he has anything to eat, and concluding, "Seems like the result of our patriotism is dire poverty, don't it?" Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that sounds almost subversive to me, and I'm glad of that!
And the other point I'm left with was, for all his flaws, what a great man Washington was. He was such a pop star that his obsequious careerist officers always refer to him as "His Excellency." Given that, it's all the more remarkable that he never seized power, even when offered it later as president. (And I think of how his pinhead successor would absolutely cream his jeans if anyone ever called him "Excellency." But of course I think even "Adequacy" is beyond him.)
Oh yeah, there was a wedding in the family too. I wore a tuzedo, if you can imagine.
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