Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Morristown, encampment at

After the battle at Princeton, June 3, 1777, Washington led his wearied troops to Morristown, N. J., and placed them in winter

Washington's headquarters at Morristown, in 1850

encampment. There he issued a proclamation requiring the inhabitants who had taken British protection to abandon their allegiance to the King or go within the British lines. Hundreds joined his standard in consequence. From that encampment he sent out armed parties, who confined the British in New Jersey to three points on the sea-shore of the State, and the commonwealth was pretty thoroughly purged of Toryism before the spring. The ranks of his army were rapidly filled by volunteers; and when the campaign opened in June, his force, which numbered about 8,000 when he left headquarters at Morristown in May, had swelled to 14,000. He had maintained through the winter and spring a line of cantonments from the Delaware River to the Hudson Highlands. Washington and his army again encamped at Morristown in the winter of 1779-80. In 1777 his headquarters were at Freeman's Tavern; in 1780 he occupied as such the fine mansion in the suburbs of the village belonging to the widow Ford. The building was purchased several years ago for the purpose of preserving it, by a patriotic association, which has gathered within it a large and interesting collection of Revolutionary relics.