JOCKEY HOLLOW - MORRISTOWN, NJ

washington arrives in morristown, 1780

JOHN TRUMBULL?

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania is best known as the absolutely miserable winter encampment of Washington’s army in 1778— but a lesser known and more intense encampment existed about 90 miles northeast of valley forge— a little place called Jockey Hollow in Morristown, New Jersey. 

December of 1779 proved harsh as that winter in North Jersey got pounded with 28 snowstorms with drifts as high as 15 feet over a four month period. In January, the temperature went above freezing just once. Desperate for funds and scarce of food, there was often talk about mutiny. Geographically, Jockey Hollow served as a perfect defensive position against the british, but it’s weather severity amounted to 96 dead, 140 captures, 1062 desertions, and 2700 discharged. 

The site today is run by the national park service as apart of the morristown national historical park. In the 60s, replica huts were built that resembled the structures that housed the beaten down soldiers. Not too far from the huts sits a boulder that serves as a grave marker for roughly 100 americans.

The eerie setting has had a fair share of ghost sightings reported— colonial men marching through the dense forest, fife and drum music, and even a translucent woman in white carrying a lantern.