of the Revolution for their
heroism in their winter camps as for their courage upon the
battlefield.

This winter life in New Jersey, of men and officers from New England,
the Middle States, Virginia, and the South, appears to us now as very
interesting, and in many ways a curious life. Into a quiet country
neighborhood there came an entirely novel element,--an army which had
not come there to fight, but to live.

Washington's first winter in New Jersey was spent in Morristown in 1777.
This place was chosen because it was a productive country, and well
situated for sudden expeditions against the enemy in that part of the
State. Although there was no fighting done in Morristown, so many small
detachments of troops went out from the place, and so many sudden
attacks were made upon the outposts of the enemy in the country round
about, that by the end of the winter the British had no hold in New
Jersey except at Perth Amboy and New Brunswick.

But, as has been said before, it is not with the military operations
that we are concerned, but with the winter life of the army in the camp.
The first thing that has to be done when an army arrives to settle and
make itself a home in and about a country town, is to provide a good
house for the commander in chief and officers, and a suitable camping
place for the men. Washington went to Arnold's Tavern, a large house on
the corner of the Green; and the army encamped in the valley of the
Loantika, a beautiful place in summer, but not particularly attractive
in cold weather. Here they built themselves huts of logs, and here they
tried to keep themselves warm and to be satisfied with what they had;
for the government was poor, and found it hard to keep an army. There
was plenty to eat and drink in the surrounding country, but there was
very little money with which to buy it.

It was a great thing for the Morristown people to see the tavern
surrounded night and day by a guard of twenty-six soldiers, and to have
their streets and roads made lively by soldiers on foot, clad in the
various uniforms worn by the men from different States,--some with
cocked hats, some with round hats with feathers stuck in them; some with
green coats, some with blue; some with buckskin breeches, others with
black,--while Washington, with the officers of his staff, galloped here
and there, dressed in the regular Continental uniforms of blue and buff.

Among the most conspicuous uniforms of the American army