Morristown National Historical Park. As one of the finest homes in Morristown, Washington accepted an invitation by Mrs. Ford to use the mansion as his headquarters during the brutal winter of 1779—80 as his 13,000 troops camped nearby. Washington brought with him his aides-de-camp and servants, leaving Mrs. Ford and her four young children with only two rooms of the house.
Loyalism was a siren call for the British. They were constantly bending their strategy to conform to the chimera of Loyalist support that was assumed to be there but somehow never materialized. Howe’s Philadelphia campaign and Burgoyne’s invasion from Canada, as well as the British strategy in the South, were based on the assumption that large numbers of Loyalists would rise in support, if only sufficiently encouraged and protected ...