At New Windsor Cantonment, soldiers awaiting the war's end still lived under strict Army standards. Their carefully shaped log huts were arranged by regiment and state and formed in order of battle, while general orders emphasized discipline to limit disease and minimize disruptions to nearby townspeople. Troops continued to drill, and every two weeks a new regiment manned forward outposts to the south against possible British attacks. Even so, the soldiers understood that the war was largely won and that their enlistments would soon end, and by spring they grew restless under military authority and pressed for discharges and unpaid wages. When the Continental Army arrived at New Windsor in October 1782, it greatly increased the small population of just over 1,000, as about 7,000 soldiers and 500 family members camped in tents until they finished 600 log buildings by the middle of December. Huts shown in a drawing by Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering housed Massachusetts or New York regiments; at 35 feet by 18 feet, these cabins had rooms thirty percent larger than those built for other states, though they were still crowded for the standard thirty-two men assigned to each hut. After the cantonment was dissolved in 1783, many huts were auctioned and moved.
