Soldier’s Hut [Replica]

On December 19, 1779, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willet of the 3rd New York Regiment wrote that for two weeks the troops had been diligently employed in building their huts, and although the weather had been against them, the buildings were almost finished, very comfortable, and promised good winter quarters. By 1779, after a past winter encampment with high death rates due in part to poor construction, General Washington ordered huts to be built to strict dimensional standards of 14 feet wide by 16 feet long, with front walls 6½ feet high to the eaves of the roof. The huts were built on hillsides for proper drainage and arranged in straight lines. Each hut housed 12 soldiers, who cooked and ate their meager rations there, warmed their frozen bodies, and slept until reveille called them to duty the next morning.

Harding, New Jersey · United States