Third Brigade Encampment – 1776

In July 1776, Northern Army commander Gen. Horatio Gates organized the regiments at Mount Independence and Ticonderoga into four brigades, three of them on the Mount, with the Third Brigade occupying this flat area. Following plans in Englishman Humphrey Bland’s Treatise of Military Discipline (1762), the brigade’s encampment, probably covering 16 acres or less, was divided by companies within regiments, with each regiment arranged along a street, a parade ground in front, and officer housing to the rear. The Third Brigade, made up of soldiers from New England and New Jersey, ranged from 1,750 soldiers in August to 1,050 in late October. After clearing the land, the soldiers pitched tents, sometimes on rows of logs for extra height, while men who had lost tents in the retreat from the Canadian campaign built huts of brush, bark, logs, or sod. Their camp life could be difficult, as shown by Lt. Benjamin Beal of the 25th Continental Regiment, who wrote on July 13, 1776, that rain leaked through bark coverings on the huts, though by the next day the men had improved them so they leaked less. It was not always easy to follow Bland’s rules, and Col. Elisha Porter recorded repeated orders in late July to clear ground, move officer houses, and alter the front of his regiment’s encampment, work that caused him much uneasiness. Orders also directed where latrines should be placed, preferably on the brink of precipices or in places least obnoxious. Soldiers drew water from springs or wells, cooked in designated areas behind the camp, received daily rations from the commissary, and lived under a strict routine of drilling, guard duty, gathering fuel, keeping the camp clean, and laboring on work parties building defenses. In their free time, they improved shelters, wrote home, read mail and newspapers, visited other soldiers or the regimental sutler, mended clothes, and played cards and games.

Orwell, Vermont · United States