On December 14, 1779, approximately 1100 Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts soldiers of General John Stark’s Brigade set up camp on this hillside. After two weeks of hard work in deep snow and freezing temperatures, the enlisted men moved into their new log huts. By Washington’s orders, officers remained in tents until the soldiers’ huts were completed, and some officers did not move into a hut until mid-February 1780. For six months the soldiers endured shortages of food and clothing during the worst winter of the 18th century. Washington’s army left Jockey Hollow in early June 1780 when British and German troops attacked 15 miles east of Morristown, just beyond the hills on the horizon behind this site. The soldiers of Stark’s Brigade played a key role defending a bridge over the Rahway River at the battle of Springfield on June 23, 1780. General Stark, victor of the battle of Bennington in 1777, commanded four regiments: Colonel Israel Angell’s of Rhode Island, Colonel Charles Webb’s of Connecticut, Colonel Henry Jackson’s of Massachusetts, and Colonel Henry Sherburne’s of Connecticut. Like many generals, Stark went home on furlough for part of the winter. A 1780 drawing by an unknown soldier showed the arrangement of the regiments and their huts, with twelve soldiers in each small hut in the first two rows, ensigns and lieutenants in the third row, captains two to a hut higher up the hill, and colonels, majors, and staff officers in larger huts at the top.
