Two brigades of the Pennsylvania Line, commanded by Major General Arthur St. Clair and General William Irvine, encamped in this area during the 1778-79 Middlebrook Cantonment. Late in November 1778, General George Washington decided to move three divisions of his army, along with the artillery brigade, into winter quarters below the Blue Hills (Watchung Mountains). They included the Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania divisions. Because the Pennsylvanian units were the last to arrive, Quartermaster General Nathanael Greene assigned them the best remaining campsites on the south side of the Raritan River.