OCR Text |
Show Old Revolutionary Fort Restored at Morristown Through False Tradition Called "Fort Nonsense." Washington. Completion of the restoration of the old Revolutionary fort built at Morristown during its occupation by the Continental army, under the direction of George Washington, Wash-ington, commander-in-chief, later known as "Fort Nonsense," and now one of the features of Morristown Morris-town National historical park. New Jersey, was announced by A. E. Demaray, acting director of the National Na-tional Park service. The reconstruction reconstruc-tion project was begun during the autumn of 1936 with CCC labor as a part of the park's educational program, which is now being developed devel-oped by Elbert Cox, superintendent of the area. Mr. Cox points out that the tradition tradi-tion that the fort was bui'.t to keep the men busy and to sustain their morale, and was dubbed accordingly "Fort Nonsense." is not supported by historical evidence. Examina- tion of the writings of Washington and other officers connected with the Morristown encampment bears no reference to such claims, according ac-cording to Mr. Cox. who sets down Die history of the old fort as follows: History of Fort. When the American army under Washington took up headquarters in the vicinity of Morristown in Jan-I Jan-I uary. 1777, Washington bcg.rn the herculean task of gathering a store of supplies for the coming campaign. cam-paign. Little by little he secured wagons, grain, and military supplies for the use of the army; but constantly con-stantly he was faced with the fear of a raiding party coming out from New York to destroy his irreplaceable irreplace-able supplies. With this thought in mind, orders were issued to construct con-struct a small earthen redoubt on the hill which drove far down into the center of Morristown. Once this work was completed and manned with a small artillery force, the town would be safe from raiding parlies. The fort was finally completed com-pleted and still no attacks had come from New York. On May 2:1 (he army marched away towards Hound Hrook, but supplies were left at Morristown as Washington ilui not then know whether the coming campaign cam-paign was to be in the south to protect pro-tect Philadelphia, or in the h.,-h. lands to protect the Ilu.lj,,,, river valley. As supplies were 1, ft in Morristown. one regiment of the army was also detailed to stay there to guard the public properly p,,,. to the natural harriers winch lv,, made Morristown a good site for the winter camps. ;,,.k w ever made on the t,.wn. , ,hr "upper redoubt." n it wa, r ille.l by Wash,,,;;!,,,,, never saw ,,, Ihinng the Nineteenth ecnlurv tl'. Tort remained as a landmark of t,r countryside. , ))u, winch it w; n son w scmcd. 11, t l,v ,,u , that Washington ccu'.d find no work of value to keep the soldiers busy through the winter and consequently consequent-ly ordered them to build the fort, which, since it was mistakenly supposed sup-posed to have had no purpose, was dubbed Fort Nonsense. As the years passed this erroneous legend became be-came the generally accepted story through the community. Once Trivately Owned. Although it was a farmhar landmark, land-mark, the site of Fort Nonsense was privately owned and not regularly 1 open to the public until a few years ago, when Mr. Francis E. Woodruff Wood-ruff of Morristown furnished 'unds for the purchase and preservation of the site by the town cf Morristown. Morris-town. Upon the establishment of the Morristown National historical park in 1933. the area was donated by the town to the United States, thereby making the recor.s'.ructon a possible unit in the educational prcgram of Morristown National historical park. The reconstruction cf Fort Nonsense Non-sense is based mamiy upon two sources: archeo'.cgical wcrk on the site itseif and old military text-bocks. text-bocks. The archeolcg.cal wcrk revealed re-vealed the position, shape, and depth cf the trenches as well as the location cf the two entrances and i guard house. Copper plates and descriptions de-scriptions in French and Er.gl.sh fcrt.fication mr.nuais served as a means cf arriving at construction details net revealed by tie a.-che-ological process. Af'.cr the preparation cf plans based on these types of information, actual reconstruction cf the fort was begun. In most cases this cor.s.s'.ed of removing the d:rt fill w.-.:ch had washed into the trenches and threw- |