George Washington at Preakness

WASHINGTON'S FIRST ENCAMPMENT
AT PREAKNESS.

On July 4, 1780, Washington had arrived from Ramapo with his army at Totowa, where he spread out his troops, while he established his headquarters in the handsome and spacious residence of Col. Theunis Dey, at Lower Preakness.
Two brigades, which he had left at Morristown, under Gen. Greene, to protect the country, marched thence on June 25, and reached Preakness on July 1.
The main body of the army was encamped along the Totowa heights, near the Great Falls, the centre on the high ground back of the present Laurel Grove cemetery, the right toward Little Falls, and the left at or near Oldham (Haledon).
Col. Stephen Moylan's Pennsylvania dragoons occupied an advanced position, at Little Falls, southeast of the river, toward the Notch.
The Marquis de Lafayette had his headquarters at the grist-mill of Samuel Van Saun, near the present race track at Lower Preakness, about a mile and a half north of Washington's headquarters.¹

The army at this time was still suffering the same deprivations it had been obliged to endure through the long winter at Morristown.
There was a deplorable lack of clothing and provisions.
But then, as now, the women of the land were ready to show their appreciation of heroic self-sacrifice, and while the army was at Preakness, a number of ladies of New Jersey met at Trenton, July 4, 1780, "to promote a subscription for the relief and encouragement of those brave men in the Continental army, who, stimulated by example, and regardless of danger, have so repeatedly suffered, fought and struggled in the cause of virtue and their oppressed country."
They appointed a committee in every county in the State to co-operate in this movement, to secure what was needed to supply the wants of the suffering men.
Mrs. (Colonel) Theunis Dey and Mrs. (Major) Richard Dey, of Preakness, and Mrs. Robert Erskine, of Ringwood, were among the ladies of Bergen county selected to serve on the committee.
The enemy were not slow to take advantage of the necessities of our soldiers, and a letter from Pompton, in June, 1780, states that the supply-wagons of our army had been attacked in Smith's Cove.²


____________
¹Sparks's Washington, VII., 99; Thacher, 242; MS. Journal of William S. Pennington, Lieutenant Company A, Second Artillery; Conversation with the late Samuel A. Van Saun, May 23, 1874; Mag. Am. Hist., II, 291. One of Lafayette's letters is dated "Au camp de Preakness 4 juilet 1780."
²N.J. Gazette, June 14, July 5, 1780.


Reference: William Nelson, History of The City of Paterson and The County of Passaic, New Jersey(Paterson, N.J.: The Press Printing and Publishing Co., 269 Main Street, 1901),427-428.

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