Soldiers' Shelter

SOLDIERS' SHELTER. Tents were the preferred method for sheltering troops in moderate weather during the Revolutionary War. They were described by Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering as "the most expensive & essential article of camp equipage," and tent size, quality, and availability were important considerations for both sides throughout the war.

British army tents were more or less standardized, as was the number of soldiers apportioned to a tent. Lewis Lochee's Essay on Castrametation (1778) noted British soldiers' tents "are large enough to lodge 5 men" and stated their size as "about 6 feet high … [and] about 7 feet long." Lochee's camp layout indicates a common tent length of nine feet, perhaps adding two extra feet for a belled storage extension at the tent's rear. British officers preferred marquee or wall tents, but on campaign many used common tents or brush wigwams.

Following chronic standardization problems, in January 1781 the Continental army "Soldiers Tent" dimensions were set at "7 Feet Square [and] 7 Feet Height." The next year large numbers of French tents were imported; French common tents being larger, they were able to house eight or nine men. Most often used were common tents for the rank and file (and occasionally officers), horseman's and wall tents (usually for staff and company officers), and marquee tents (for generals and field officers). Several other variations, such as half-wall, square, and bell (for musket storage) tents, were used to a lesser degree.

In August 1777 Major General John Sullivan apportioned to his division "a tent to each Field officer, one to two Commissioned & Staff officers, one to 4 Serjts & one to 6 Privates including Corporals, as Well as Waggoners weomen &c." The American army allotment of May 1779 was even more detailed:

• One Markee and one Horseman's tent for the Field Officers.
• One horseman's tent for the officers of each company.
• One Wall'd tent for the Adjutant.

• One ditto for the Quarter Master.
• One ditto for the Surgeon and Mate.
• One ditto for the Pay-Master.
• One common tent for Serjeant Majr. and Qr. Mastr. Serjeant.
• One ditto for the Fife and Drum Major.
• One ditto for the non commissioned officers of each company
• and one for every six privates including Drums and Fifes. (Writings of George Washington, pp. 162-163)

Soldiers occasionally built makeshift shelters when tents were unavailable due to supply shortages or lack of transportation. American soldiers' names for such dwellings included "brush Hutt," "bush housen," and "hemlock bowhouses." While differences in construction existed among them, all the aforesaid shelters were enclosed lodgings with frames made of cut trees or tree limbs and covered with leafy branches or pine boughs. There were other shelter types. A "booth" seems to have referred to an open lean-to; sheds were similar in construction to brush huts but covered with milled lumber, fence rails, corn-shocks, or straw. Bowers were flat-topped structures used primarily for sun protection, though there are indications some bowers were built as lean-tos for both overnight shelter and shade. British soldiers began using ad hoc campaign shelters as early as 1776, building them more often and relying upon their shelter for longer periods (for example, in the Philadelphia campaign of 1777 and late-war southern campaigns) than did their Continental army counterparts. British troops used both bowers and "wigwams," the latter a popular appellation probably begun as a derogatory term for any ad hoc shelter; as the war progressed, wigwams (usually some form of brush hut) became customarily adopted as a useful and acceptable alternative to tents.

In wintertime both armies resorted to soldier-built log huts, with barracks and local civilian housing used as occasion allowed. The Valley Forge huts varied in design but were supposed to adhere to stipulated measurements. New Jersey Ensign George Ewing described the living quarters:

the huts eighteen by sixteen feet long six feet to the eves built of loggs and covered with staves / the chimney in the east end the door in the South side / the Officers huts in the rear of the mens / twelve men in each hut and two cores of Officers in a hut. (Military Journal, pp. 25-26)

A study of two Continental soldiers' diaries covering the years from 1776 to 1781 gives some idea of campaign shelter trends. On 979 days shelter was mentioned (not including winter camps). Of these, on 699 nights (71 percent) tents were used, while the men slept in buildings for 111 nights (11 percent). Of the rest, 98 nights (10 percent) were spent in the open, 36 (4 percent) were spent in makeshift shelters, and 35 (4 percent) were spent on shipboard. The light troops of both sides tended to live without tents more often than other troops.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ewing, George. The Military Journal of George Ewing (1754–1824), a Soldier of Valley Forge. Yonkers, N.Y.: privately printed, 1928.

Fitzpatrick, John C., ed. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745–1799. Vol. 15. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1936.

Rees, John U. "'We … Got ourselves Cleverly Settled for the Night': Soldiers' Shelter on Campaign during the War for Independence." Pt. 1, "'The Most Expensive & Essential Article of Camp Equipage': Tents in the Armies of the Revolution." Military Collector and Historian 49, no. 3 (Fall 1997), 98-107. Pt. 2, "'The Allowance of Tents Is Not Sufficient …': An Overview of Tents as Shelter." Military Collector and Historian 49, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 156-168. Pt. 3, "'The Camps … Are as Different in Their Form as the Owners Are in Their Dress …': Shades, Sheds, and Wooden Tents, 1775–1782." Military Collector and Historian 53, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 161-169. Pt. 4, "'We Are Now … Properly … Enwigwamed': British Soldiers and Brush Huts, 1776–1781." Military Collector and Historian 55, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 89-96. Pt. 5, "'We Built up Housan of Branchis and Leavs …': Continental Army Brush Shelters, 1775–1777." Military Collector and Historian 55, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 213-223. Pt. 6, "'We Built up Housan of Branchis and leavs …': Continental Army Brush Shelters, 1778–1782." Military Collector and Historian 56, no. 2 (2004): 98-106.