Winter of 1779–1780
Winter of 1779–1780
WINTER OF 1779–1780. The winter of 1779–1780 has been called among the harshest in the eighteenth century. A total of twenty-eight snowstorms hit the United States, some dropping snow for several days in succession. The temperature rarely rose above freezing as the Delaware and Hudson Rivers froze over. Sledges moved regularly across ten miles of ice between Annapolis and the opposite shore of the Chesapeake. Wild animals were almost exterminated. General Alexander (Lord Stirling) marched over a saltwater channel to make his unsuccessful Staten Island raid—even his artillery passed over the six miles of open water safely. Washington's main army suffered much more, because of this weather, in their Morristown winter quarters than they had at Valley Forge two years earlier, with snow lying six feet deep. The British in New York suffered almost as much as the economy of the United States ground to a halt and food became scarce everywhere. As inflation took off, Washington found it ever more difficult to obtain much needed supplies for his shrinking army.
SEE ALSO Morristown Winter Quarters, New Jersey (1 December 1779–22 June 1780); Staten Island, New York.
revised by Michael Bellesiles