I’d been postponing this post (ha), because I kept hoping I’d come up with something clever to say about this incredibly boring photo. I’m still waiting for inspiration to strike, unfortunately. So what the heck, let’s do this thing.
Here’s what the sign, on Main Street in downtown Chatham, has to say to you:
CHATHAM HISTORIC DISTRICT
Scene of Washington’s headquarters and massing of Continental troops prior to march on Yorktown August 27-29, 1781.
Morris County Heritage Commission
New Jersey Register of Historic Sites
For those of you who forgot high school history (like me), the Battle of Yorktown was “a decisive battle of the American Revolutionary War.” Troops started marching on August 19 in Newport, RI; they hit Philly around September 2; and they finally got to Yorktown, VA on September 26 or so, where they kicked some serious @$$. Eventually.
Thus: somewhere between Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, Washington was like “Chatham New Jersey! What a nice place to hang out for a couple days.” And so they did.
