Approximately 7,500 soldiers of the Continental Army, who came from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, Canada, and even Europe, lived at New Windsor Cantonment. Although most were in their twenties, the soldiers ranged in age from their early teens to their sixties. Some had served since the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in 1775. Officers and enlisted men lived in log huts here. Major generals and hospital staff, however, were billeted in private homes nearby in New Windsor and Newburgh.
Some 500 women and children also lived here. They were the wives and families of soldiers, largely desperate refugees from their war-torn communities. Here, they tried to earn livings as washerwomen, seamstresses, and nurses. Many traveled hundreds of miles on foot with only the possessions they could carry.
We are busily employed completing our Town. It will I suppose contain of Honest men - women - and the progeny of both, ten thousand souls.
Lieutenant Colonel Tech Tilghman, General Washington's Staff
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