"They had built huts of bushes and leaves.

"
Analysis of Continental Army Brush Shelter Use, 1775-1782
John U. Rees
"How hard is the soldier's lott who's least danger is in the field of action? Fighting
happens seldom, but fatigue, hunger, cold & heat are constantly varying his distress."
Surgeon Jabez Campfield, Spencers Additional Regiment, 4 August 1779.1
the Company never were encamped nor were the Militia Regt or even the Continental
Light Horse or Foot Regiments or parties it was not the fashion in those days. They laid in houses
& barns in woods & Swamps & open fields on the ground
Private David Bogert, Militia, Bergen County, New Jersey, 1832 pension deposition.2
____________________

(Above and following page) A booth built in the form of a long lean-to. Capt. Jonathan
Phillips company, (2d New Jersey Regiment, June 1778. Recreated by the Augusta County
Militia (including members of the Queens Own Loyal Virginia Regiment) for Monmouth
2013.)

_____________________
Appendices
A. American Brush Huts.
B. Brush Huts and the British Army.
Addendum: List of articles and links for authors series on
soldiers campaign shelters (1775-1783, 1861-1865)
__________________

A response by Kim R. Stacy (see, Notes, Brigade Dispatch, XXX, 2, Summer 2000) to my
article We Are Now... Properly... Enwigwamed: British Soldiers and Brush Shelters, 17771781 (Dispatch, XXIX, 2 Summer 1999) contended that American forces used brush huts fully
as much as the British Army. Mr. Stacy cited several examples, and included an illustration of a
British hut at Fort St. Johns in 1776, as well as a detail from the Xavier della Gatta Paoli painting
showing American wigwams. While admitting that American regular and militia troops used
makeshift shelters throughout the war, my studies lead me to believe that British forces used such
constructs in a more organized manner and on a more frequent basis. A concluding section to an
ongoing Military Collector & Historian series will include numerous primary accounts to back
up my findings, but I include here compiled statistics and analysis to support my contentions.

"This night we lay out without shelter ..."

Overview of American Soldiers' Campaign Lodging
Two soldiers' diaries serve to show the wide range of shelters used by Continental troops, the
frequency with which each different type was employed and under what conditions. Since the
two accounts cover a large proportion of the war day by day they also show evidence of differing
trends of usage as the war progressed. Both men were officers who rose from the ranks. Ebenezer
Wild of Massachusetts, a corporal in 1775, was promoted to sergeant the year after; he continued
in that rank until October 1779 when he was appointed ensign. In May 1781 Wild was promoted
to 2nd lieutenant, ending the war in that post. Rhode Islander Jeremiah Greenman started as a
private in Arnold's 1775 Quebec expedition, and was imprisoned in Canada in 1776. In January
1777 Greenman was appointed sergeant in the 2nd Rhode Island, rising to ensign in May 1778,
and finally to lieutenant in 1781. Wild's account covers the years 1776 to 1779, and 1781;
Greenman is used to fill the void for 1780 and his 1777 diary is included to provide a one year
comparison with Wild's narrative.3

Large conical brush hut.

(North Carolina Volunteers, Historic Stagville, Durham, N.C., April 1997.)

Let us take a look at just how often the two diarists mentioned makeshift shelters. In Wild's
five year long narrative (1776-1781, the 1780 journal is missing) he mentions building a plank
shed in 1776, a series of brush huts in late November and December 1777, makes no mention of
them at all in 1778 and 1779, and then notes intermittent use of brush huts, booths, and "bowries"
in June, July, and September 1781. Jeremiah Greenman in his eight-year account mirrors Wild's
experience, with the exception of summer 1780 when there was a twenty-five day period of
living in brush huts while confronting the British in New Jersey; Greenman also built a brush hut
that same year while on guard duty.
Over and above this narrow focus, Wild's and Greenman's diaries show a wide range of
soldiers' shelters, from tents and buildings, to shipboard accommodations and bedding down
under the "canopy of heaven." Tents were the preferred covering when campaigning or in camp;
buildings (private homes, barns, meeting houses, taverns, and in one case the Connecticut State
House) were resorted to in lieu of tents; next in order of precedence was doing without any
shelter at all; in fact, American soldiers lay in the open much more often than they used brush
huts. Barracks and log huts were used by troops in winter cantonments.
The data collected from the diaries shows that tents were by far the predominant shelter type,
but that the percentage of tent usage decreased in those years with the longest periods of contact
with, or maneuvering against, enemy forces. Buildings were often taken advantage of when on
the march in a suitably populated area; not only did buildings afford better shelter in inclement
weather, but their use could save precious time since the need to pitch and take down tentage was
done away with. Facing the lack of any other covering, soldiers sometimes built brush shelters
for protection from precipitation, the hot sun, or cold weather. When time and materials were
available use of makeshift constructs averaged only about four percent of the time. Laying with
no shelter at all suited the purposes of lightly laden, quick moving troops, especially in good
weather. Below are data gleaned from the two diaries; the first series of tables gives the findings
for individual years; the two following tables show totals for the six years examined.4
Data on Shelters Noted in Soldiers' Narratives
Ebenezer Wild, 6th Continental Regiment, 1776
1st Massachusetts Regiment, 1777-1781
Jeremiah Greenman, 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, 1777-1780
Days in
Days in Days in Days Lay Makeshift Days on
Year
Tents Buildings in Open Shelters
Shipboard
1776
92
12
5
1
0
Wild
(83.7%) (10.9%)
(4.6%) (0.95%)
Total days: 110
plank hut
7 August to 30 November
(March from Boston to Fort Ticonderoga, fortress garrison.)
5 days shelter uncertain.

(Continued)
Data on Shelters Noted in Soldiers' Narratives
Ebenezer Wild, 6th Continental Regiment, 1776
1st Massachusetts Regiment, 1777-1781
Jeremiah Greenman, 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, 1777-1780
Days in
Days in Days in Days Lay Makeshift Days on
Year
Tents Buildings in Open Shelters
Shipboard
1777
122
30
19
7
4
Wild
(67%) (16.5%)
(10.4%) (3.9%)
(2.2%)
Total days: 182
brush huts
9 April to 19 December

(March from Boston with recruits to Stillwater, New York; includes active operations against
Burgoyne's army. In late November Wild's regiment joined Washington's army at Whitemarsh
and went to Valley Forge a month later.)
1 day's shelter uncertain, 70 days sick absent.
1777
104
36
18
12
0
Greenman (61.2%) (21.2%) (10.6%)
(7.1%)
Total days: 170
brush huts
26 May to 18 December
(Morristown, New Jersey; operations against the British in New Jersey, march north to New York,
Continental Village garrison, march south through New Jersey into Pennsylvania,
Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer garrisons, Whitemarsh camp, march to Valley Forge.)
37 days' shelter uncertain.
1778
113
2
15
0
0
Wild
(86.9%) (1.6%)
(11.6%)
Total days: 130
10 June to 3 November
(March from Valley Forge to Monmouth Courthouse, then north across the Hudson to Rhode Island,
operations against British forces there, Rhode Island winter cantonment.)
17 days absent on trip to Boston.
Days in
Days in Days in Days Lay Makeshift Days on
Year
Tents Buildings in Open Shelters
Shipboard
1779
113
15
0
0
0
Wild
(88.3%) (11.7%)
Total days: 128
31 May to 3 October
(Rhode Island encampment, march to New York, New York encampment.)

(Continued)
Data on Shelters Noted in Soldiers' Narratives
Ebenezer Wild, 6th Continental Regiment, 1776
1st Massachusetts Regiment, 1777-1781
Jeremiah Greenman, 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, 1777-1780
Days in
Days in Days in Days Lay Makeshift Days on
Year
Tents Buildings in Open Shelters
Shipboard
1780
111
0
8
25
0
Greenman (77.1%)
(5.6%) (17.4%)
Total days: 144
brush huts
7 June to 29 October
(Operations against British forces in New Jersey, various encampments in northern New Jersey and New
York, West Point garrison.)
1781
148
52
51
3
31
Wild
(51.9%) (18.3%)
(17.9%) (1.2%)
(10.9%)
Total days: 285
brush huts
19 February to 29 November
and booths
(March from West Point to Virginia, operations against British forces in Virginia, Yorktown siege
operations, march north to New York winter cantonment.)
Combined Statistics for Five Years (1776-1781)
(Wild's diary, 1776-1779, and 1781; Greenman, 1780)
Days in
Days in Days in Days Lay Makeshift Days on
Year
Tents
Buildings in Open
Shelters Shipboard
1776-1781
699
111
98
36
35
(71.4%) (11.4%) (9.7%)
(3.7%)
(3.6%)
Total days: 979
or
(Wild's diary, 1776, 1778-1779, and 1781; Greenman's diary, 1777 and 1780)
Days in
Days in Days in Days Lay Makeshift Days on
Year
Tents
Buildings in Open
Shelters Shipboard
1776-1781
681
117
97
41
31
(70.4%) (12.2%) (10.1%)
(4.2%)
(3.2%)
Total days: 967

For a comparison within an even more limited timeframe let us turn to Lieutenant Ebenezer
Wild's 1781 narrative detailing daily shelter during Lafayette's maneuvers against Cornwallis in
Virginia. For the four months studied (6 May to 9 September) Colonel Joseph Vose's
Massachusetts light troops slept in tents 67 days out of a total of 129. The remainder of the time
the heavy baggage was sent back into the country for safety or, on occcasion, remained with the
main body while Vose's Battalion was sent on detached service. Between 6 May and 7 July, a

time when the enemy was a constant threat, tents were used only 29 percent of the time; on the
other hand, after British forces crossed the James River on their way south to Portsmouth tents
sheltered Vose's troops seventy-five percent of the time. (See table below.)5
Number of Days the Tents were Present With Vose's Light Infantry Battalion
May to September 1781
Ebenezer Wild
1. 6 May to 7 July 1781 (first two months)
(The time of the arrival of the baggage from Baltimore
until Cornwallis' forces crossed over the James
River towards Portsmouth)
Days
Days Not Present
Total
Present (Sent to the Rear, etc.) Days
19
45
65
(Tents used as shelter 29% of the time)
2. 8 July to 10 September 1781 (final two months)
Days
Days Not Present
Total
Present (Sent to the Rear, etc.) Days
54
11
65
(Tents used as shelter 75% of the time)
3. 6 May to 10 September 1781 (entire four month period)
(The time of the arrival of the baggage from Baltimore
until Lafayette's detachment joined the French troops
at Williamsburg)
Days
Days Not Present
Total
Present (Sent to the Rear, etc.) Days
67
62
129
(Tents sheltered the troops 52% of the time)

As previously intimated, there were several reasons why tents were unavailable, making it
necessary for soldiers to find an alternative. Tentage may have been lost or in poor supply, sent
away with the army's baggage due to the enemy's proximity, or left behind because of the need to
travel quickly. In all these instances buildings, or woods and open fields supplied the place of
absent tents. Given the proper circumstances, soldiers were occasionally able to construct brush
huts, sometimes on their commander's orders, probably more often on their own initiative. And
while brush huts were sometimes used together with tents, as with Vose's Battalion in 1781, and
British and German troops during the Monmouth campaign, such instances were the exception
rather than the rule.

(Above and following page) Contrary to what many believe, the American brush huts, or booths, at
Paoli were not intended to house the soldiers. Pennsylvania Colonel Adam Hubley recalled that on
19 September 1777, "the weather threatening with rain Genl.Wayne, gave orders, for the division to
make Booths, etc., in order to secure their Arms & Ammunition from being damag'd by the rain,
wh[ich] were punctualy exicuted, the Division after securing their Arms, etc. took to rest
..." (Thomas J. McGuire, Battle of Paoli (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2000), 82-83.)
Battle of Paoli by Xavier della Gatta (1782)
(Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia, Pa.)

Conclusion: Analysis of little-known details can sometimes refute faulty notions of the past. In
this case, as regards makeshift shelters, it was the Continental Army that proved the most
conventional. British commanders' frequent reliance on wigwams to house their troops is just one
example of the resourcefulness and adaptability displayed by Crown forces in America. British
commanders very early on adapted clothing, equipment, and tactical formations to American
conditions, a penchant for innovation instigated by hard-won experience during the Seven Years'
War in the colonies. In this same vein, Revolutionary War makeshift shelters emulated those
built by British and Provincial troops in the 1750's and 60's. Both sides preferred to house their
men in tents, but buildings, watercraft, and soldier-built vernacular architecture all played a role
when the need and opportunity arose. There were differences between the opposing armies, the
most striking being extensive British use of brush or plank wigwams on numerous occasions, and
only rarely did a large portion of the American army use makeshift shelters for an extended
period. The exceptions were the Whitemarsh/Gulph Mills camps in late 1777, the summer 1780
encampments in and around Springfield, New Jersey, and possibly General Horatio Gates'
southern army encampment at Hillsboro, North Carolina, in autumn 1780.6
________________________
Note: Links to the online series of articles on campaign shelter during the War for
American Independence may be found following the endnotes.
________________________

Appendices
A. American Brush Huts. Continental troops had a number of names for the brush dwellings they
built; many terms were variations on the same theme, some indicate the different building materials
used. Here is an extensive sampling: "brush Hutt," "bush housen," "bush tent," "Pine huts,"
"hemlock bowhouses," "shelter ... [of] boughs of trees," "hut made of bows," "huts ... [of] dry
bushes," "housan of branchis & leavs," "temporary huts covered with leaves," "Huts of sticks &
leaves," "huts [of] brush and leaves," "bush hut ... Covered ... with Bark," "housen ... of the Barkes
of the Treas," "booth" (or "buth"), and "bowers" (or "bowries"). (Huts constructed with boards,
planks, corn shocks, and/or straw, generally called sheds, were discussed in part II of this series,
section titled, "'The troops hutted with Rails and Indian Corn Stocks ...': Sheds, Planked Huts, and
Straw Tents, 17751777.")
Before proceeding let us address the problem of terminology: hut could mean either "a soldier's
lodge in the field" or a rude but more substantial log construct for winter housing; bowrie or bower
usually meant a flattopped sun shade, but in some instances seems to have referred to a brush
leanto possibly used for both shade and overnight lodging (Gen. George Washington added to the
confusion when he wrote of his troops living in bowers in summer 1780, though the men
themselves told of building brush huts), and wigwam, an appellation popular with British troops,
conveniently though ambiguously covered a multitude of makeshift structures under its umbrella.1
Besides "bower" only one other name, booth, stands out. A number of accounts indicate that
booth was often just another generic name for a hut made of "branchis & leavs," but a few
tantalizing references suggest the name may also have meant a specific form of brush shelter.
Suffice it to say that construction details are not easy to pin down. The Oxford English Dictionary
variously and vaguely defines a booth as a "temporary dwelling covered with boughs of trees or
other slight materials," a "temporary structure covered with canvas or the like," or "A covered stall
at a market; a tent at a fair ..."; not much help there. Additionally, an attempt to tie the term booth to
a specific region shows that of the eleven soldiers who used it in their writings, five were from New
England, and five from the Middle states (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware), and one from
Virginia; discounting the two men from New Hampshire and Virginia, who used "booth" to
describe flattopped shades (i.e., bowers) we are still left with four soldiers from New England and
five from the middle states. Again, nothing definitive.2
Be that as it may, there were two New Englanders who, within brief periods, used several
different appellations for brush structures, thus intimating the booths they built had some
distinguishing feature setting them apart from other brush huts. Additional booth references can be
found in the ensuing chronological narrative, but the two aforementioned New England accounts
will be reiterated here.
Rhode Islander Jeremiah Greenman mentioned booths on three occasions in November and
December 1777, the only times he used the term "buth" in his eightyearlong diary. Greenman's
description of the weather as being "very cold" weather indicates these structures were some form
of brush hut rather than shades; only brush huts would provide some small measure of insulation
from the cold, mostly by serving as a crude windbreak for the occupants. At Whitemarsh Greenman
first wrote of building "housan of branchis & leavs"; later, when British forces threatened, his
regiment was sent out of the lines (from December 1st to the 10th) where the men built "buths."
During the same period, on 8 December, Connecticut surgeon Albigence Waldo wrote of the men

10

laying in "open huts," which suggests that Greenman's booths may also have been openfaced
structures. Additionally, within two weeks Greenman had used two different names for the
structures he and his comrades built in New Jersey and at the Whitemarsh camp. Given the context,
Greenman's "buths" were likely hastily constructed and less substantial than the "housan of branchis
and leavs" built behind the Whitemarsh fortifications.3
Another intriguing account comes from Massachusetts Lt. Ebenezer Wild, who served with
Vose's Light Infantry under the Marquis de Lafayette in 1781. From late June through the beginning
of September Lieutenant Wild made note of three types of soldierbuilt makeshift shelters: "bush
huts", "bowries," and booths. He wrote of erecting "bowries" for shelter from the sun, and on one
occasion mentioned building "bush huts (the weather being exceeding warm)"; this last is an
indication that brush huts were cooler than sleeping in tents and were sometimes used as shades.4
Wild mentioned building booths on only one occasion, near Williamsburg, Virginia:
[5 September 1781] Built booths and lay still all day.The enemy have retired into York ...
[6 September] At 3 o'clk A.M. we paraded & marched about 4 miles, and halted in a field ...
where we continued about two hours; then paraded and marched back to our booths. After
halting about three hours ... we marched to Williamsburg ...5

In both instances he spent the daytime hours at the booths, as well as overnight on the evening of
the 5th. Given the information above it seems likely "booths" were merely a leanto sufficient for
both shade and overnight lodging, but until further corroboration is found this remains only
conjecture.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Rudely built brush shelters were used by Continental soldiers from the war's onset, but in general
it was unusual for campaigning American troops to go for as long as a month without tents. While
it is true that various types of makeshift shelters, including brush huts, booths and bowers, were
used in the absence of tentage, local houses, meeting houses, or barns, the reliance upon soldier
built structures was usually only the matter of a few days to a week or two, only until the heavy
baggage was able to rejoin the army. And while British commanders purposely divested their forces
of tents, relying on brush constructs to shelter their men, only occasionally did American generals
follow suit. Additionally, Continental soldiers slept "with no other covering than the canopy of
heaven" more often than they resorted to brush huts. In the next section of this monograph we will
examine soldiers' accounts of brush huts throughout the war. At the same time their narratives also
tell of other shelter types used, serving to place brush huts within a larger context and to give some
insights as to how often, where, and why they were built. Several other questions beg asking; where
did these citizensoldiers come up with the idea of building makeshift shelters when no other
covering was at hand? Were they familiar with them from peacetime travel or wilderness outings?
Was their use handed down by veterans of the French and Indian War, or were they based on
commonlyknown shelters for the poor, or farmhands and other itinerant workers? While no
clearcut answer is at hand, or perhaps even possible, we do know brush huts, "housan," and booths
occasionally served the troops to good purpose.6
______________

11

Rarely do we have verbal evidence of the actual structure of Continental soldiers makeshift
coverings, but two narratives in particular offer clear descriptions. Ensign John Markland, 6th
Pennsylvania Regiment, tells of another form of makeshift shelter his soldiers built: "... from the
Battle of Brandywine until their encampment near Skippack, they were constantly engaged in
heavy, rapid, and severe marches, without tents or baggage. These articles having been sent far into
the rear, their shelter at night being frequently nothing more then a few rails placed slantwise
against a fence, with a few dry leaves, if they could be procured." Similar shelters were built by
American Civil War soldiers (see below).7 And Lt. Col. Samuel Smith of Maryland was likely
writing of late autumn campaign in Pennsylvania when he noted in his memoirs:
The day [the army] marched, it was met by a violent snowstorm ... the Army bivouacked as
best as it could. The Fourth Regiment, of which he was Lieutenantcolonel, secured itself from
the storm long before night; and the Officers slept soundly on their blankets, with a large fire at
their feet. The cover was made with two forked saplings, placed in the ground, another
[sapling] from one to the other. Against this, fencerails were placed, sloping, on which leaves
and snow were thrown, and thus made comfortable.8

A Civil War fence rail shelter similar to the ones described by Ensign John Markland as being built
by Continental soldiers in autumn 1777. John D. Billings, Hard Tack and Coffee (Boston, George M.
Smith & Co., 1887), 142.

Sources:
1. Huts and Wigwams: Hut, "a soldier's lodge in the field." Source cited as Edward Phillips (1658), The
new world of English words; or, a general dictionary (1662, 1678, 1696; ed. by J. Kersey, 1706), Oxford
English Dictionary, Compact Edition (Glasgow, New York, and Toronto, Oxford Univ. Press, 1971), 1354.
Interestingly, in the letters and diaries studied only two American soldiers were found who used the term

12

"wigwam" in their writings; New Jersey Capt. William Gifford used it to describe the Valley Forge winter
huts and Rhode Islander Jeremiah Greenman twice told of coming across "sum Indians wigwan [sic]" on
Benedict Arnold's 1775 march to Quebec. William Gifford to Benjamin Holme, from Valley Forge, 12
January 1778, Revolutionary War Documents, New Jersey Historical Society. Bray and Bushnell, Diary of
a Common Soldier, 15, 19.
2. Booths: Origin of booth: buode (Middle High German), "hut, tent," OED Compact Edition, 250.
The earliest mention of booths in the War for Independence regards British brush shelters in summer
1777. Col. Timothy Pickering noted "On the 19th [June 1777], General Howe decamped with the greatest
precipitation from Millstone [New Jersey], and retired to Brunswick ... That part of his army which had
advanced to Middle Bush and Millstone had no tents, but lodged in booths." New Yorker Ebenezer
Hazard observed these same structures the following month: "[August] 7th. [1777] ... Great Devastation
was made by the Enemy at Somerset Court House ... two Orchards were cut down that Booths might be
made for the Soldiers, of the Branches of the Trees. The Enemy's advanced Guard was kept in an
Orchard just back of the Court House; their main Body laid about half a Mile farther on a beautiful rising
Ground: their Booths still remain there."
Delaware captain Robert Kirkwood gave the earliest mention of American booths in New Jersey in June
1777, while three Pennsylvania officers noted that Gen. Anthony Wayne's troops built booths in their camp
the day of the Paoli Battle in September 1777. Two of the soldiers who wrote of booths were obviously
describing flattopped shades or bowers. Brig. Gen. John Muhlenberg, "Cross Roads" camp, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, 10 August 1777: "B[rigade].O[rders]. As it is uncertain how long we shall remain in the
Present Encampment the Soldiers are to fix Booths before their Tents to shelter them from the Heat."; New
Hampshire captain Daniel Livermore used booth to name a large sun shade cum dining area. He wrote on 5
July 1779, near FortyFort, Pennsylvania, "This day General Poor makes an elegant entertainment for all
the officers of his brigade, with a number of gentlemen from other brigades, and from the town ... The
dining room was a large booth, about eighty feet in length, with a marquee pitched at each end." Both these
uses of the term go against common convention; all other soldiers called the described structures bowers or
shades.
The eleven soldiers who wrote of booths were:
Ebenezer Hazard (N.Y.), British booths in New Jersey, June 1777.
Timothy Pickering (Mass.), British booths in New Jersey, June 1777.
Robert Kirkwood (Delaware), New Jersey, June 1777.
John Muhlenberg (Va.), shades for common soldiers' tents, Pennsylvania, August 1777.
Daniel Broadhead (Pa.), Pennsylvania, September 1777.
Samuel Hay (Pa.), Pennsylvania, September 1777.
Adam Hubley (Pa.), Pennsylvania, September 1777.
Jeremiah Greenman (R.I.), Pennsylvania, November 1777.
Joseph Martin (Ct.), New Jersey, June 1778.
Daniel Livermore (N.H.), large sun shade(bower)/dining area,
Pennsylvania, July 1779.
Ebenezer Wild (Mass.), sun shade and/or overnight lodging late summer/early autumn, Virginia, 1781.
Octavius Pickering, The Life of Timothy Pickering, I (1867), 142. "Ebenezer Hazard's Diary: New Jersey
During the Revolution," New Jersey History, XC, no. 3 (whole no. 350) (Autumn 1972), 173. "Orderly
Book of Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, March 26December 20, 1777," The Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography, 34 (1910), 345. Journal of Captain Daniel Livermore, 3rd New Hampshire
Regiment, 5 July 1779, Journals of Sullivan's Expedition, 1779, 182.
3. Bray and Bushnell, Diary of a Common Soldier, 8788.
4. "Journal of Ebenezer Wild," PMHS, 142143, 146, 149.
5. Ibid., 149.

13

6. "with no other covering than the canopy of heaven," 28 June 1778, "Samuel Adams's Private
Miscellaneous Diary Ann: Dom: 1778. Kept partly in the Town of Dorchester and partly in his Excellency
General Washington's Camp at Valley Forge, White Plains, Fredericksburgh, &c ...," Samuel Adams
Diaries, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library.
7. John Markland, "The Revolutionary Services of John Markland", The Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography, 9 (Winter 1885), 106.
8. "The Papers of General Samuel Smith. The General's Autobiography," The Historical Magazine, VII, 2nd
series, no. 2 (February 1870), 91.

B. Brush Huts and the British Army. While the idea goes against every popular notion of the
armies that fought in the American War, by their own testimony, Crown forces participants did
indeed take a pragmatic, innovative stance on lessening baggage and using makeshift shelters.
Appended are a series of primary references, augmented by period artwork.
____________

General John Burgoyne, comparing his expedition of 1777, with that of General Howe the same year:
"But it may be said, and with truth, that troops are usually relieved from a considerable part of this
burthen, and many examples of this relief may be brought from the general custom of service, and from
many movements of General Howe's army in particular - nay more, it was a frequent practice of the very
army in question, to march free from knapsacks and camp equipage. The Wigwam, or hut constructed of
boughs, may be made a very wholsome substitute for a tent; and when victual can be cooked before hand,
even the camp kettle for an expeditious march may be laid aside. All these examples are admitted: but
they all imply conveniencies for the several articles to follow, and to be brought up in due time." (John
Burgoyne, A State of the Expedition from Canada, as laid before the House of Commons, by LieutenantGeneral Burgoyne .." (Second Edition; London: Printed for J. Almon. 1780), 148.)
____________

After the year's campaigning seemed at an end one final sortie was made by the British occupying
Philadelphia. Stemming from the need to gather food and forage to tide his troops over for the winter
months, Sir William Howe sent most of his army into the Pennsylvania countryside south of the city.
Captain Haslewood noted, "20th. Decem [1777] a large [part of the British] Army crosses over the
[Schuylkill Bridge] ... and advances 7 or 8 Miles Into the Country remains there for a Fortnigh[t] In
Wigwams ... great quantity of Forrage and Cattle were taken ..."8 German Captain Friedrich von
Muenchhausen echoed this account:
[22 December 1777] In the morning General Howe marched with ... 8,000 men in one
column across the Schuylkill over the pontoon bridge which was constructed yesterday. With
these troops he formed one line extending from the other side of this bridge to beyond Darby,
seven miles from here, where our left wing deployed so as to cover the flank. About 500
wagons, which we had taken along, at once began foraging behind the line. Our men
constructed temporary cover as well as they could. We did not have tents with us, as we
almost never did during this whole campaign.9
William Haslewood, captain 63rd Regiment, "Journal of a British Officer During the American
Revolution", Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 7 (1920), 58; Ernst Kipping and Samuel Stelle Smith, At
General Howe's Side, 1776-1778 (Monmouth Beach, N.J., Philip Freneau Press, 1974), 46.
____________

14

The next widespread use of wigwams and huts by British forces occurred during the Monmouth Campaign
in June 1778. After General Sir Henry Clinton's forces completed the evacuation of Philadelphia, Captain
John Peebles, 42nd Regiment, noted, "Thursday [June] 18th [1778] ... the Troops march'd to within 2 miles
of Haddonfield where they Encampd in the usual manner, vizt. Wigwams ..." German Lieutenant John
Charles Philip von Krafft left a detailed account of shelters used during the march across New Jersey.
[15 June 1778] It may have been 7.30 P.M. when we arrived there [at a place two and a half
miles past Coopers Ferry]. As we had no tents and it was too late to build huts, I lay down
under a tree to sleep.
[16 June] In the morning order was given to erect huts, because we were to remain here until
all had overtaken us from Philadelphia.
[18 June] ... we passed through the little town of Hottenfelt [Haddonfield], where, at about 8
o'clock, we who were on the extreme right camped under huts on a fallow field.
[20 June] At 3 A.M. we marched away again ... during a heavy rain. Towards noon we built
huts in a meadow near the town of Morristown [Moorestown] ...
[21 June] From 3 in the morning until noon I had the rear guard of our and the English
regiment, again in the heavy rain. In the afternoon we marched during the terrific heat ... Our
Grenadiers and the English, which were in front got into camp about 6.30 P.M., on the right in
front of the town [of Mount Holly], in bush [huts], again in the wheat ... This night there was a
terrific thunderstorm and the rain poured down so hard that we in our bush-huts got very wet.
[22 June] About noon we again pitched our hut-camp on a meadow at Black Horse
[Tavern] ...
[23 June] At 4 A.M. we moved again, in the middle of the army, till towards evening when
we again pitched our camp in a fallow field at Racklestown [Recklesstown] ... [After leaving
the encampment for a short time] we hastened toward our camp and [met] ... in the woods that
extend nearly up to our huts, some soldiers of our Company who were in search of wood ...
[25 June] At 7 in the evening we reached ... Frehold Township ... and pitched our tents on a
fallow field.
[26 June] At noon we ... were near the little town of Freholdt ... at a short distance away
from the place ... we pitched our camp in a fallow field ... That evening there was a terrific
thunderstorm ... I lay in my hut, on account of the rain, leaning on my left arm, together with
my orderly, when there was a fearful thunderclap, so that I could not help thinking my hut had
been struck. But it struck at a distance of only 15 paces behind my hut ...
[28 June] At 8.45 P.M. we camped at Notchwarb, in the midst of woods and on an elevation
in a field of beautiful wheat. We postponed building our huts until the next day on account of
our fatigue.
[30 June] At 7 A.M. we broke up our camp and marched through the borough of
Mittletown ... until we reached, two miles further on, quite a large hill where we pitched our
camp ... Huts were built, but owing to the heat, it was almost impossible to breath underneath
them.
John Peebles Journals (microfilm edition), Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh; Cunninghame of Thorntoun
Papers (GD 21); Papers of Lt., later Capt., John Peebles of the 42d. Foot. 1776-1782; incl. 13 notebooks
comprising his journal; book #6, 1778 Monmouth Campaign; "Journal of Lieutenant John Charles Philip
von Krafft, of the Regiment Von Bose, 1776-1784," Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the
Year 1882 (New York, New-York Historical Society, 1883), 40-49.
____________

15

Secretary of State Lord George Germain to General Sir Henry Clinton, 12th December 1778, "The little
use that had been made of Tents during the former Campaigns led us to imagine it would have been
unnecessary to send any for the next; but, upon Inquiry, it has come out that a great part of them were cut
up, and applied to other Uses, a Waste which I am convinced will not be suffered to happen again." Great
Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, Class 5, vol. 100, 30/55/7/45.
____________

Beginning in 1779 the main British war effort shifted southward, but brush shelters did not play a
significant role until the following year. In summer 1780 South Carolina militia colonel Richard Winn
noted brush huts being used by a mixed contingent of British regulars and provincial troops; he wrote
that at the Battle of Hanging Rock, on 6 August, American forces attacked "the British camp which we
found in an open old field ... The British immediately commenced firing from behind some bush tents."
Later that same month, after the destruction of General Horatio Gates' army at Camden, South Carolina,
on 16 August, Lord Cornwallis determined to move into North Carolina. On 1 October General Jethro
Sumner informed Gates, "Colonel Dickerson, who was on the Enemy's Lines yesterday ... discovered 800
of them upon their march, three miles in advance from Charlotte ... on the Road leading to Bety's ford on
Catawba River, about 9 o'clock in the morning ... it was given out they were to march in ten Days from
Newbern; that they were building brush Hutts, their Lines were circumscribed close in the Town ..." This
report was repeated in the Virginia Gazette, "Richmond, October 11. Our latest advices from the
southward are ... that on the 26th, [September] the enemy, from 2 to 3000 strong, advanced to
Charlotte....They brought with them to Charlotte, about 80 waggons, and 70 or 80 hogsheads of rum; they
were building brush huts; their lines were circumscribed close in the town, and the roll called very often
in the day; their liquors were stored."
Samuel C. Williams, ed., "General Richard Winn's Notes - 1780," South Carolina Historical &
Geneaological Magazine, XLIII (1942), 211. Walter Clark, ed., The State Records of North Carolina, XV,
1780-1781 (Wilmington, N.C., Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1993), 90-91. The Virginia Gazette, Dixon &
Nicholson, No. 84, 11 October 1780.
____________

Operations continued through that winter 1781, and after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in
March 1781 the British troops divested themselves of all excess baggage, including tents. A private
in the 33rd Regiment, campaigning with Cornwallis in North Carolina during 1780-81, matter-offactly noted in an anecdote, "one day, when myself and several of my companions had made a fire
before our wigwam ..." In the midst of operations in Virginia, an observer described a typical
British camp of the period: June 8. [1781] On the 5th the Enemy [i.e., Earl Cornwalliss army]
decamped from Mrs. Nicholass & took the road leading to Goochland Court House [Virginia]
The day after the Enemy left Mrs. Nicholass I went over to her house where I saw the devastation
caused by the Enemys encamping there all round the house. The fences pulled down & much of
them burnt; Many cattle, hogs, sheep & poultry of all sorts killed; 150 barrels of corn eat up or
wasted; & the offal of the cattle &c. with dead horses & pieces of flesh all in a putrefying state
scattered over the plantation There was not one Tent in the British army, all of them lying under
temporary sheds or arbours, made with the boughs of Trees, fence rails &c. even officers of the
highest rank, for only Lord Cornwallis & his aids staid in the House. And an officer with the
76th Regiment later recalled of Cornwallis's 1781 Virginia campaign, "Our encampments were
always chosen on the banks of a stream, and were extremely picturesque, as we had no tents, and
were obliged to construct wigwams of fresh boughs to keep off the rays of the sun during the day."

16

Regimental orders for the 43rd Foot confirm the use of brush shelters that summer.
[30 June 1781, Williamsburg, Virginia] The Officers Commanding Companies [are] to see
[that] the Wig Wams [are] made as secure against Sun and Rain as possible.
[11 August] It is the Majors positive Order that the Soldiers of the Regiment shall sleep in
either their tents or Wigwams.
[27 August, Yorktown] Commanding Officers of Companies will inspect the Mens
Wigwams and report whether they are proper or not.
[9 September] The Major recomends it to the Soldiers to be in their Wigwams if Water-tight
in preference to the tents.
[27 September] The Regt will leave the Wigwams Standing.
John Robert Shaw, A Narrative of the Life & Travels of John Robert Shaw, the Well-Digger, Now Resident
in Lexington, Kentucky, Daniel Bradford, 1807 (reprint edition, Louisville, Ky., 1930), 58; Richard K.
MacMaster, ed., News of the Yorktown Campaign: The Journal of Dr. Robert Honeyman, April 17November 25, 1781, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 79, no. 2 (October 1971), 401402; Samuel Graham, "An English Officer's Account of his Services in America - 1779-1781. Memoirs of
Lt.-General Samuel Graham," Historical Magazine (1865), 269; British Orderly Book, H.B.M. 43rd
Regiment of Foot, 23 May to 25 August 1781, British Museum, London, MSS 42,449.

Camp of the 16th Light Dragoons after the battle of Brandywine, ca September 19, 1777. Tents for
the officers, brush wigwams for the soldiers. Ensign William Augustus West, Viscount Cantalupe,
"Light Dragoon Encampment at Trydyffinn Pennsylvania 1777 Septr."

17

A rifleman of the Queens Rangers, James Murray (watercolor, circa 1780-81), John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Note the brush huts in the
background.

18

Background detail from James Murrays Queens Rangers rifleman. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

19

British huts or "wigwams" in the background of the portrait of Lieutenant James Stewart, 42nd
(Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot. Anonymous artist, circa 1780. National Museums Scotland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/lieutenant-james-stewart-185072

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Background detail of soldiers wigwams from portrait of Lieutenant James Stewart, 42nd (Royal
Highland) Regiment of Foot. Anonymous artist, circa 1780. National Museums Scotland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/lieutenant-james-stewart-185072

Recreated brush hut camp. HM 40th Regt. of Foot / 2nd Batt. Light Infantry, 1777.

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For more see:

"`We are now ... properly ... enwigwamed.': British Soldiers and Brush Huts, 1776-1781"
Overview
"Laying up poles and covering them with leaves ...": Building Brush Huts
Comparative Use of Makeshift Shelters in the French and Indian War, and American Civil War
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/shelter4.htm
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 55, no. 2 (Summer 2003), 89-96.
_______________________

Endnotes
1. Journal of Surgeon Jabez Campfield, Spencer's Additional Regiment, 4 August 1779, Journals of
the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779
(Glendale, N.Y.: Benchmark Publishing Co., Inc., 1970), 53 (hereafter cited as Journals of
Sullivan's Expedition, 1779).
2. David R. Bogert, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty - Land - Warrant Application Files,
National Archives Microfilm Publication M804, W3502.
3. Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of
the Revolution, April, 1775, to December, 1783 (Washington, D.C.: The Rare Book Shop
Publishing Co., Inc., 1914), 261, 591.
4. "Journal of Ebenezer Wild," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd series,
vol. VI (Boston, Ma., 1891), 79-160 (hereafter cited as "Journal of Ebenezer Wild," PMHS). Robert
C. Bray and Paul E. Bushnell, eds., Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution: An
Annotated Edition of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman (DeKalb, Il., 1978), 73-88, 172187 (hereafter cited as Bray and Bushnell, Diary of a Common Soldier).
5. 1781 data compiled from "Journal of Ebenezer Wild," PMHS, 137-140, 142-143, 146, 149-150,
and "Journal of Captain John Davis of the Pennsylvania Line," Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography, 5 (1881), 292 (hereafter cited as "Journal of Captain John Davis," PMHB).
Wigwams, brush huts, and booths: Hut, "a soldier's lodge in the field." Source cited as Edward
Phillips (1658), The new world of English words; or, a general dictionary (1662, 1678, 1696; ed.
by J. Kersey, 1706), Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition (Glasgow, New York, and
Toronto, Oxford Univ. Press, 1971), 1354 (hereafter cited as OED Compact Edition). Interestingly,
in the letters and diaries studied only two American soldiers were found who used the term
"wigwam" in their writings; New Jersey Captain William Gifford used it to describe the Valley
Forge winter huts and Rhode Islander Jeremiah Greenman twice told of coming across "sum
Indians wigwan [sic]" on Benedict Arnold's 1775 march to Quebec. William Gifford to Benjamin
Holme, from Valley Forge, 12 January 1778, Revolutionary War Documents, New Jersey Historical
Society. Bray and Bushnell, Diary of a Common Soldier, 15, 19.
Origin of booth: buode (Middle High German), "hut, tent," OED Compact Edition, 250.
The earliest mention of booths in the War for Independence regards British brush shelters in
summer 1777. Colonel Timothy Pickering noted "On the 19th [June 1777], General Howe
decamped with the greatest precipitation from Millstone [New Jersey], and retired to Brunswick ...
That part of his army which had advanced to Middle Bush and Millstone had no tents, but lodged in
booths." New Yorker Ebenezer Hazard observed these same structures the following month:

22

"[August] 7th. [1777] ... Great Devastation was made by the Enemy at Somerset Court House ...
two Orchards were cut down that Booths might be made for the Soldiers, of the Branches of the
Trees. The Enemy's advanced Guard was kept in an Orchard just back of the Court House; their
main Body laid about half a Mile farther on a beautiful rising Ground: their Booths still remain
there."
Delaware captain Robert Kirkwood gave the earliest mention of American booths in New Jersey
in June 1777, while three Pennsylvania officers noted that General Anthony Wayne's troops built
booths in their camp the day before the Paoli Battle in September 1777. Two of the soldiers who
wrote of booths were obviously describing flat-topped shades or bowers. Brigadier General John
Muhlenberg, "Cross Roads" camp, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 10 August 1777:
"B[rigade].O[rders]. As it is uncertain how long we shall remain in the Present Encampment the
Soldiers are to fix Booths before their Tents to shelter them from the Heat."; New Hampshire
captain Daniel Livermore used booth to name a large sun shade cum dining area. He wrote on 5
July 1779, near Forty-Fort, Pennsylvania, "This day General Poor makes an elegant entertainment
for all the officers of his brigade, with a number of gentlemen from other brigades, and from the
town ... The dining room was a large booth, about eighty feet in length, with a marquee pitched at
each end." Both these uses of the term go against common convention; all other soldiers called the
described structures bowers or shades.
The eleven soldiers who wrote of booths were:
Ebenezer Hazard (N.Y.), British booths in New Jersey, June 1777.
Timothy Pickering (Mass.), British booths in New Jersey, June 1777.
Robert Kirkwood (Delaware), New Jersey, June 1777.
John Muhlenberg (Va.), shades for common soldiers' tents, Pennsylvania, August 1777.
Daniel Broadhead (Pa.), Pennsylvania, September 1777.
Samuel Hay (Pa.), Pennsylvania, September 1777.
Adam Hubley (Pa.), Pennsylvania, September 1777.
Jeremiah Greenman (R.I.), Pennsylvania, November 1777.
Joseph Martin (Ct.), New Jersey, June 1778.
Daniel Livermore (N.H.), large sun shade(bower)/dining area, Pennsylvania, July 1779.
Ebenezer Wild (Mass.), sun shade and/or overnight lodging late summer/early autumn, Virginia,
1781.
Octavius Pickering, The Life of Timothy Pickering, I (1867), 142 (hereafter cited as Life of Timothy
Pickering). "Ebenezer Hazard's Diary: New Jersey During the Revolution," New Jersey History,
XC, no. 3 (whole no. 350) (Autumn 1972), 173 (hereafter cited as "Ebenezer Hazard's Diary," New
Jersey History). "Orderly Book of Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, March 26-December 20,
1777," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 34 (1910), 345. Journal of Captain
Daniel Livermore, 3rd New Hampshire Regiment, 5 July 1779, Journals of Sullivan's Expedition,
1779, 182.
6. Examples of British army innovation during the War for Independence include adapting soldiers'
clothing for rugged campaign conditions, supplying bags with camp kettles to ease the burden of
cooking utensils, the adoption of two-rank open formations from 1776 to 1783, and tactical use of
light infantry; British commanders were also the first to divest their armies of heavy baggage and
rely on makeshift constructs to shelter large numbers of troops. By comparison, American forces
seemed wed to their tents and baggage for much of the war, did not adopt a two-rank formation

23

until 1777, and continued to use closed formations for line battalions until 1782. See, William W.
Burke and Linnea M. Bass, "Preparing a British Unit for Service in America: The Brigade of Foot
Guards, 1776," Military Collector & Historian, XLVII, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 2-11; James L. Kochan
and George C. Woodbridge, "Uniform of the 40th Foot Light Infantry Company, 1777," The
Brigade Dispatch, XXI, no. 2 (Summer 1990), 8-10; John U. Rees, "'To subsist an Army well ...':
Soldiers' Cooking Equipment, Provisions, and Food Preparation During the American War for
Independence," Military Collector & Historian, 53, no. 1 (Spring 2001), 10, 16-18. For the
differing formations used by British and American troops, see Colonel John Mercer's account of the
Battle of Greenspring, 6 July 1781, Gaillard Hunt, Fragments of Revolutionary History. Being
hitherto unpublished writings of the men of the American Revolution ... (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1892), 5051; Johann Ewald's description of American troops in 1782 in Diary of the American War - A
Hessian Journal, Joseph P. Tustin, ed. and trans. (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press,
1979), 340. British troops fought in two ranks, with open files, usually eighteen inches apart,
starting in 1776: General Sir William Howe's orders, Boston, 29 February 1776: "Reg[imen]ts ...
are always to have their Files 18 Inches distant from each other, which they will take care to
practice for the future, being the Order in w[hi]ch they are to Engage the Enemy." Benjamin
Franklin Stevens, ed., General Sir William Howe's Orderly Book, at Charlestown, Boston and
Halifax, June 17 1775 to 1776 26 May (Kennikat Press: Port Washington, N.Y. and London, 1970),
222. For evidence of German officers' skepticism of using open formations, see, Rodney Atwood,
The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hesse-Kassel in the American Revolution (Cambridge, London,
New York, etc.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1980), 61, 82.
____________________________
Addendun: Online series of articles on soldiers shelter on campaign.
"`We ... got ourselves cleverly settled for the night': Soldiers' Shelter on Campaign During the War for
Independence"
Part I, "`Oznabrig tabernacles: Tents in the Armies of the Revolution":
1. Put our Men into barns : The Vagaries of Shelter
2. "We Lay in the open world": Troops Without Shelter on Campaign
3. "State of Marquees and Tents delivered to the Army...": Varieties of Tentage
a. British Common Tents
b. American Common Tents
c. Horsemans and Cavalry Tents
d. Wall Tents
e. Marquees
f. Bell Tents for Sheltering Arms
g. Dome, Square, and Hospital Tents
h. French Tents
4. "Return of Camp Equipage": More on Tents.
Appendices
Illustrations of French Tents
The Common Tent as Illustrated in a German Treatise
How to Fold a Common Tent for Transport (from a German Treatise)

24

Interior Views of Common Tents: Sleeping Arrangements in Three Armies

A Melange of Marquees: Additional Images of Officers Tents
Encampment Plans: Continental Army, Hessian, and British
Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United
States Part I. (Philadelphia, Pa.: Styner and Cist, 1779)
A Correct View of the Hessian Camp on Barton Farm near Winchester by Willm. Godson, Land
Surveyor to the Right Worshipful the Corporation of Winchester occup le 16 Juillet 1756
Lewis Lochee, An Essay on Castrametation (London, 1778)
(British treatise on tents and encampments.)
Humphrey Bland, A treatise of military discipline: in which is laid down and explained the duty of the
officer and soldier, through the several branches of the service. The 8th edition revised, corrected, and
altered to the present practice of the army (London: B. Law and T. Caslon, 1762).
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 49, no. 3 (Fall 1997), 98-107.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/262657282/Oznabrig-tabernacles-Tents-in-the-Armies-of-theRevolution-part-1-of-We-got-ourselves-cleverly-settled-for-the-night-Soldiers-Shelter
Part II, "`The Allowance of Tents is not sufficient ...': An Overview of Tents as Shelter:"
"The Allowance of Tents is not sufficient...": An Overview of Tents as Shelter
"The fewer the Waggons to the Army, the better...": Transporting Tents
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/shelter2.htm
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 49, no. 4 (Winter 1997), 156-168.
Part III, "`The camps ... are as different in their form as the owners are in their dress ...': Shades, Sheds,
and Wooden Tents, 1775-1782":
"Not a bush to make a shade near [at] hand ...": Bush Bowers, "Arbours," and "Shades," 1776-1782
"An elegant shade ...": Officers' Bowers
"The Men employed in making Bowers before their Tents...": Shades for Common Soldiers
A. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 1777 to 1780
B. Virginia Peninsula, 1781
C. New York, 1782
D. Bowers and British Troops, 1776 and 1781
"The troops hutted with Rails and Indian Corn Stocks ...": Sheds, Planked Huts, and Straw Tents, 17751777
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/bowers.htm
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 53, no. 4 (Winter 2001-2002), 161-169.
Part IV, "`We are now ... properly ... enwigwamed.': British Soldiers and Brush Huts, 1776-1781":
Overview
"Laying up poles and covering them with leaves ...": Building Brush Huts
Comparative Use of Makeshift Shelters in the French and Indian War and American Civil War
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/shelter4.htm
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 55, no. 2 (Summer 2003), 89-96.

25

Part V, `We built up housan of branchis and leavs : Continental Army Brush Shelters, 1775-1777
A. "This night we lay out without shelter ...: Overview of American Soldiers' Campaign Lodging
B. "We maid us some Bush huts ...": Brush Shelters, 1775 and 1776.
C. "Huts of sticks & leaves": Washington's Army in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1777.
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 55, no. 4 (Winter 2003-2004), 213-223.
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/pdfs/huts5.pdf
Part VI, "`We built up housan of branchis & leavs ...: Continental Army Brush Shelters, 1778-1782
A. "Found the regiment lying in bush huts ...": Continental Troops on Campaign and on the March, 17781780.
B. "Pine huts," "Huts of rails," and "Bush Tents": Virginia and the Carolinas, 1781-1782.
C. "Return of Camp Equipage": More on Tents.
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 56, no. 2 (2004), 98-106.
http://revwar75.com/library/rees/pdfs/huts6.pdf
"`Soldiers are ingenious animals.: American Civil War Campaign Shelters,
Comparative Use of Makeshift Shelters, 1755 to 1812
"More like a chicken-coop er a dog-kennel": Civil War Soldiers' Tents
A. Soldier-Built Supports and Shelter Tent Amenities.
B. Southern Tents and Substitutes.
"Ther' ain't no use lyin' 'n the mud.": Soldiers' Bedding Arrangements With and Without Shelter
"Their shebang enclosures of bushes.": The Variety of Brush and Board Huts
"It is so awful hot here to-day": Soldier-Built Shades
Military Collector & Historian, vol. 56, no. 4 (2004), 248-266.
http://www.libertyrifles.org/research/campaignshelters.html

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