Submitted by rollotomasi07071 t3_102d3e3 in newjersey
I don’t envy any of those guys.
wait, why's it obvious there wasn't a lake there 246 years ago?
Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish American industrialist/philanthropist, went to visit Princeton University.
He didn't think you could properly mold a young man with just rough sports, like American Football, so he donated money for a dam on the millstone river that would create Carnegie lake so.....that Princeton University could have men's rowing, a proper gentleman pastime.
Supposedly Woodrow Wilson (President of Princeton at the time) quipped about Carnegie "we asked him for bread, but he gave us water".
I love that. I didn't know that. Thank you. I find NJ history and how so much history connects through our state fascinating.
It may be apocryphal- I'm skeptical that "bread" as slang for money was a thing in 1905, or that Wilson would have used it even if it was.
But if it's a lie, it's an entertaining one.
Lmao that's funny when im at that exact same spot i often imagine the same thing
The winter in Morristown was just about every bit as miserable as the more famous one at Valley Forge. Feet of snow in Jockey Hollow area.
We relocated from Illinois to Morris County for about 6 years and it was amazing how much Revolutionary War history there was in the area. Jockey Hollow was quite an eye-opener, as was when a reenactor at the Colonial Farm there joked that the farmhouse on site was probably the ONLY place in New Jersey that no one claim Washington visited, as History shows he never visited the troops in Jockey Hollow at all while they were there.
I haven't been to any of the sites since my son was in elementary school. The HQ is in Morristown proper and there is a house called Schuyler Hamilton house where Hamilton met Elizabeth Schuyler his wife. The owner's apparently set them up.
Based on weather conditions it was worse but valley forge is better remembered because of the higher mortality rate mostly due to the spread of disease
Why are these towns referred to as South Jersey?
[deleted]
There is a reenactment of the Battle of Princeton this weekend: https://pbs1777.org/event/battle-of-princeton-2023/
Cool! Thanks!
If r/NonCredibleDefense had it their way, the reenactment would include M1 Abrams & F-35s fighting Challengers & Tornados.
trying to start another jersey border argument disguised as a history lesson. I see you.
Homie really called it south jersey.
Jsnooots t1_j2svqo9 wrote
After the battle the American troops headed north following what would be rt27 from Princeton area towards New Brunswick.
Obviously there was no Carnegie lake but the millstone river was an obstacle.
The American troops crossed and then destroyed the bridge behind them.
It is dangerous to get your troops wet in the winter so that stopped any pursuit that day by the British.
I like to imagine when I'm at the bottom of the lake by the little bridge by the mill what it must have been like to be a soldier at that time. It must have mostly sucked but not that day.