REVOLUTIONARY WAR SITES IN TOTOWA, NEW JERSEY

American Encampment Site
Marker is in Veteran's Memorial Park
Totowa Rd. and Union Blvd.
Map / Directions to the American Encampment site

From July 1-29 and from October 9-27, 1780 there were large encampments of Continental (American) Army soldiers in what is now Passaic County. [1] Many of the troops were positioned in Totowa, while others were spread out through what are now Woodland Park, Little Falls, and Hawthorne. General George Washington made his headquarters both times at Dey Mansion, which is located 1.7 miles up Totowa Road from this sign. Some of Washington's well-known generals commanded troops in these encampments, including Lord Stirling, Henry Knox, Anthony Wayne, and the Marquis de Lafayette. [2]

This sign [3] stands in Veteran's Memorial Park, which also contains monuments and plaques to veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Source Notes:

1. ^ What is now Passaic County was then part of Bergen County. Passaic County was not created until 1837, fifty-four years after the end of the Revolutionary War.
For more information, see:
John F. Snyder, The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968 (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969) page 209
Available as a PDF on the State of New Jersey website here.
(Note that although the information is on the page numbered 201 of the document, it is on page 198 of the PDF file.)

2. ^ For more details and accompanying source notes about the July and October-November 1780 encampments, see the Wayne, Woodland Park, Little Falls and Hawthorne pages of this website.

See also:

• "William Nelson, "Washington's Headquarters at Preakness," The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries, Volume 3 (New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1879) Pages 490-495
Available to be read at Google Books here

• Walter Arndt Lucas, "Lafayette's Encampment at Wagaraw," Bulletin of the Passaic County Historical Society, Volume 3, No. 10, July 1951, Pages 54 - 60
Available as a PDF on the Lambert Castle website here (Note that although the article appears on the pages numbered 54-60 of the Newsletter, it appears on pages 14-20 of the PDF document.)

3. ^ This sign, which was erected by the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 2010, is an exact replica of an earlier sign at this location which had been placed here in 1932. It is one of a series of signs from 1932 that were reproduced in 2010.
An article about this series of historic signs can be read at the NorthJersey.com website here.