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New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site is where the Continental Army under General George Washington spent the last winter and spring of the Revolutionary War. In October 1782, General Washington moved his northern army to New Windsor to establish winter quarters. Some 7,500 soldiers and 500 women and children civilian refugees encamped here. By late December 1782, they had erected nearly 600 log huts into a ‘cantonment,’ a military enclave. It was at the New Windsor Cantonment that the cease fire orders were issued by Washington ending the eight-year War of Independence on April 19, 1783.
From mid-April through October visitors will find costumed staff demonstrating musket drills, blacksmithing, military medicine and other 18th century skills, with additional demonstrations in July and August. Buildings include the reconstructed ‘Temple of Virtue,’ which served as a chapel and office and the Mountainville Hut, perhaps the only surviving example of original timber construction by the Continental Army.
One lodge brother on social media says: “We will host a speaker from the Cantonment who will provide us with an interesting presentation on the Temple of Virtue, which was the main building of the Cantonment, and was designed and built with a great deal of Masonic imagery. I have visited the building myself, and I can honestly tell you that my first thought was that it had at one time been used as a Masonic temple just based on its floor plan. Our speaker also will teach us about the Newburgh Conspiracy of 1783, when the Continental Army almost rallied against Congress at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War—a very contentious time—and how Brother George Washington quelled the potential uprising.”
Wild game stew will be served for dinner.
Shekomeko is located at 3 Quaker Hill Road in Pleasant Valley. The lodge tiles at seven o’clock. I don’t see any RSVP contact info, but the Secretary can be reached here.
