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General George Washington used a campaign tent (or marquee) throughout much of the American Revolutionary War. This set comprised a dining tent and an office tent with a built-in smaller sleeping chamber. Pieces of the set are currently owned by four separate historical organizations.
Contents
History
In warm weather, Washington often used the linen tent as his military headquarters, for meetings, and as sleeping quarters. His enslaved valet William Lee also slept there.
From the May-June, 1777 encampment at Middlebrook, New Jersey:
“The Army is now drawn together at this place, at least that part of it, which have been Cantoned all Winter in this state. The whole of them now Encamped in Comfortable Tents on a Valley covered in front and rear by ridges which affords us security. His excellency our good Old General, has also spread his Tent, and lives amongst us."
The tent's pieces were inherited by Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. He passed them on to his daughter, Mary Anna Custis Lee, and her husband, General Robert E. Lee. Their enslaved housekeeper, Selina Norris Gray, kept the tent fabric safe when Union Army soldiers ransacked Arlington House during the American Civil War. The tent was among the Washington artifacts seized by the federal government, and the grounds of Arlington House were converted into Arlington National Cemetery. It was nearly 40 years later, in 1901, that the tent and Washington artifacts were returned to the Lees' son, George Washington Custis Lee.
In 1909, the exterior of the sleeping tent was purchased by Reverend Dr. W. Herbert Burk for the Valley Forge Museum of American History, predecessor to the Valley Forge Historical Society. It was exhibited in a museum on the grounds of the 1777-1778 Valley Forge encampment.
Current locations
Pieces of the marquee are currently owned by four different historical organizations: