News:
Clifford Sekel Thesis
Pluckemin Artillery 1972

Archeologist and student researches the lost Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment built by the Continental Army in the winter of 1778 -1779.

It might just be the definitive paper ever produced on the history of the creation, management, usage, and ultimate demolition of what might just be America's First Military Academy, the precursor to West Point - the Pluckemin Continental Artillery Cantonment, also known as the Pluckemin Artillery Encampment.

In this 140+ page thesis entitled " THE CONTINENTAL ARTILLERY IN WINTER ENCAMPMENT AT PLUCKEMIN, NEW JERSEY - DECEMBER 1778 -JUNE, 1779. you get to go behind the scenes and learn about the early days of the revolutionary war. Read excerpts from letters written by General Washington to Henry Knox. Learn about how the troops were being treated during the cold winter of 1779. Learn how the site was chosen, staffed, and managed.

From the court martial hangings, to the military training classes for officers, Clifford Sekel gives a great in depth entertaining and educational look at this important national treasure.

Please contact the Friend of JVH if you are interested in viewing a copy of the 1972 thesis. Click Here

For an overview of the Pluckemin Dig - Click Here
For an overview of the Pluckemin Encampment - Click Here
Pluckemin Cantonment makes the State Historic Register - Click Here

Nation's history, and a Jerseyan's legacy, live on

Great Friend of the Friends of Jacobus Vanderveer House Dies at age 65.

Posted by Mark DiIonno February 15, 2008 11:35PM

Time marches on, except in the minds of those who try to stop it and understand it.
Cliff Sekel was one of those people, and the times he unearthed were 200 years past, buried on a mountainside practically in his Somerville backyard. Just goes to show, history lies all around us. You just have to know where to find it.

For Sekel, who died this week at 65, the place was in Pluckemin, New Jersey, and the buried history was that of America's first West Point - the artillery and officer training camp for George Washington's Revolutionary War Army.

What began 42 years ago with Sekel hacking through the underbrush with a machete on Second Watchung Mountain in search of building foundations ended with a professional dig that uncovered more than 130,000 artifacts. By then, the 16-acre site was in the middle of a construction zone, what would become The Hills development in Bedminster.  What began for Sekel as a master's thesis in 1966 will end next year with a large book by the prestigious Hunter Research group documenting the voluminous finds. That he did not live to see it, he would tell you, is not important.

It's the history that counts, and now he is part of it. Because he found it. Without Sekel, the history he unearthed would have been buried forever under a housing development of massive proportion.
"He was the driving force," said Matt Koppinger, who worked side-by-side with Sekel on the Pluckemin dig for nearly 30 years. "Without Cliff, this all would have been lost."

The Pluckemin Artillery Encampment was built in the winter of 1778-79, part artillery and weapon repair shop, part training school, all under the command of Gen. Henry Knox. The idea was to teach officers about the strategic movement of cannon lines in open field battle and how to work with infantry. Sixty working cannons were on site for training. They were fired to celebrate the new French allegiance with Washington.  For seven months, a new generation of artillery officers trained there, and the camp, which housed about 1,000 soldiers, was dismantled in June 1779.  "What they left behind, essentially, was garbage to them," Koppinger said. "If they broke a bowl, they'd sweep it outside. If a bayonet was broken, they'd throw it away. Anything that was still working, they took with them." The camp had about 500 feet of row-like buildings shaped like an E. After the war, the buildings became dilapidated, and the site was returned to farmland, forgotten by history for almost 200 years.

In the 1960s, Sekel decided to do a paper for his master's degree about Pluckemin's Colonial history, but as he did research at the National Archives he learned of the artillery camp. Koppinger said Sekel's mother-in-law directed him to the approximate site of what locals called "the encampment," and he began to fight his way through the underbrush in search of ruins. For two summers, he found nothing.  But a Bernardsville News reporter named Anne O'Brien did some research for Sekel and discovered former landowner and millionaire Grant B. Schley had paid for an archeological "rummaging" of the site in the early 1900s that produced hints about where the site might be located. Sekel knew an old dump mentioned and waded again into the woods, uncovering a foundation.  The rest, as they say, is history.

He went to property owner Johns Manville, securing rights to dig in the area and $50,000 to get started. He began an association with Drew University and John Seidel, who later, while at Rutgers, brought in student labor.  O'Brien joined forces with him, as did Koppinger, who had an interest in artillery.  "He didn't know much about artillery, and I didn't know much about archeology, so we were a good team," Koppinger said. They continued to get private grants to dig, while the land around them turned over from developer to developer. Each honored the original agreement.  For nearly 30 years, Sekel and his team pulled stuff out. Everything was photographed and moved to a climate-controlled warehouse. They found musket balls, bits of pig iron from weapons and rusty bayonets. They found a belt buckle decorated with a cannon and 13-star flag - the earliest artifact showing the American flag. They found bits of plates and glass and utensils and clothing. The old history was dug out of the ground, while the new history sprung up around them.

On many days, the sounds of scraping tools were in concert with the ringing of hammers from houses being framed nearby. As families moved in and unpacked their housewares, Sekel and his team were discovering how 1,000 soldiers 200 years earlier ate and drank and went about daily life. And Sekel never tired of the discovery.  "The thrill is still the same," Sekel told The Star-Ledger in 2002. "Whenever I come here, I can honestly picture in my mind the genius of these men. It never ceases to amaze me how little we know about them. We put them on pedestals and dehumanize them, but they are even more intriguing as mortals."

And as they were then, they are now. Cliff Sekel lives among them.

 

Submitted: May 20, 2009

 

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