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For almost 220 years, the stories surrounding the
 Pluckemin Artillery Park have remained dormant ...until now.
 Over 220 years ago, the Continental Army and General Knox made the Bedminster area their winter home at the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment, the Continental army's artillery training facility nestled in the Second Watchung mountain. The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer house are nearing completion of a massive artifact cataloging effort to document and catalog over 190,000 artifacts extracted from what has been documented as America’s first military training facility, precursor to the US Military Academy at West Point (Note: the USMA was established 24 years later in 1802).
Photo - left: Dr. Richard Veit of Monmouth University works with Sean McHugh discussing the artifact catalog.
During the summer of 2009 , a number of graduate and undergraduate students at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey have been unpacking, documenting, and cataloging 10% of the 190,000 artifacts uncovered at the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment in Bedminster, New Jersey. Dr. Richard Veit, associate professor of anthropology, is leading an effort to catalog the artifacts uncovered during the Pluckemin Archeological Project with a grant provided by the Friends of the J Vanderveer House and the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission.
The artifacts are the result of a excavation and exploratory project led by Dr. John Seidel, director of the Center for the Environment and Society at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. "It was his ten year effort that uncovered this lot of almost 200,000 artifacts at the Pluckemin site” stated Dr. Veit. “But it was with Clifford Sekel's efforts that the site was found and systematically excavated.”
The Collection
The majority of the Pluckemin cantonment collection is not what most would expect. “It’s not like we’re going to produce a cannon or complete rifle,” stated Brooks Betz, board member of the Friends of JVH. “The majority of the collection are pieces and fragments of everyday military life at a military homestead." According to Dr. Veit, "A cantonment (pronounced canis ‘a group of building constructed primarily for the purpose of housing troops’; the term camp or ‘encampment’ refers to troops quartered in their regimental or brigade lines, so you decide if Pluckemin's an encampment or cantonment.."
Some of the artifacts include:(l to r) - Button from a British Soldiers uniform (A button from the 42nd Regiment of Foot or Scots Highlanders, a unit in the Crown Forces) , a bayonet, an eighteenth-century two-tined fork, and an unfinished gun flint lock.
Each piece has an interesting story tied back to the life at the artillery cantonment.
While the cantonment was where the artillery division of the military lived and trained, there were supporting services like four fully functioning iron forges, where weapons were retrofitted, and continental army artillery canons were serviced. “Obviously, you’re going to find lots of nails, musket balls, and fragments of armaments.” It’s a big collection of what I’d call bits-n-pieces that add up to one of the most important stories in revolutionary war history. It’s a story we can’t wait to tell,” stated Betz.
The Process
 Dr. Veit’s team, in partnership with Dr. Ian Burrow from Hunter Research, Trenton, New Jersey, have been working with Dr. Seidel to sort, catalog, and log to a database each of the items  that were uncovered during the massive ten year “grid search” of the Pluckemin cantonment area. “Hunter Research spent the first phase of the project identifying, packaging, and sorting all of the artifacts into sectioned boxes for our team to catalog” stated Veit. “We look forward to having the team get thru all 19,000 plus artifacts in this first phase and hope that the Friends of Jacobus Vanderveer House will sanction us to catalog the next phase of artifacts.” Veit is referring to over 190,000 plus total artifacts that were uncovered via surface collection and sub-surface excavation. Veit noted "we're only analyzing the first 19,000 artifacts. Most of the collection hasn't been touched yet!"
Photo above left: An unfinished gun cock from the Pluckemin collection, evidence that the soldiers were fabricating or installing gun parts at the site.
What’s Next
 The Monmouth University team plans to complete the first phase of artifact cataloging by mid-July 2009. Once the team completes the effort, the artifacts will probably be returned to Hunter Research in Trenton, New Jersey, where a decision will be made on what artifacts should make the first cut for display at the Vanderveer House in Bedminster.
Ian Burrow at Hunter Research, who's been working with the collection before Veit's team, began cataloging the artifacts to a database noted: "We at Hunter Research are delighted to be working so closely with Monmouth University and Washington College. It's a perfect example of how these important projects can be run. We were very fortunate in having two terrific interns from Monmouth working with us in Trenton: Keri Sansevere and Sarah Eichorn."
Photo: Right - Monmouth University students Keri Sansevere, Sarah Eichhorn, and Ryan Loihle cataloging artifacts.
It was the Vanderveer house which served as the headquarters to General Henry Knox, chief of Artillery of the Continental Army. "The intention is to eventually house and store the entire collection at the Vanderveer/Knox house and create a rotating display which will be open to the general public," noted Jay Petrillo, President of the Friends of the Vanderveer House. The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer house are currently working on creating displays, story boards, and script boards, presenting the history of the 1788/89 artillery cantonment (see displays article).
The Future
The cataloging process was made possible with a grant from the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission, who supplied a grant on behalf of the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House and the Township of Bedminster. The Friends of JVH also partnered with Bedminster Township to nominate the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment and Vanderveer House (sometimes referred to as the Knox house) to both the state and national historic registries. “It’s an important step to have these two areas on the registry” stated Joseph Metelski, former Bedminster Mayor. “Now that they’re both on the registry, it opens the doors for a number of possible options to the areas future development and usage.”
While the Jacobus Vanderveer House will serve as a museum to exhibit some of the Pluckemin artifacts, it is not yet determined what will be done with the cantonment site. The Vanderveer house is the only structure that remains from the 1778-1779 encampment period and can be considered the gateway or perhaps a visitors center to the Pluckemin cantonment area.
Background
It wasn’t until 1980 when archeologist and historian Dr. John Seidel and his team from Rutgers University (now at Washington College, Chestertown, MD) picked up where Clifford Sekel (photo right) (pronounced sek - L), a history student at the time wrote his masters (MA) thesis in 1972 about General Knox and the Continental Army’s winter cantonment at Pluckemin. Sekel's thesis was entitled " THE CONTINENTAL ARTILLERY IN WINTER ENCAMPMENT AT PLUCKEMIN, NEW JERSEY - DECEMBER 1778 -JUNE, 1779.
It was Clifford Sekel's efforts that led to what was known as the Pluckemin Archeological Project (PAP). John Seidel later wrote his thesis building on Sekel's observations off while he was at the University of Pennsylvania (a large three volume thesis).
Vanderveer House & Pluckemin
It was Jacobus Vanderveer, a local resident, who reportedly made his homestead available for General Henry Knox and his wife Lucy for the duration of their stay at the Pluckemin Artillery cantonment from October 1778 to June 1779 alongside companies of the Continental Artillery, armourers, artificers, and field elements of the Military Stores Department.
The artillery training facility was a separate and distinct military facility, separate from the second Middlebrook Cantonment in Bound Brook Brook & Bridgewater, New Jersey. "While Middlebrook had 8,0000-10,000 of General Washington’s troops spending their winter there, Pluckemin had only about 1,000 soldiers in addition to about 60 cannons", noted Matt Koppinger of Chester, NJ. Koppinger spent many years working side by side with Cliff Sekel at the Pluckemin site.
 It was Clifford Sekel who carried the torch after Henry (Max) Schrabisch, the former New Jersey State Archeologist who began his archeological efforts on the Pluckemin countryside that was later termed "The Dig" by Bedminster local historian Anne O'Brien. In 1913, Max began his quest to find the Pluckemin Artillery encampment but was unable to identify the exact location of the Pluckemin Military Academy.
Clifford Sekel got a big break when a drawing of the Pluckemin artillery cantonment and military academy was rediscovered in the early 1970's. (See left) The drawing was created by Captain John Lillie. Lillie was Captain in November 1778, and was the Continental Army's Commander of the 12th Company, 3rd Regiment and also aide-de-camp to General Knox. The original drawing is currently on display at the Morristown National Historical Park.
The Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment was added to the State and National Historic Registries in late 2008 and early 2009 respectively. A complete historic timeline - Click Here .
Key Organizational Support
There are a number of people and organizations that are playing a key role moving the Pluckemin artillery cantonment story forward that should be thanked for their efforts:
- The Friends of Jacobus Vanderveer House , Bedminster, NJ
- Bedminster Township, Bedminster, NJ
- Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission , Somerset County, NJ
- Dr. Richard Veit – Monmouth University, W. Long Branch, NJ
- Dr. John Seidel – Washington College – Chestertown, MD
- Matthew Koppinger, Chester, NJ
- Dr. Ian Burrow – Hunter Research, Trenton, NJ
- Dr. Clifford Sekel and his entire team from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
- New Jersey Cultural & Heritage Commission, Trenton, NJ
- New Jersey Division of State, Trenton, NJ
Reference Information/Links
- Revolutionary War Artillery Overview - Click Here
- Crossroads of the American Revolution - Click Here
- John Lewis Seidel - Washington College - Click Here
- Seidel, John Lewis. "The Archaeology of the American Revolution: A Reappraisal and Case Study at the Continental Artillery Cantonment of 1778-1779, Pluckemin, New Jersey." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1987.
Submitted: June 30, 2009
Submitted by: Brooks Betz
Photos/Images: Brooks Betz/Drew University/Matt Koppinger
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