A signature event offered by the Heritage Trail Association. Learn more on how to get your tickets here.
Multiple tours are offered, plan on 3 hours for each tour as the bus stops briefly at all 5 historic sites for a quick side tour. The tour itself happens on the bus as we travel the area where the Continental and British Armies traveled in the winter of 1778-79. (After the first stop, guests ask for longer tours!). Experience and touch the places where George and Martha Washington lived, Where Baron Von Stuben helped create an army out of farmers. Where West Point began, where George Washington danced for hours, and where the beacon alert system and other issues were discussed and solutions were created. All these places are right here in our own backyards and make up this tour.
Covering the Middlebrook Cantonment, a somewhat mild winter in between Valley Forge and Jockey Hollow, the bus travels roads used by the soldiers during this winter, much was accomplished and planned that aided in the success of the war. Middlebrook, far from the overlooked winter that historians have ignored in the past, its importance to the overall outcome of the war is now seen and the story now being told in multiple books and the Middlebrook Symposia being offered now until the 2026 semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The next installment in March this year.
Somerset County, NJ is the only place where there are 5 of the homes used by General George Washington and 4 of his Generals during a winter cantonment (there were 8), that still exhist in their original location, are open to the public and are listed on the state and national lists for Historic Sites. There are houses spotted here and there where Revolutionary War figures stayed, but these 5 houses are the only grouping that fill all 4 categories. If you have not been able to obtain a seat on this tour over the years because it sells out quickly, make 2024 the year you experience it. 2026 is just around the corner celebrating the 250th anniversary of the beginning of our fight for independence. Just a reminder-we were all British until 1783.
The 5 Generals Middlebrook Narrated Bus Tour is only conducted on this day and the houses are closed to the public.
Check-in and a Middlebrook overview kicks off this once-a-year tour in the Historic Philip Van Horne House. Parking on the side/back of Target and in our parking lot. Overflow directly across the street at the Patriots Baseball park.
Once on the bus, you will be handed a VOX individual tour speaker system and earphones to hear the tour clearly. After the tour, turn in the VOX system and keep the earphones.
This tour sells out every year. This year larger buses have been chartered to assist our guests book groups and families.
** please allow a two-week notice for accessibility and assistive services requests
Learn more and get your tickets.
