Washington's Farewell Address to the Army

Background. Washington had commanded the Continental Army since 1775 and led Patriot forces to victory over the British Empire, culminating in the decisive Franco-American triumph at Yorktown in 1781. Although the peace treaty took two more years to negotiate, Yorktown proved the war's last significant battle, and the British Parliament agreed to cease hostilities in March 1782. When the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, Britain officially recognized American independence, removing the army's central purpose. Earlier that year, in March 1783, Washington had successfully calmed the Newburgh Conspiracy, a planned mutiny by American officers dissatisfied with a lack of pay.

Setting at Rocky Hill. During 1783, in the American Revolutionary War's final period, Washington camped at Rockingham, the house owned by the Berrien family. He stayed there in the late summer of 1783 while Congress was in session in Princeton. Rockingham stood in the historic village of Rocky Hill, a Somerset County borough in New Jersey named for the Rocky Hill Ridge and situated in the Raritan Valley alongside the Millstone River.

Aftermath. After addressing his soldiers on November 2, Washington moved to formalize his departure from military life. In early December 1783 he bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern and resigned as commander-in-chief soon after. Before returning to private life in June 1783 he had already called for a strong union, a theme consistent with his later advocacy of national unity.