faster land route. This led to a significant delay in operations for the British and disrupted plans to reinforce British General Burgoyne in northern New York. On June 30, Howe moved his troops to Staten Island in preparation for his Philadelphia campaign, and two days later Washington left Middlebrook and moved the army to Pompton Plains, New York. First flag: June 1777 It is largely conceded that it was at the Middlebrook encampment that the first official flag of the United States was unfurled, after a law to adopt a national flag had been passed by Congress on June 14, 1777. This event is commemorated annually since 1889 on July 4 with a changing of the flag, a reading of the Declaration of Independence, and the delivery of an historical address at the Washington Camp Ground. Also, by special order of Congress, a Thirteen Star Flag is flown 24 hours a day at the Washington Camp Ground. Second Middlebrook or the Middlebrook Cantonment (1778–1779) Washington used the area around Middlebrook and much of central Somerset County as a cantonment site, known as the Middlebrook Cantonment, during the winter of 1778–1779. He brought about 8,000–10,000 troops to the area between November 30, 1778 and late January, 1779, arriving himself in early December. The main cantonment stretched across a broad swatch of Somerset County including sites in present-day South Bound Brook, the Finderne section of Bridgewater, Somerville, and. Raritan, as well as Pluckemin to the north. Smaller contingents of troops were cantoned at Elizabethtown, Minisink, the New York Highlands, and Danbury, Conneticuit. In each of their separate camps at Middlebrook, soldiers constructed cabins from logs covered with clay, but improving on the construction, layout, and organization compared to the previous winter at Valley Forge. The hutting constructed at Pluckemin for the artillery camp was more elaborate. Washington himself rented the Wallace House (now a New Jersey State Historic site) in Somerville for six months to server as "Headquarters Middlebrook" and paid Wallace $1,000 for this inconvenience. General von Steuben lived at the Staats House in South Bound Brook. General Henry Knox lived at the Jacobus Vanderveer House near Pluckemin with the Continental Artillery encamped at the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment Site. on the hills above Pluckemin. Nathanael Greene lived at the Van Veghten House in Finderne. General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, and on occasion, General Richard Henry Lee, occupied the Philip Van Horne