USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 20
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Stress of weather held the vessels off coast until daybreak of Febru- ary 13th, 1777, when under the pilotage of natives they passed up the river to the point where stands the present village of Parkerstown, and Major Gordon's men waded waist-deep to the shore of the Highlands, below the present light-houses. The force at once pushed forward toward the resi- dence of Richard Hartshorne, the advance post of the Monmouth county militia, but through the fault of their guide they pursued a circuitous route, and were unable to effect the surprise they had projected, and were met with stout resistence.
Meantime Colonel Morris moved down the beach to the stranded ves- sel and captured the small guarding party. The prisoners were put aboard the British ship "Syren," and the cargo was removed to the light-house.
The affair was reported at length by a British officer writing from Amboy, February 16th, 1777, as follows :
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"On Monday (Feb. Ioth) last a Detachment of 170 men from the 26th Regiment under Major Gordon marched from Richmond, Staten Is1- and, to Colis's Ferry, where they embarked for Sandy Hook, with the in- tention of cutting off a party of Rebels stationed at the Highlands of Navesink. After being detained on board by hard Gales of Wind and bad weather for three Days, they landed (wading up to their waists) on the Beech at the Highlands, about two miles below the Rebel Posts.
"A little before they marched and surprised the advanced Guard with- out firing a shot. From thence they proceeded about a mile farther to the house of one Hartshorn, at which they were approaching by two dif- ferent Ways (the flanking Companies taking to the right) a Guard posted at about 200 yards from the house were first alarmed. These after firing a few shot, together with their Main Body, who at first affected to form and make a stand, being pushed by the Battalion, fled too soon for the Grenadiers and Light Infantry to come up in time enough to cut off their Retreat. Between 30 and 40 escaped. We found several dead Bodies in the Woods, which were buried by the Soldiers. The whole of the Pris- oners taken, amounting to 72 (amongst which are 2 Captains and 4 Lieu- tenants) were carried on board the Syren. Many had certificates about them of their having taken the Oaths of Allegance. Their Stores con- sisted of 2 or 3 Barrels of Powder, 770 Ball Cartridges, some Salt Pro- vision and 9 or 10 Quarters of fresh Beef, with a light Cart and Team. The 26th left one man killed.
"The next day the Country People who had met the Fugitives re- ported that many were wounded. The guides were intelligent and be- haved very well. Col. Morris' New Levies, with the Marines from on board the Syren, who had been detached to a different Place, picked up some of those who had made their escape from Hartshorn's, together with an Officer and a small Party who had crossed the River from a Rebel Post at Black Point, for the business of Tory Hunting."
Other accounts of the day put the militia loss at twenty-five killed and seventy taken prisoners. The government pension records and the records of Monmouth county contain corroborative evidence of the casualties of the battle. Pensions were granted in the cases of Lieutenant John Whitlock and Alexander Clark, who were killed, and others were granted in the cases of some who died while imprisoned in the "Old Sugar House" in New York.
The "Sugar House"" prison may have been that near Chambers street, or another on Liberty street, in New York City. Jerseymen taken pris- oners at various times were incarcerated in one or the other of these, and on board the prison ships anchored in Wallabout Bay. The most noted of these was the "Old Jersey"-an old sixty-four gun ship, stripped of all her spars and rigging, leaving her an unsightly, rotten hulk. Her dark and
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filthy external appearance perfectly correspond with the death and de- spair that reigned within.
One who was a prisoner on board wrote: "When I first became an inmate of this abode of suffering, despair and death, there were about four hundred prisoners on board; but in a short time they amounted to twelve hundred, and in proportion to our numbers the mortality increased. All the most deadly diseases were pressed into service of the king of terrors, but his prime min- isters were dysentery, small- pox and yellow fever." After- ward the sick were carried to two hospital ships (one of which was sadly misnamed the "Hope") anchored near each other about two hundred yards east from the "Jersey." These ships remained in the Walla- bout until New York was evacuated by the British. The "Jersey" was the receiving ship-the others, truly, were the ships of Death ! It has been generally thought that all the prisoners who died met their OLD JERSEY PRISON SHIP. fate on board the "Jersey." This is not true; many may have died on board of her who were not reported as sick, but all the men who were placed on the sick-list were removed to the hospital ships, from which they were usually taken, sewed up in a blanket, to their long home.
It is computed that on board these vessels and in the prisons near by more than eleven thousand Americans perished, many of whose names are unknown, and whose sufferings are buried in oblivion! They lingered where no eye of pity witnessed their agony; where no voice administered consolation; no tongue could praise their patriotic devotion, or friendly hand be stretched out for relief; only to pass the weary day and night, unvaried, except by new scenes of painful endurance and new inflictions of hopeless misery. The hope of death was to them the only consolation which their situation afforded.
The people sustained great loss through the depredations of Clinton's army while it was passing across the State, and those of Monmouth coun-
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ty suffered in a peculiar degree. Eight farm houses near Freehold were burned-those of Colonel Thomas Henderson, Benjamin Covenhoven, George Walker, Hannah Solomon, Benjamin VanCleve, David Coven- hoven and Garret Vanderveer. Four houses below the Monmouth court- house were burned-those of Matthias Lane, Cornelius Covenhoven, John Antoninus and one Emmons. In numerous instances houses were plundered. The people were so incensed at these outrages that many of them followed the British army in its retreat and fired upon the soldiers frem places of concealment. The army committed similar depredations all along their line of march to Sandy Hook.
A large number of Tories of Monmouth county went into British service as members of the New Jersey Royal Volunteers, commonly known as "Skinner's Greens," taking their name from their commander, General Courtland Skinner, and the distinctive color of their uniform. Elisha Lawrence, who had been sheriff of Monmouth, commanded the first bat- talion.
Monmouth county suffered more seriously than did any other from marauding bands who went by the name of Tory Refugees. Their prin- cipal rendezvous was on Staten Island, and they maintained on Sandy Hook a camp which was called Refugees' Town. They found rivals in their dastardly business in a band of desperadoes who came from New York, who particularly infested the pine regions, and hence came to be known as the "Pine Wood Robbers."
Plunder might satisfy the cupidity of these various gangs of scoun- drels, but they also revelled in scenes of brutality and even cold-blooded murder. The home of Thomas Farr and his wife, an aged couple living near Imlaystown, was attacked and its doors hammered down. Farr was shot through the leg, and while he lay writhing in pain, he was beaten to death. His wife was killed by shooting, and their daughter was wounded but managed to make her escape.
At another time a party of "Skinner's Greens" went to the place of John Burrows, near Middletown Point, burned his mill and store, and killed two men ( Pearce and Van Brockle) and mortally wounded another.
In a raid near Shrewsbury, seven Refugees killed one Russell, and fired five bullets into his little grandchild. Later, Joseph Murray, a militia- man, while visiting his home in Middletown township, was fired upon from ambush and wounded. He grappled with one of his assailants, but was brought to the ground by a shot from another, and was then bayo- netted to death.
Perhaps the most enterprising in deeds of cruelty and plundering was the band headed by Jacob Fagan, who a few years later was shot and killed
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by some militiamen under the command of Captain Benjamin Dennis. A few days afterward his body was exhumed and hung in chains from a tree on the public road, where it was suspended until the skeleton fell piecemeal to the ground. This was but one of thirteen well authenticated cases where such miscreants were brought to retribution.
Captain Benjamin Dennis had rendered himself particularly obnox- ious to the outlaws for the activity with which he had pursued them, and particularly to Fenton, for his part in the killing of Fagan. Dennis was waylaid and murdered by Fenton. His wife, who escaped, had at a previ- ous time been cruelly beaten by Hessian soldiers.
General David Forman went by the name of "Black David," owing to his swarthy complexion, and to distinguish him from a cousin of the same name. To the Refugees he was known as "Devil David," on account of the enterprise which he displayed in hunting them down. They laid many plots for doing away with him, and on one occasion they fired upon him from ambuscade. At the moment, he involuntarily stepped backward, thus escaping the bullet, but his friend, Colonel Nathaniel Scudder, with whom he was conversing, was killed on the spot.
The atrocities committed by the Refugees and Pine Woods Robbers were epitomized by Governor Livingston in a message addressed to the legislature of New Jersey in 1777:
"They have plundered friends as well as foes; effects capable of di- vision they have divided; such as were not, they have destroyed. They have warred on decrepit old age, and upon defenseless youth; they have committed hostilities against the ministers of religion, against public rec- ords and private monuments, books of improvement and papers of curios- ity, and against arts and sciences. They have butchered the wounded when asking for quarter, mangled the dead while weltering in their blood, and refused to them the rite of sepulture; suffered prisoners to perish for want of sustenance; violated the chastity of women, disfigured private resi- dences of taste and elegance, and, in their rage of impiety and barbarism, profaned edifices dedicated to the worship of Almighty God."
In 1779, so abominable had become the conduct of the lawless bands, that four hundred and thirty-six residents of Monmouth county banded themselves together in a defensive association which enacted and. executed sternly retributory measures.
At a later day the State offered rewards for the destruction of these evil-doers, hue and cry was proclaimed, they were hunted down like wild beasts, and soon after the close of the war they had been practically ex- terminated.
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What is now the county of Atlantic was the scene of a bloody event in the autumn of 1778. The British, in order to protect their commerce, which had been sadly harassed by American privateers, sent an expedi- tion against Chestnut Neck, in what is now Atlantic county, where Rich- ard Wescoat and Elijah Clark had erected a small fort, mounted with a number of cannon furnished by the Colonial authorities. October 5th, the British fleet of nine vessels-the sloops "Zebra," "Vigilant" and "Nauti- lus," two galleys and four other armed boats,-commanded by Captain Henry Collins, of the "Zebra," appeared off the bar of an inlet about a mile above Brigantine inlet. The vessels carried about three hundred troops.
Nearing the village of Chestnut Neck the next day, the fleet was un- able to enter the harbor on account of adverse winds. However, Captain Patrick Ferguson, who commanded the troops, resolved that he would not wait for the passage of the sloops through the inlet. He filled the galleys and armed boats with soldiers and started up the Mullica River in the direction of Chestnut Neck, having been informed that there was there a wharf and storehouse for prize vessels and their goods.
A landing was effected under cover of an artillery fire from the galleys, with the loss of but one man. The militia were driven out of their works into the adjoining woods, and the village, with several sloop's and schoon- ers, and smaller craft in the harbor, were burned. Ferguson then went on to the mouth of Bass River, where he burned the salt works, a saw mill and a dozen houses. The following day he returned to the harbor.
Meantime Washington had been informed of the movement, and he ordered Count Pulaski with his Legion-three companies of light infantry, three troops of light horse and a brass field-piece-to the defence of the place. Pulaski arrived on the evening of October 8th.
Lieutenant Gustave Juliet, of the Legion, here perpetrated an act of treachery of which he was abundantly capable. He had a year before de- serted from the Hessians to the Legion. The second in command of that body, Lieutenant-Colonel de Bosen, despising a renegade, treated him with scant courtesy.
Juliet, seeking revenge, took five of his men ostensibly on a fishing expedition, succeeded in rendering three of them helpless through intoxi- cation, and betrayed the entire party into the hands of the British. On board the enemy's ships he gave an accurate account of Pulaski's force and of its disposition, and also falsely reported that Pulaski had ordered that no quarter should be given any prisoner taken. With this informa- tion the British commander prepared to surprise the camp of the Legion.
Before midnight on the 14th, Captain Ferguson, accompanied by the
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renegade Juliet, left the fleet with two hundred and fifty British regulars and Jersey loyalists, besides a number of marines. They purposed sur- prising Pulaski's picket guard of fifty men commanded by Baron de Bosen. The British rowed to Osborn's Island, and landed between three and four o'clock in the morning. Captain Ferguson sent a party to guard the inmates of the home of Richard Osborn, Jr., and Osborn's son Thomas was compelled to serve as a guide.
Marching across the island to a bridge over Big Creek, Ferguson left fifty men to guard this point and secure his retreat. Then silently proceeding about a mile over a rough corduroy road, his men came to the uplands, where they found a single sentinel, whom they captured be- fore he could discharge his firelock. This soldier being secured, (and some accounts say he was killed,) the entire command of Ferguson made a rush for the three houses containing the picket guard. Thomas Osborn, the unwilling guide, had meanwhile concealed himself in the meadow grass, and from his hiding place he heard the cries of the men of the Legion as they were being massacred. Awakened by the shouts of the British, they had seized their weapons and prepared to make a defense. De Bosen led his men, and with sword and pistol he fought valiantly. Instantly his body was pierced by bayonets. The men cried for quarter, but their ap- peals were unheeded. About forty men, including de Bosen and Lieuten- ant de la Borderie, were overpowered and butchered. Five men only were taken prisoners, and very few escaped.
Notwithstanding the distance, more than a mile, Pulaski heard the firing, and he summoned his men to follow him, while he speeded his horse to the scene of carnage. But the deed had been accomplished, and Pu- laski was unable to reach the scene, the enemy having removed the plank- ing from the bridge.
On the appearance of the Americans, Osborn, the unwilling guide, came out of his concealment and told Pulaski of the affair and of his compulsory agency in it. The infuriated soldiers disbelieved him, and flogged him severely.
The British loss in this affair was two soldiers killed and two wound- ed. 'The troops were re-embarked. In endeavoring to pass over the bar, the flagship "Zebra" grounded, and was fired in order to keep her from falling into the hands of the Americans. For many years after the war ended, fragments of this wreck were still visible.
The scene of the "Pulaski Massacre" is commemorated by a tablet of which the following is a representation, erected on the site by the Society of the Cincinnati of New Jersey :
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0 THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY
0
THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI IN THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
TO COMMEMORATE THE MASSACRE
OF A PORTION OF THE LEGION COMMANDED
BY BRIGADIER GENERAL THE COUNT
CASIMER PULASKI OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY IN THE AFFAIR AT EGG HARBOR
NEW JERSEY OCTOBER IS 1778
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY, WAR
Memorial Tablet erected on the site of the Massacre by the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey.
Throughout the war Little Egg Harbor was the outfitting point and rendezvous of many American privateers. Regarded by the British as a veritable "nest of rebels," frequent naval expeditions, were sent against it. Its people were also harried by "Skinner's Greens" and bands of refugees, who kept them in perpetual disquietude and provoked them to active retali- ation.
The burning of the village of Toms River was one of the notable events of the early part of 1782. At that place was a stout fortification called a block-house, but which was rather a stockade. It was of logs set upright in the ground to a height of about seven feet, with apertures for muskets. At each corner was mounted a small brass swivel, such as were used by the privateers in the bows of their whale-boats. In March, 1782, Captain Joshua Huddy was in command of the block-house, with twenty- five men of the local militia, and presumably a few men who came to aid him when they learned that an attack was expected.
At the instigation of the board of associated loyalists, in New York, an expedition had been dispatched consisting of several whale-boats carry- ing about one hundred and twenty men, under the command of Lieutenant Blanchard. At Sandy Hook these were joined by the British armed brig "Arrogant," under the command of Captain Stewart Ross. The flotilla was kept about the Hook by contrary winds for three days, and entered Cranberry Inlet after night on March 23d, landing the men at Coates' Point, where they were joined by Davenport's band of Refugees.
News of their coming was communicated to Captain Huddy, who made his dispositions for defense. At dawn next morning a picket came in, firing his musket to give notice of the advancing enemy. A demand for
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surrender met with an emphatic refusal, and Blanchard's men, outnumber- ing Huddy's six to one, made an assault. The ammunition of the little garrison was soon exhausted, and the men defended themselves with pikes and bayonets. They were soon overcome, losing seven or nine men (the reports varying), and it is said that some of these were killed after their surrender. The enemy then spiked and threw into the river an iron can- non, burned the salt-houses and all dwellings in the village except two, and took away a number of whale-boats.
Of the prisoners, three were taken to the New York Sugar House Prison, where two of their number were exchanged for Refugees. Cap- tain Huddy, the third, was closely confined until April 8th, when he was put . aboard a sloop and placed in irons. Next day he was transferred to the guard-ship at Sandy Hook, and three days later he was taken by a party of Refugees to Gravelly Point, where he was informed that he was to be executed. He was permitted to make his will, and he was then hung. Upon his breast was pinned a slip of paper upon which was written a statement that his death was in retaliation for the killing of Phil White.
White was a Refugee, one of the most execrable of his class. It was charged that Huddy had cut off his arms, broken his legs, put out one of his eyes and told him to run for his life-an allegation which was abso- lutely baseless.
The corpse of Captain Huddy was taken to Freehold, where assembled about four hundred of the leading people of Monmouth county, who drew up a lengthy address and statement of fact. This was transmitted to Wash- ington, who made demand upon Sir Henry Clinton for the delivery of the notorious Captain Lippincott, who had command of Captain Huddy's exe- cutioners. Clinton refused to surrender him, and Washington instituted a reprisal. The lot to suffer death fell upon Captain Charles Asgill, who was taken prisoner at Yorktown, and who was of noble birth and an ex- emplary man. The courts of Great Britain and France were interested in his behalf, and the execution of the sentence impending over him was de- ferred until the restoration of peace, when he was released. Captain Huddy, a man of blameless life and an ardent patriot, has long been known in history as the "Hero Martyr of Monmouth." Almost fifty-five years after his death his only surviving child, Martha Piatt, an aged widow, then living in Cincinnati, Ohio, memorialized Congress, asking for relief. The committee of that body to which the claim was referred reported favorably, testifying its high estimation and grateful remembrance of Cap- tain Huddy's services, and granting to his heirs the benefit of existing pen- sion laws, and also giving them an amount equivalent to seven years' pay as a captain of artillery and six hundred acres of the public land.
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Captain John Bacon was one of the most cruel and bloodthirsty of the Refugees. One of his most characteristic deeds was performed on the southern end of Barnegat Shoals, on the night of October 25th, 1782. A British cutter from the West Indies, laden with supplies for the British in New York, had grounded there, and Captain Steelman, of Cape May, in the armed galley "Alligator," with about twenty-five men, went to the wreck to watch the crew and to secure the cargo. At night the patriots, wet and tired, builded a fire on the beach and went to sleep. Towards morning a Refugee band, under Bacon, surrounded the sleepers and fired upon them, killing Steelman and about twenty of his men. The site of this barbarous slaughter is the southern end of what is now Barnegat City.
Bacon was brought to bay on several occasions by the militia, and sharp skirmishes were of frequent occurrence. His murderous career was ended April 3d, 1783. Captain John Stewart, of Arneytown, and five men united to hunt him, one of the number, Joel Cook, seeking vengeance for the killing of his brother by Bacon's men at a previous time. Bacon was found in a farm house, his rifle between his knees. Summoned to sur- render, he jumped to his feet and leveled his gun. Stewart leaped upon Bacon in a muscular encounter, which was ended by Cook driving his bayonet into Bacon's body. The wounded man attempted escape, when he was shot and killed by Stewart.
Cape May was distantly removed from the field of military operations during the Revolutionary war, and her soil witnessed an engagement not once. But her patriotic sons stood guard manfully, and lent efficient aid to the patriot cause, furnishing men and meeting their full share of the expenses of carrying on the war.
At the beginning the population of Cape May county was about two thousand. In the summer of 1775 a battalion of infantry and a company of minute-men were recruited, and among the officers were John Mackey, colonel; and Nicholas Stillwell and Henry Ward, lieutenant-colonels. Elijah Hughes was a member of the colonial committee of safety. Events now succeeded rapidly. The secret committee of the continental congress April 17th, 1776, ordered that Thomas Leaming be supplied with two hun- dred pounds of powder (at his own expense) for the militia of Cape May. In 1778 the Cape May companies were assigned to the second brigade of continental troops. In 1780 the last call was made for troops, and the quota of the county (thirteen men) were recruited by Lieutenant Amos Cresse and marched to Monmouth Court House.
The seafaring men acquitted themselves most creditably and usefully as privateersmen and whaleboatmen, who not only harassed the enemy but
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aided by watching their vessels and communicating intelligence of their movements to Philadelphia.
It is worthy of note that leading women of the State, during the Revo- lutionary period, banded together for a noble work somewhat akin to that performed by the Sanitary Commission during the Civil war nearly a cen- tury later.
The women of Pennsylvania had formed an organization with the purpose of procuring means for the relief and encouragement of the Con- tinential army. In emulation of this example, a number of ladies of Tren- ton, "for the purpose of manifesting our zeal in the glorious cause of lib- eity," formed a similar body, and appointed committees of their sex in every county in the State. The names of some of these women are pre- served, and they are recognized as among the most cultured of their day. No record of their accomplishments is extant, but family traditions and diaries serve to indicate that they were not only instrumental in mitigating the sufferings of the illy fed and clothed patriot soldiers, and in con- tributing to the necessities of their families, but that they exercised a salutary influence in maintaining good morals and an active patriotic spirit in their communities, and in discouraging vice and excesses in the army camps.
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