1st Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers Routed on Staten Island

On July 22, 1777, General William Howe left New York with a large army and fleet that sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and proceeded north to Maryland. There, it deposited Howe’s Army, which marched toward Philadelphia. General George Washington rushed to southern Pennsylvania to defend the capital. A smaller Continental army remained in New Jersey under General John Sullivan, who received reports about the diminished British forces on Staten Island and saw an opportunity. Before dawn on August 22, Sullivan led approximately 2,000 men (Continentals and militia) onto Staten Island. They faced roughly 1,800 British and German regulars, plus 700 New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalists).

The Attack on the 1st Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers

Lt. Colonel Elisha Lawrence’s 1st Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers, camped near Fresh Kills, were the first to be attacked by Sullivan. The Loyalists were surprised and routed just after dawn. Lawrence and a number of his officers were captured. The 5th Battalion was also surprised. General John Campbell, commanding British forces on Staten Island, reported that:

The enemy effected almost a total surprise of two battalions of the Jersey provincials, which occasioned nearly the whole loss sustained by his majesty's troops... that Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence [Elisha Lawrence], and a good many of his corps had been made prisoners.

Henry Clinton, commanding British forces in New York, similarly reported: "The Corps that first landed had effected almost total surprise of the two Provincial Battalions belonging to Skinner's [Courtland Skinner] Brigade, and setting fire to the magazine at Decker's Ferry." Both Campbell and Clinton, however, were quick to note the overall success of British forces in repelling Sullivan’s incursion.

The Continental attackers were New Jerseyans under Colonel Matthias Ogden. One of his officers, Joseph Bloomfield reported that they captured Lawrence, ten other officers, 120 rank & file, and £10,000 in various supplies. Sullivan reported similar, but not identical numbers: "Col. Ogden we found had taken Colonel Lawrence with 3 Captains, one Lieut., 2 Ensigns & 80 Privates, with a large quantity of stores and a sloop loaded." British accounts suggest that 84 men were captured. There is no complete list of all of the men captured, but the eight captured officers are known:

Lt Col Elisha Lawrence

Capt. John Barbarie

Capt. John Longstreet

Lt John Throckmorton

Lt [?] Peterson

Ens John Robbins

Ens Charles Stockton

Surgeon William Peterson

Four of the eight captured officers—Lawrence, Longstreet, Throckmorton, and Robbins—were from Freehold and Upper Freehold townships in Monmouth County. The Battalion’s second ranking officer—Major Thomas Leonard of Freehold—had been captured on February 18 and was imprisoned in Easton, Pennsylvania at the time of the Staten Island attack.

The rest of Sullivan’s raid went badly for the attackers. The now-alerted British, German and Loyalist forces organized and checked the advancing Continentals at Richmond, near the center of Staten Island. The Continentals fell back and, because they lacked boats, left men cut-off on Staten Island on their retreat. The cut-off men faced inevitable capture. Different sources suggest that either 150 or 250 Continentals and New Jersey militia surrendered on Staten Island. While the Continental Army would invade Staten Island again, they would not surprise and rout British forces again.

Prisoners Taken from the 1st Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers

Elisha Lawrence’s captured Loyalists were initially confined in Pennsylvania. Lawrence wrote that after his capture on Staten Island, he “was marched 100 miles as a criminal, close confined in Philadelphia & very ill treated.” Lawrence and other prisoners were moved west when Howe’s army neared the capital. Lawrence’s wife, without her husband and separated from family that remained in New Jersey, died over the winter.

While imprisoned in Pennsylvania, Lawrence and one of his officers, Joseph Barton, wrote a memorial to General Henry Clinton (the new British commander in chief). They noted money they were owed for feeding the battalion’s horses on Staten Island. They had requested reimbursement from the British quartermaster "which he has refused, because (unfortunate for them) they are prisoners of war." As a result, Lawrence and Barton lack money for their upkeep as prisoners, and their troops on Staten Island "are also denied forage for their horses for the same reason." They asked for at least their “expenses accrued to them during their imprisonment."

Lawrence and John Longstreet were both were exchanged within a year. When they returned to New York, there were no officer slots at the same rank available for them because the 1st and 5th Battalions, after being decimated by Sullivan’s attack, had been combined. They chose to retire from service on half-pay pensions, though Lawrence would return to service; he led a successful raid against Manasquan on the Monmouth shore in 1780.

Some of Lawrence’s men were transferred from Pennsylvania to Leesburg, Virginia, a frontier town 220 miles away from Monmouth County (other Monmouth Loyalists were jailed in Frederick, Maryland). The exceptional distance from home did not prevent men from attempting escapes. In December 1777, two Pennsylvania newspapers printed similar but not identical advertisements offering rewards for the return of New Jersey Volunteer escapees.

The Pennsylvania Gazette advertised for the return of Isaac Johnston, Benjamin King, and John Porter:  "The above mentioned prisoners were born in the neighborhood of Shrewsbury in the Jerseys and were taken by General Sullivan on Staten Island.” The Pennsylvania Packet published a more complete announcement:

MADE their escape from Leesburg, Virginia, the following people, viz. ISAAC JOHNSTON, about twenty years of age, about five feet ten inches high, smooth face, and dark hair. BENJAMIN KING, a well made man, about five feet eight inches high, pitted with the smallpox, and appeared to be a middle aged man. JOHN PORTER, a stout fellow, near six feet high, and about twenty two years of age. All the above mentioned prisoners were born in the neighborhood of Shrewsbury, in the Jerseys, and were taken by General Sullivan on Staten Island: each had on a great coat, a white waistcoat and breeches. Whoever brings them to me in Leesburg, or confines them in any gaol, shall receive what the law allows.

Isaac Johnston and Benjamin King returned to Monmouth County where they apparently renounced their past Loyalism and were permitted to re-integrate into their former communities. Johnston swung from an ardent Loyalist to a radical Revolutionary—joining the vigilante group, the Retaliators, in 1780. King’s conversion was less dramatic. In 1780, King was convicted of a misdemeanor, probably illegally trading with the enemy. Johnston and King likely fared better than their former mates in the 1st Battalion, which struggled to stay provisioned and useful over the course of the war. Porter’s fate is unknown.

Caption: General John Campbell commanded British forces on Staten Island. After the New Jersey Volunteers were routed near dawn on August 22, 1777, his forces rallied and pushed back the attackers.

Related Historic Site: Historic Richmondtown (Staten Island, NY)

Sources: Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 13/110, reel 10; Ira Morris, The History of Staten Island, v 1, p265; Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion; Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775-1782, with an Appendix of Original Documents (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1971) p 68 note 20; Joseph Bloomfield, Citizen soldier: The Revolutionary War journal of Joseph Bloomfield (Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, 1982) p 126; Clements Library, U Michigan, Henry Clinton Papers, undated, Memorial of Elisha Lawrence, Joseph Barton; William S. Stryker, The New Jersey Volunteers in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Naar, Day and Naar, 1887) pp. 11, 29-30, 51; Walter T. Dornfest, “Sullivan's Raid on Staten Island: Aug. 22, 1777,” Staten Island History, 1st ser., vol. 31 (1972), pp. 98–101; New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Loyalists Collection, New Jersey Volunteers, box 1, 1L; New Jersey State Archives, Adjutant General's Loyalist Manuscripts, microfilm; Sullivan, John, Letters and Papers of Major John Sullivan, Otis G. Hammond, ed. , 2 vols. (Concord, NH: 1930-31) vol. 2, p 439; Gen. John Campbell to Henry Clinton, London Magazine for the Year 1777,  (R. Balston: London, 1778) vol. 46, p 631; Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1864), vol. 2, pp. 2-3. Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 283. Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) p 478. Rutgers University Library Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Application Claims, D96, AO 13/18, reel 6; Pennsylvania Gazette, December 24, 1777(CD-ROM at the David Library, #24267); Pennsylvania Packet, December 24, 1777 (Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers).