British Plundering and Arson at Freehold, June 27-28, 1778

On the morning of June 26, the British Army left Allentown burdened by a massive baggage train and thousands of non-combatants. They skirmished as they left Allentown and skirmished through the day. German Officer Heinrich von Feilitsch wrote that "the enemy harassed us the entire day... the place we halted is called Upper Freehold. During a marauding expedition, the [German] corps lost twenty men." Another German officer, Major von Wilmowsky, wrote that the enemy had "blocked up the road a considerable distance with barriers of trees in order to delay us & harass our march."

The day was miserably hot. Lt. William Hale wrote:

We proceeded five miles in a road composed of nothing but sand which scorched through the soles of our shoes with intolerable heat; the sun beating on our heads with a force scarcely to be conceived in Europe, and not a drop of water to assuage our parching thirst; a number of soldiers were unable to support the fatigue, and died on the spot... and the whole road strewed with miserable wretches wishing for death, exhibited the most shocking scene I ever saw.

Johann Ewald, a German officer, concurred: "Many lose their lives miserably because of the intense heat... no water to be found the entire march.” Heavy storms came in the afternoon and, amidst the storms, the British camped at Robbins Tavern, a few miles before Freehold. But the storms produced new problems. A German officer, Lt. Weidenholdt, recorded: "The horse of Lt. Schaffer was struck by lightning and killed, another got lamed for several days, a soldier and a man servant were also struck at the same time and not able to speak for some days, and the tent in which they laid caught fire.”

British Army Enters Freehold

The British awoke on June 27 and, amidst new harassments, completed the march to Freehold. With frustrations peaking, the British Army entered Freehold. British General James Pattison was among the first to arrive: "The greater part of the village of Freehold was abandoned but some arms were found, supposed to belong to the militia."

Lt. John Von Krafft, a German officer, wrote of his arrival in Freehold a few hours later.

We entered this place, almost all the inhabitants had fled, evidently a short time before our arrival, because I found fresh milk in the house where I was sent to go for fresh water. Every place broken into and plundered by the British soldiers. The church, which was made from wood and had a steeple, was miserably demolished.

Von Krafft visited the recently-evacuated county courthouse. It “contained in the lowest story some strong prison cells, in front of which were still bread, beverage, ham and lettuce... prisoners had been moved in great haste... The English soldiers had been destroying everything in the city-hall house, even tearing down the little bell in the steeple."

Von Krafft’s account is corroborated by Benjamin Van Cleave, Jr., a six-year-old at the time of the Battle of Monmouth, who later recalled the people of Freehold fleeing in advance of the British Army:

I remember the confusion of the women and children and their flight to the pine swamps. When we had got a mile from home, the British Army were in sight at a mile and a half distant. We proceeded a short distance further and a consultation was held about the course to pursue, the men having gone in search of the army. I gave them the slip & aimed to return home, got within a short distance of the British right flank and the sound of the bugles drove me back, where, in the confusion, I had not been missed.

Rachel Covenhoven recalled her family taking in refugee families on June 27: "The night before the battle, her father's house was used as a shelter for the women and children of the neighborhood."

The Plundering of Freehold

The British camp spread four miles across Freehold and Manalapan. Captain Caleb Jones of the Maryland Loyalist regiment recorded that the men were to draw two days rations —proof that the British intended to rest the Army in Freehold. Orders were given to post sentries to curb plundering by soldiers and women camp followers:

[Sentries] will report to the Commanding officers any disorderly people who attempt to force the safe guards into plunder where they are posted, the guard is to immediately make them prisoners and fire on them if they should make any resistance. All women following the army and other stragglers who attempt coming on the rear of ye army houses, barns or other buildings will be secured for leaving the line of march, whether they commit any disorders or not.

Orders were also given to purchase cattle, "The inhabitants must be desired to drive their cattle to a popular enclosure fit for the use of the Army” from which officers “will pay a reasonable price for them."

Despite these orders, the men behaved badly. This prompted a court martial for Michael Pepperly and Adam Derry (wagon drivers for the Army). They were "accused of setting fire to and burning a house" but found not guilty. Key to the acquittal was testimony from Ensign William Bowles:

Upon seeing house on fire, he went up to it & upon going into the barn, which stood about fifty yards from the dwelling house, he found two prisoners and another man standing by a fire which had been made in a trough; that upon asking them what they were doing there, they said they were looking for some forage.

Bowles said that Derry and Pepperly arrived after "the house was on fire." He claimed that a British soldier took “a lighted board to the house, which was burning, and set fire to the barn." Whether Bowles and other witnesses were covering for Pepperly and Derry is unknown.

A second court martial on June 27 concerned two Mary Colethrate and Elizabeth Clarke, "followers of the Army" for "plundering." Colethrate was acquitted, but Clarke was found guilty and sentenced "to receive 100 lashes on her bare back... and then drummed out of the Army in the most public manner." Major John Antill of 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers (from Shrewsbury Township) testified:

The day before yesterday, a farmer came and begged for protection, as some women were plundering and destroying his house; that upon going into the house, he saw everything in the greatest confusion, the feather bed being cut open and many other things destroyed; that there were about twenty or thirty women in the house.

Antill asked the farmer which women led the riot and “he pointed out prisoner Colethrate & the woman of the house pointed out prisoner Clarke and another woman.” Antill arrested the three women but the third “was released by order of Genl. Knyphausen [William Knyphausen].” Antill discovered that “both had loaded some things in their aprons; he himself saw the prisoner Clarke was very busy turning over some things in the closet." The farmer's wife stated that Clarke "beat and abused her, carried off one load of plunder and returned for another." Clarke was caught with stolen shoes, proving her guilt.

Similarly, an antiquarian account describes a Loyalist group breaking into the home of Joseph Bowne (a militia corporal) outside of Freehold. The family fled into the woods and stayed there for two days. The family’s slave stayed in the house and brought them food. Similarly, Elizabeth Burke, wife of militia private Samuel Burke, recalled that on the morning of the Battle of Monmouth "her home was robbed by the British and Hessians."

That same day, William Wilcocks, an attorney in the Continental Army, wrote Lord Stirling (General William Alexander) from the house of John Anderson near Freehold. Wilcocks was sent "to observe the motions of the enemy" with a small mounted party. He noted two arsons (“They have burnt Col Henderson's [Thomas Henderson] & Benjamin Covenhoven's house & barn.”) and a few desertions ("I have made prisoner of four Hessians & a British pioneer, and am now in pursuit of an English officer & three soldiers, inquiring their way through the country."). He also detailed the British line of march which  extended into Manalapan and described it as “a country very friendly to our cause."

Disorders increased through the day. Two German officers wrote about efforts to raise fresh provisions for the soldiers also about the arsons and plundering of British troops. Von Krafft wrote: "Today, the Hessians got permission from the commander of the Regts. to take cattle whenever they should find any, and kill and slaughter it” and also that “the English soldiers set fire to a house outside of town and ransacked it because, it was said to be the property of a prominent rebel." Major Bernhard Bauermeister, wrote that “although the men were never in need of salt or fresh provisions, there was much plundering… It has made the country people all the more embittered rebels."

British or Loyalist parties targeted the homes of leading Revolutionaries.  One group traveled to Marlboro to sack the home of Colonel Asher Holmes (who was out with the militia). According to an inventory compiled by Holmes, the looters took several items stored for the militia: 73 pairs of stockings, 25 blankets, 12 caps. They also took the family’s silver, fabrics, some clothes, muskets, and pistols. The total value of the plundered items was a substantial £1677.

Three other local leaders, Colonel David Forman, John Cox, and Captain Hendrick Smock, were robbed of financial notes issued by the State and Continental governments. Three weeks later, Forman and Cox advertised for the return of the stolen notes in the New Jersey Gazette:

The public is requested to be cautious about purchasing or receiving bank notes or tickets from strangers, disaffected or straggling persons... The public are desired to detain them until it can be made to appear that they [persons with such notes] lawfully came by them.

Forman, acting as a purchasing agent for the Continental Army deposed that a British party “entered and plundered the house of the deponent, carrying off, among other things, he believes, the said vouchers… purchases made for clothing, cloth and blankets." Militiamen Moses Estey recalled:

[He] volunteered with others to go in pursuit of a detachment of the enemy of about 200 men at General Forman’s, who had plundered his house of all valuables, destroyed all his furniture & taken off his plantation all his cattle which they were driving off the British Army then near. They succeeded in re-taking the cattle which were brought back, but the detachment of the enemy got back to the camp of their main army.

Captain Hendrick Smock was pilfered of £1,000 in Continental loan notes. Smock wrote that the British “plundered and destroyed to a considerable amount, and among other things carried off the certificates.” Nellie Smock, his wife, testified that when “the enemy was in their march through the County, came to the house of the deponent and, among other things, took the deponents pocket book in which was the above mentioned bills." As late as 1780, the Smocks were still seeking compensation for the stolen notes.

While leaders were deliberately targeted, families of modest means were victimized also—particularly with respect to seized livestock. Rhoda Sutphin recalled that her father in law "was robbed of almost everything" by the British before the battle. After the Battle of Monmouth, Thomas Wiggins of Freehold and James Stout of Englishtown advertised rewards for horses stolen on the day of the battle. After the battle, General William Maxwell wrote George Washington wrote about "a number of applications made to me by the distressed inhabitants to have leave to go to the enemy to endeavor to get their horses & cattle, first their horses in particular.” Permission was not granted.

However, the worst actions of the day were the arsons. Benjamin Van Cleave, Jr., remembered:

On the retreat of the enemy the inhabitants returned and found, with some exceptions, the buildings around our neighborhood burnt, the naked chimneys standing, a great part of the trees in some orchards cut down, the woods burnt and property that had been hid [was] destroyed or carried away.   The earth was strewn with dead carcasses, sufficient to have produced a pestilence. My father had neither a shelter for his family, nor bread for them, nor clothes to cover them, save what they had on.

A detailed account of the "devastation” at Freehold was printed in the New Jersey Gazette in July. The author, likely Thomas Henderson, detailed the arson of his home and seven other homes “above the court house” (the homes belonged to Benjamin Covenhoven, George Walker, Hannah Solomon, Benjamin Van Cleave, David Covenhoven, Garrett Vanderveer, and John Benham). The British burned four more homes on the morning of the 28th (Mathias Lane, Cornelius Covenhoven, John Antonidas, and [?] Emmons) as the Battle of Monmouth began. British officers were "seen to exult at the sight of the flames” and stated that the rebels deserved it. The British spared the homes of disaffected families, demonstrating that these arsons were not random. (See Appendix for article.}

Henderson’s account was likely incomplete. John Vanderbelt claimed that his home was "burnt down by British soldiers on the day of the Battle of Monmouth.” Before that, the British “plundered it of our property, burnt the house, and drove off our cattle." There may have been additional victims. Historian Garry Wheeler Stone mapped the arsons and noted that all of the burned homes were close to the Burlington Road (the main east-west road through the village) and less than two miles from each other.

The arson and plundering occurred in defiance of orders from the British Commander in Chief, Henry Clinton. Lt Col Alerud Clarke recorded general orders from Clinton:

If any disorderly people attempt to force the guards or plunder where they are posted, the guard is to make them prisoners, and fire at them if they should attempt to resist. All women followers of the Army and other stragglers who shall come in the rear of a house, barn or building will be immediately secured and punished for leaving the line of march, whether they commit any disorder or not.

Yet Clarke also wrote that he was "mortified on observing the great irregularity and excesses that have been committed within these last few days." And Henry Clinton, himself, turned a blind eye to looting in the very house in which he was staying, the home of Elizabeth Covenhoven and William Covenhoven.

The Covenhovens owned a large house immediately west of Freehold and Clinton claimed it as his headquarters. According to Elizabeth’s deposition, Clinton “promised on his honor that everything she had should be protected and nothing injured." Despite this, the Covenhovens lost their horses and cattle in separate incidents. She was pressured to return her "concealed" furniture under promises of protection, and then "she found almost everything of value was taken out of the wagon.” The remaining items “were scattered on the ground." When she asked for help, an officer insulted her as a “damned old rebel with one foot in the grave." She was forced to sleep in her milkshed as officers took all of the beds in her house. She estimated losses at £3,000. (See appendix for her deposition.)

New Jersey’s Chief Justice, Robert Morris, visited Freehold the day after the battle and concluded: "The enemy have done much mischief, burnt several houses and left many families without food, clothes, bedding and stock, besides the unavoidable mischief incidental to the movement of such an army." Historian Mark Lender noted that while plundering occurred throughout the British march across New Jersey, the arson and looting at Freehold far exceeded anything else on the march. This was partly due to mounting British frustrations accumulated from earlier in the march. Beyond that, the British, informed by the Monmouth Loyalists, understood they were among strident Whigs who had hanged a Loyalist and pronounced death sentences on a dozen others. In British eyes, the people of Freehold were deserving of rough treatment.

The British also knew that storm clouds—figurative and literal—were building around them. Continental forces were gathering four miles away at Englishtown and an attack was imminent. Massive storms came again on the night of June 27. A Loyalist cavalryman, George Hanger, recorded:

I shall never forget the night before the battle of Monmouth Court-House. It was uncommonly dark, with frequent thunderstorms and rain. It fell to my lot, that night, to have the outermost picket. Never could man pass a more anxious time; the fires all put out, the enemy's patrols feeling us and firing every half hour and oftener at the advanced sentries; our men on sentry firing sometimes at the enemy's patrols and sometimes at cattle in the woods, as soldiers will do when they hear a noise in the bushes, challenge, and gain no reply; the night so dark as not to be able to perceive our own men until we came close upon them and in danger of being fired at by our own men. Such a night of anxiety and danger I never since passed, and blessed by God when the day began to dawn.

After this terrible night, the Battle of Monmouth began at dawn on June 28, 1778.

Related Historic Site: Covenhoven House

Appendix: Selected Sources on Plundering around Freehold, June 26-28

Extract of a letter from Monmouth (July 14)

I have been waiting from the time the enemy passed through this country to the present, in expectation that some of your correspondents would, thro’ the channel of your paper, have given an account of their conduct to the inhabitants—but not having seen any yet, and as has been such as every honest person out to despise, I take this opportunity of giving a short sketch of it; which, if you think it will be of any satisfaction to your readers, you may insert in your paper. The devastation they have made of some parts of Freehold exceeds perhaps any they have made for the distance in their route thro’ this state, having in the neighborhood above the court-house burnt and destroyed eight dwelling houses, all on farms adjoining each other, besides barns and out-houses—The first they burnt was my own, then Benjamin Covenhoven’s, George Walker’s, Hannah Solomon’s, Benjamin VanCleve’s, David Covenhoven’s and Garret Vanderveer’s; John Benham’s house and barn they wantonly tore and broke down so as to render it useless.—It may not be improper to observe that the first two mentioned houses that were burnt adjoined the farm and were in full view of the place where General Clinton quartered. In the neighborhood below the court house they burn the houses of Mathias Lane, Cornelius Covenhoven, John Antoniadas, and one Emmons; these were burn the morning before their defeat. Some have the effrontery to say that the British officers by no means countenance or allow of burning; did not the wanton burning of Charlestown or Kingston, besides many other instances, sufficiently evidence to the contrary? Their conduct in Freehold I think may—the officers having been seen to exult as the sight of the flames, and heard to declare that they never could conquer America until they burnt every rebel’s house, and murdered man, woman and child. Besides, this consideration has great weight with me towards confirming the above, that after their defeat, thro’ their retreat of twenty-five miles, in which they passes the houses of numerous well affected to their [Great Britain] country, they never attempted to destroy one.”

Deposition of Elizabeth Covenhoven

Mrs. Elizabeth Covenhoven, who having been solely sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and sayeth, That on the 26th of June last, when the enemy came into the county, General Henry Clinton, with his suite, made his quarters at her house, and promised on his honour that everything she had should be protected and nothing injured; that some time after they had been there she saw a soldier driving her horses away, upon which she applied to them to perform their orders, and one of the General’s aides said she should be paid for them; she enjoined that she could not spare them and he declared they should be returned, and she heard no more of them. Some little time after she perceived all of her cattle, including her milk cows, driving by in the same manner and she then made application in a like manner and said they must go without milk if their cows were taken away; they then gave orders to have them stopped; but before they went, they killed and took every one of them, not leaving her a single hoof. This deponent further sayeth that the General and his aides, finding her furniture and goods, were exceedingly urgent to have them sent for, declaring it exceedingly likely they would be destroyed where they were concealed, but if they were in the house they would be safe; she told him she had no way to send for them; under which they ordered a wagon and guard to go for them and Negro wench to bring the goods; and they brought one wagon load home and placed a guard over it: That the next evening she found almost everything of value was taken out of the wagon, and only a Bible and some books, with a few trifles, were left, which were scattered on the ground; she then applied to the General himself to have liberty to take the few remaining things his Honour had left her—he ordered one of his aides to go to the guards and suffer her to have them—she followed him and he said, here you damned old rebel with one foot in the grave, take them. This deponent also saith, that though a very old woman, she was obliged to sleep on a cellar door in her milk room for two nights, and when she applied for only a coverlet, it was refused her: That by the time they went away, her house was stripped of her beds, bedding, the clothes of her whole family, and anything of any value. The farm was also left in the same situation; and that at a moderate computation, her loss amounted to 3000L and that she lost this in trusting the honour of Sir Henry Clinton, which threw her off guard and made her perfectly easy, having solemnly engaged to protect or pay for everything they used; and this deponent declares that the sum of 3L 2s, which one of the officer gave her for 50 lbs. of butter he had, was all the money or satisfaction she received for any thing she lost. And further saith not.

Sources: Heinrich von Feilitsch is in Bruce Burgoyne, Diaries of Two Ansbach Jaegers (NY: Heritage Books, 1997) p41-2; Hale’s letter is John Rees, 'What is this You have been about Today?': The New Jersey Brigade at the Battle of Monmouth, www.revwar75/library/rees/monmouth/Monmouth.htm, p20; Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979) pp. 132-7; Diary of Lt. [?] Weidenholdt, New Jersey State Archives, Revolutionary War, Manuscripts Coll., box 2, #11; Willhelm Wilmostky to William Knyhausen, Copy: David Library, Battle of Monmouth Collection, #106; General Pattison’s letter is in Ritchie, Carson I. A. “A New York Diary of the Revolutionary War.” in Narratives of the Revolution in New York (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1975) pp. 239-41; British Army Court Martials - Great Britain, Public Record Office, War Office, Class 71, Volume 87, pages 179-181; Philip Katcher, The American Provincial Corps, 1775-1784 (Reading, England: Osprey, 1973), p 16; Court Martial Papers, Great Britain Public Record Office, War Office, 71/86, #151-8. (Photocopies from Don Hagist.); John Peebles' American War, 1776-1782 (Stackpole Books) p192; John Von Krafft, Journal of John Charles Philip Von Krafft, 1776-1784 (New York: Privately Printed, 1888) pp. 45-6; Jones, Caleb, Orderly Book of the Maryland Loyalist Regiment, June 18th 1778 to October 12th 1778. Edited by Paul Leicester Ford, (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Historical Printing Club, 1891) pp. 23-5; Court Martial Records, Great Britain Public Record Office, War Office, 71/86, #151-8. (Photocopies from Don Hagist.); Rachel Covenhoven’s account is in Albert Vanderveer, Sesquicentennial of the Battle of Monmouth, Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association, vol. 9, n. 3, July 1928, p 279-285; William Willcox to Lord Stilring, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 50, June 26, 1778; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, 70, 74, 82, 86-7; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 313; Bernard Uhlendorf, Confidential Letter and Journals, 1776-1784, of Adjutant General Major Bauermeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1957) p 185; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 183; Lt. Col. Alerud Clarke quoted in William Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1927) p 54; Lt. Col. Alerud Clarke quoted in Monmouth County Historical Association, Articles File: "Relic of the Revolution"; Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Articles File: "An Old Document"; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Moses Estey of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#  NJ 18309690; Hendrick Smock to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 52, item 41, vol. 9, #96-101; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930mi; Garry Wheeler Stone, "The Burning of Upper Monmouth Court House", Monmouth Battlefield State Park (map); Thomas Harrison Montgomery, A Genealogical History of the Family Montgomery (Phila: Privately Printed, 1863); Lyman Horace Weeks, A Journal of American Ancestry (New York: William Clemens, 1912), p58-9; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Burke; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Vanderbelt; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 314; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I41, Memorials to Congress, v9, p100; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v5, 50-9; Mary Hyde, Retreat after the Battle of Monmouth, Spirit of '76, vol. 5, 1899, p253; John C. Paterson, The Pine Robbers of Monmouth County, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association, 1834, p 1-2; William Maxwell to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 50, July 1, 1778; Court Martial Papers, Great Britain, Public Record Office, War Office, Class 71, Volume 87, pp 176-178; Stephen Kemble, The Kemble Papers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, 2009) vol. 1, pp. 601-2; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Thomas Henderson (W426), Forman’s Regiment and Monmouth County militia, Supplementary deposition of Daniel Applegate, 21 April 1837, transcribed by John U. Rees; David Forman, Affidavit, Princeton University, Firestone Library, CO140, Misc. MSS, David Forman; Robert Morris to [?] Cooper, Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder "Battle of Monmouth"; George Hanger, Colonel George Hanger, to All Sportsmen (London: Printed for the author, 1814), pp 217-8; re-printed: http://home.golden.net/~marg/bansite/friends/hanger.html#n4.