Company of New Jersey Volunteers Taken in Route to Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook was the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the British headquarters at New York City. As such, it had enormous strategic importance in the Revolutionary War. Early in the war. The British recognized this fact by occupying the Hook continuously from April 1776 through the end of 1783—longer than any piece of the Thirteen Colonies. During that time, they stationed at least one frigate there as a guard ship. They also camped a company of soldiers—usually New Jersey Loyalists—at the lighthouse. British forces easily turned back attempts to dislodge them from the Hook in June 1776 and March 1777.

By 1780, however, with the British navy diverted to other parts of their colonial empire and much of their army fighting in the South, British control of Sandy Hook and the water around it was more tenuous. Raiding parties led by Captain John Burrowes, Captain John Rudolph and others harassed and captured small British and Loyalist vessels anchored at the Hook. More dangerous, small packs of New England privateers prowled the sea lanes to and from Sandy Hook—taking at least sixty ships within sight of the Hook over the course of the war.

Among the most humiliating losses for the British was the capture of a sloop bound from Staten Island to Sandy Hook with a company of New Jersey Volunteers on board. These men were on their way to the lighthouse to become the new guard. The Providence newspaper, American Journal, reported on October 5:

Capt. Hart [Elisha Hart] of Saybrook in Connecticut, being out on a cruize in the privateer sloop Retaliation, one day last week, ran into Sandy Hook to see Admiral Rodney's fleet; he passed the guard ship under English colours, soon after which he discovered a sloop coming down with a number of soldiers on board, bound to relieve the guard at Sandy Hook Point; as soon as they were within shot, he ordered them to come on board, but they refusing and attempting to row away, he ordered a few of his marines to fire into the sloop, and knocking open one of his gunports, threatened to sink her, on which he came alongside and took the prisoners on board, consisting of a Captain, Lieutenant and forty-six privates of the New Jersey Volunteers, with whom and the prize, Capt. Hart arrived at New London, Saturday last.

Shorter newspaper accounts of the incident were reported in two Boston newspapers (The Independent Chronicle and The Spy). Antiquarian and secondary accounts of the capture also exist. 

These accounts differ slightly on certain details. For example, the number of New Jersey Volunteers captured varies between 44 and 50 men taken. The Massachusetts Spy reported the capture occurred close to several British warships (“taken within two miles of Admiral Rodney's fleet and the same distance from the two guard ships”) but other accounts are vague about the proximity and presence of British ships. The Boston Independent Chronicle noted that the guard at the Sandy Hook was switched out every two months and that the Loyalist prisoners were imprisoned in Hartford.

Lt. Colonel William Ledyard, commanding the Connecticut militia at New London, wrote George Washington of the capture:

A privateer belonging to this place arrived here this day with a prize she took within Sandy Hook having on Board a Company of New Levies consisting of 50 Men which were bound from Staten Island to the Light House in order to relieve a guard there.

Ledyard enclosed the results of interrogations of the prisoners for Washinton’s consideration. It is unfortunate that these documents and the identity of the Loyalists are unknown.

By fall 1780, the fortunes of Monmouth County’s Loyalist soldiers had soured considerably. The units that they originally joined, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the New Jersey Volunteers, had been consolidated and re-organized a few times and most of the original Monmouth County officers were gone. Those who remained in the New Jersey Volunteers suffered from low morale, low supplies, and the monotony of low status assignments from British commanders.

Some Monmouth Loyalists drifted into newer Loyalist units—including the American Volunteers under Major Patrick Ferguson. At the same time that Ferguson was marching his men to disaster at King’s Mountain, South Carolina, a company of New Jersey Loyalists that stayed on Staten Island was captured without a fight on their way to Sandy Hook. After these twin disasters, more Monmouth County Loyalists left the British military for Loyalist-led para-militaries, including the vigilante Associated Loyalists.

Caption: Elisha Hart captained the Connecticut privateer, Retaliation. In October 1780, he sailed inside Sandy Hook and captured a small sloop carrying a company of New Jersey Loyalists to Sandy Hook.

Related Historic Site: New London Historical Society (Connecticut)

Sources: Massachusetts Spy, October 12, 1780; Independent Chronicle, October 5, 1780; American Journal (Providence), October 5, 1780; The action of the Retaliation is discussed in Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p19; William Ledyard to George Washington, To George Washington from William Heath, 30 September 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-03441.