Competition for Continental Army Recruits in Monmouth County

In the spring of 1777, there was a great need to bring men into the Continental Army. The soldiers who had enlisted in 1776 had served their time and most were heading home. George Washington’s army needed to be rebuilt against the professional British Army with long term troops. The Continental Congress focused on this need and recommended to the states that future enlistments run for three years or the length of the war. It also focused on widening the pool of recruits. Below is one example of a resolution passed with the goal of enhancing Continental Army recruitment:

Resolved, that it be recommended to the Legislatures of each of the United States to enact laws exempting from actual service any two of the militia who shall, within the time limited by such laws, furnish one able-bodied recruit to serve in any battalion of the Continental Army, for the term of three years or the present war - such exemption to continue during the term for which the recruit shall enlist, and every such recruit be entitled to the Continental bounty and other allowances.

Congress further recommended that the states permit "the enlisting of servants and apprentices” and allow debtors to enlist. It encouraged states to raise enlistment bounties. Initial bans against African Americans joining the army were reversed.

Each state was responsible for raising its own troops and New Jersey—as the “crossroads of the Revolution”—responded by increasing its recruiting bounties and creating a new Continental Army regiment to be raised under Colonel Oliver Spencer. While Spencer was based in Essex County, his recruiters ranged across northern New Jersey and into Monmouth County. Across New Jersey but particularly in Monmouth County, young men who were willing to fight had many options—the New Jersey Continental Line, Spencer’s new regiment, David Forman’s Additional Regiment—and British service in the New Jersey Volunteers.

Mark Lender, the premier historian of the Continental Army, observed that after an initial surge of patriotism in 1776, recruits to the Army were generally young and poor men lured by bounties. While there is no reason to doubt Lender’s generalization, there were some exceptions. Jonathan Holmes of Allentown, for example, enlisted into the New Jersey Line at Bordentown on January 6, 1777. He wrote his father: "I have this day joined the Light Horse, for I think it don't do to lie by as an idle spectator at this critical time."

David Forman Complains about Outside Recruiters

The efforts of the New Jersey Government to recruit men for the state’s Continental Line adversely impacted David Forman’s efforts to recruit men for his Additional Regiment. On May 28, Forman complained to the Continental Congress:

By the laws of such State Legislatures we have too much reason to fear the recruiting service as it respects a certain part of the Army of the United States will be much impeded... we are sorry to find that certain laws passed by the Legislatures of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, that we are by no means considered to be on equal footing with the other Regiments [i.e., State Lines], but we are laid under such restrictions as amounting in all its consequences to an entire prohibition.

Forman described his men as "persons warmly attached to American Liberty, who have not entered the service from lucrative or ambitious motives." He and the officers in his regiment were frustrated by the uneven recruiting practices. He called recruiting parity: "We therefore hope your Honorable House will consider our situation and put us on a respectable footing as those of the eight Regiments, by establishing our authority to equality in the different States." His memorial was referred to Congress’s War Department and it appears no action was taken directly related to it.

Forman was permitted to recruit for his regiment from the body of captured Loyalist insurrectionists jailed in Philadelphia. However, those efforts produced only a handful of recruits.

Other Tensions Created by Recruiting

The New Jersey Legislature continued to focus on raising men for the Continental Army. In October, it appointed two recruiters from each county to raise troops for the Continental Line. For Monmouth County, Kenneth Anderson (the County Clerk) and Gilbert Longstreet were appointed. The state continued to raise bounties throughout the war, but in Monmouth County, there were allegations of bounty theft. John M. Covenhoven (known as John M. to distinguish him from other men of the same name) recalled that he "enlisted for six months under Capt. David Gordon,” but claimed that “Gordon cheated him of his bounty."

Recruiting for the Army also created tensions with Monmouth County’s large Quaker community. Jacob Hall recalled an incident in 1780 in which:

This deponent was then encamped at Freehold town when Capt. William Barton brought in a number of recruits for the Army, among them was young Solomon Ivins... That old Solomon Ivins (the Quaker Preacher) came to camp on horseback in order to induce his son to leave the company, and he would procure him a substitute.

Solomon Ivins defied his father: “He would not leave the Army to please the old fellow; the said Solomon Ivins was a good soldier and served until the close of the war."

The Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers were also campaigning for recruits. Colonel John Morris, looking to fill his 2nd Battalion, advertised for recruits in Loyalist newspapers in March and May 1777.  He offered an £5 recruitment bounty plus "each man shall be entitled to fifty acres of land in this province at the expiration of the rebellion." Via former militia colonel George Taylor, recruiting handbills for the New Jersey Volunteers were circulated throughout northern Monmouth County. Taylor recruited on his various incursions into Monmouth County in the spring of 1777.

The results of all of this recruiting activity in Monmouth County were generally unimpressive. Monmouth Countians did not join the state’s Continental Line in great numbers. It appears that only one company—under Captain Jonathan Forman—was raised for the Continental Line from the county in 1777. Forman’s Additional Regiment also remained small—topping out at around 100 men.

The low number of recruits reflects the underlying reality that Monmouth County—despite the tumult—was a place of considerable economic opportunity in 1777. Young men had many opportunities including producing agricultural and maritime products for eager commissaries. Monmouth Countians could also participate in new industries in need of laborers—particularly salt-making and privateering. Economic opportunities aside, many Monmouth Countians remained unconvinced that Revolution was the right path. The ranks of the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers swelled in early 1777. Illegal trade with the British was lucrative and low-risk through most of the war. This was the underlying reason that relatively few Monmouth men served in the Continental Army.

Caption: Broadsides like this one were posted across New Jersey. Continental Army recruits were promised a bounty, a uniform, and, sometimes, land in the West. But few recruits were raised in 1777.

Related Historic Site: National Museum of the United States Army (Ft. Belvoir, VA)

Sources: Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of John M. Conover of Pennsylvania, National Archives, p4-7; Advertisement, New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, March 10, 1777; New Jersey State Archives, Dept of Defense, Military Records, Revolutionary War Copies, box 27, #16; American Memory Project, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collection/continental ; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Solomon Ivins; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 49, item 41, vol. 3, #179-80; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 8, p 394; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1777) p122-3; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, October 10, 1777, p 200.