Continental Congress Seeks Blankets Via London Trade

While much is written about the Continental Army shivering through a miserable winter at Valley Forge (1778-1779), the winters of 1779-1780 and 1780-1781 at Morristown were colder. Amidst harrowing reports of soldier suffering, the shortage of blankets for the Army tempted the Continental Congress to relieve the shortage with a half-baked scheme. On December 31, 1779, the Continental Congress approved a secret plan developed by its Board of War. The minutes of the Congress did not describe the plan because it could not be entered into the public record, but the minutes do document that this secret plan was approved:

[The] plan appears practicable and if carried into execution promises supplies of certain articles immediately wanted for the troops at much less expense, and with greater dispatch than can otherwise be procured.

Congress then allocated $500,000 Continental dollars to buy blankets from British-held New York via “London traders” at Manasquan.

Bowman’s Secret Mission is Implemented

The Board of War, chaired by Richard Peters of Pennsylvania, wrote George Washington on January 8, 1780, regarding the secret plan. It wrote, "we have employed Maj. [Richard] Howell... to facilitate the measures we have communicated to him. Capt. Nathaniel Bowman of that Regiment may be detached with his entire company of Light Infantry." Bowman was ordered "to proceed with an ammunition wagon to Squan by way of Freehold, where he is to draw two weeks provisions with orders on the Commissary [John Lloyd] there." The Board was clear about the secret nature of the mission:

Your Excellency [is] to give these orders to Capt. Bowman alone with direction to keep his route and destination a profound secret & to repair to Squan with all expedition...To ensure their good temper and fidelity, it will be necessary that they be as well equipped as to clothing & supplies as circumstances will admit.

The Board also warned Washington "should your Excellency have occasion to detach any other officer into that part of the country, it will be necessary to order him not to interfere with Capt. Bowman's command; tho' we would wish no other officer may, for a time, be sent there."

Washington’s aide, Robert Harrison, promptly ordered General William Maxwell, leading the New Jersey Line, to detach Capt. Bowman's company on the secret mission. Bowman was to be provided "an ammunition wagon provided with horses & a driver. There is to be no ammunition in the wagon.” Maxwell was further ordered to make sure Bowman’s company was full: “Whatever men are deficient [in Bowman's company] are to be made up out of the Regiment, and the General desires that those men may be furnished as soon as possible with their clothing in preference to others." Bowman was asked to be ready to march to Freehold in three days. Maxwell was not told of Bowman’s mission.

On January 11, Washington wrote directly to Bowman with secret orders:

You are to proceed immediately with the men of your company present, and those attached to it by an order yesterday for the purpose of making it complete, to Squan by way of Freehold, taking with you the ammunition wagon for which you obtained an order of General Knox at Freehold; you will draw two weeks provisions for your party, for which purpose you will find an order enclosed for the Commissary of that place... It is the desire of the Board of War that your route and destination be kept a profound secret. No officer may interfere with your command in the course of your march and command. You [will] keep strict discipline and good order.

Troubles with Bowman’s Blankets at Manasquan

There is no documentation of Bowman’s time at Manasquan until the end of March. On March 30, Abraham Clark, a New Jersey delegate in Congress, wrote to Governor William Livingston. By law, British goods were illegal in New Jersey. Any New Jersey citizen who found British goods in the state could seize them. With the approval of the local magistrate and a verdict from a mini-jury, those goods would be forfeited to the person who seized them. This meant that the blankets at Manasquan were liable to seizure. Clark wrote:

There is now stored at Squan a quantity of blankets for the use of the Army… it appears they are of British manufacture and on that account are liable to seizure, it is said that a number of inhabitants, having knowledge of said goods, are determined to avail themselves of the law authorizing seizures in case of their removal. This embarrasses the Board of War.

Clark requested that Livingston intervene to allow Bowman to safely bring the blankets out of Manasquan.

That same day, Richard Peters wrote Washington that "the great distress of the Army for want of blankets induced the Board to sometime since attempt to import them from New York." He provided an update on Bowman’s mission and made a request:

The Board contracted with a Gentleman for 5,000 blankets on terms advantageous to the Public & gave him a permit to go into N. York, where he has been a most unreasonable time. He has at length sent to Squan in N. Jersey upwards of 2,000 blankets and some other goods...a small quantity which has been at rec'd by the Clothier here [Philadelphia]--but the transportation of them through the Jersies and the imprudence of the persons conducting them have created such suspicion and uneasiness among the people as to make the board apprehensive of risking the rest across the Country.

Peters asked that Washington give Bowman a pass to carry the blankets across the state.

Livingston and Washington exchanged letters about the blankets at Manasquan. Livingston wrote:

There is now stored at or near Squan a quantity of blankets designed for use of the Army; these with other articles of clothing are under the direction of the Board of War...How and whence these  blankets came to the above place, I am not able to inform your Excellency, but it appears they are of British manufacture and on that account liable to seizure. It is said that a number of inhabitants of New Jersey, having knowledge of the said goods, are determined to avail themselves of the law authorizing seizure.

Livingston asked Washington to issue a special pass for the blankets: "Orders to the effect which he [Clark] mentions should doubtless be given without delay, but as this is a matter relating solely to the Army, it seems proper that the passport should come from Your Excellency [Washington]."

Washington complied with the requests from Livingston and Peters by sending a pass for Bowman to transport the blankets to the Board of War. He also complained of being pulled into a plot that contradicted New Jersey law:

I enclose a permit for the goods in charge of Captain Bowman. This mode of obtaining supplies is certainly justifiable, from the unhappy situation of our affairs and the necessity of having them; but at the same time, for reasons which will steadily occur to the Board, I very much wish the business could have been concluded without any interference on my part.

Bowman's pass read: "The goods which Capt. Bowman has in his charge have been procured by the public, and are essential articles of supply for the Army; They are therefore permitted to pass." Livingston promised his support: "I shall cheerfully do everything in my power that may be thought necessary to facilitate the safe transportation of the blankets."

It is unclear when Washington’s pass made it to Bowman, but Bowman stayed at Manasquan through April. The delay proved costly. At the end of April, Bowman compiled a troop return: three men deserted on April 18; five more deserted on April 20; five were captured during a Loyalist raid on Manasquan, also on April 20; and four more deserted on the march back to Morristown on April 29. In April alone, Bowman lost seventeen of his 62 men (though two of the deserters eventually returned).

It was inevitable that London Traders at Manasquan who regularly conversed with Loyalists at Sandy Hook and New York would inform a Loyalist with military resources. The April 20 raid on Manasquan was reported in the Loyalist New York Gazette. A detachment of New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalist troops) "under the command of Lt. Col. Lawrence [Elisha Lawrence] embarked at Sandy Hook on an expedition against a rebel post at Squan.” The report continued:

After being detained for a week at the Light House by contrary winds, Coll. Lawrence landed at midnight and marched immediately for the cantonment of the enemy, which he soon reached, but was mortified in finding the post had been withdrawn to the south.

However, the Loyalists did capture a small detachment of Continentals, consisting of a Lieutenant and five men. After this, Lawarence determined that "nothing further to be done, the detachment re-embarked and returned" on April 22.

The captured officer was Lt. Benajah Osmun, who had just returned to Manasquan from Philadelphia on April 18 with two privates (he probably had delivered a wagonload of blankets to that city and was returning). After his capture, Osmun was permitted to write Colonel Israel Shreve, his regimental commander. He wrote of the capture of his party while searching local homes (perhaps searching for pilfered blankets):

I ordered them [his men] to rest their selves for a little time and then would go search the houses and no doubt should have found them but was disappointed by a party under the command of Col. Lawrence which landed about 1 o'clock and took me and the men, which was brought to New York, and I was sent to Long Island [Brooklyn] on parole where I still remain.

Congress’s Board of War had funded Bowman to purchase 5,000 blankets, and, in March, reported that “upwards of 2,000 blankets” were brought from New York to Manasquan. Lt. Osmun apparently brought “a small quantity” of those blankets to Philadelphia, but most of the blankets were likely lost—either to the Loyalist raiders or to local disaffected who pilfered the blankets when Bowman retreated from Manasquan on Lawrence’s landing.

After the Collapse Bowman’s Mission

In May, an anonymous intelligence report was sent to Congress from Black Point (Rumson). The secret correspondent was probably Major Richard Howell, who had spent five months at Black Point in 1778. He wrote: "I sent you a line the 8th instant from Black Point from which place I intended a secret visit." The writer warned Congress of rumors that "I have been the principal instrument of supplying the Continental Army with blankets and ammunition, but they are false." Even after the failure of Bowman’s mission was known in Congress, discussions continued about acquiring blankets via illegal trade.

Indeed, Richard Peters, who had championed the Bowman mission, proposed a similar plan to acquire blankets via West Point, New York. Peters predicted that, this time, there would be "less examination or suspicion, as the transportation [of blankets] is by water, & no risk to be run by the public." General Washington was cool to the idea and there is no evidence that the scheme was implemented.

A month later, it was understood that a lot of money was spent on bringing blankets from New York to Manasquan and only a few of the blankets had made it to the Army. On June 7, Congress summoned Bowman to appear before Congress, via a letter to Washington:

The Board are desirous of seeing Capt. Bowman of the Jersey Troops on the subject of his command at Squan, during the last winter and spring, & would be much obliged to your Excellency to order him to repair to Philadelphia without delay.

Washington complied. He wrote the Board that he was sending Bowman to Philadelphia; he also vouched for Bowman’s good character: "He is said to be a very brave and active officer." On June 14, Congress noted Bowman’s arrival. There is no record of Bowman’s examination before Congress. This is likely because Bowman’s mission was a secret one, albeit a poorly-kept secret, and a decision was made to keep the proceedings out of the public record.

The misadventure at Manasquan had one final twist. According to historian John Rees, in December 1780, Major Howell, Bowman’s commanding officer, was arrested for his role in illegally trading for British blankets. “He was forcibly taken from his father's house before a Judge at Burlington.” Howell then “showed his secret orders, which secured his discharge and erasure of the minutes."

Rees suggested that Bowman’s mission "seemed fated for failure almost from the outset” because it started too late in the year, was plagued by poor communications, and was dependent on unreliable locals living along the vulnerable Monmouth shore.  Rees concluded that, for Congress, "the experience at Squan must have discouraged any further such plans." This may be true, but it certainly did not stop Monmouth Countians from engaging in other convoluted plots to extract valuables from New York.

Related Historic Site: Morristown National Historical Park

Sources: John Rees, Supply Shortages, Suffering Soldiers and a Secret Mission During the Hard Winter of 1780, Military Collector & Historian, v52, n3, Fall 2000, pp. 100-107; George Washington to Nathaniel Bowman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 63, January 11, 1780; Richard Peters to George Washington in John Rees, Supply Shortages, Suffering Soldiers and a Secret Mission During the Hard Winter of 1780, Military Collector & Historian, v52, n3, Fall 2000, pp. 100-7; Abraham Clark to William Livingston, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 15, p 555; William Livingston to George Washington, John Rees, Supply Shortages, Suffering Soldiers and a Secret Mission During the Hard Winter of 1780, Military Collector & Historian, v52, n3, Fall 2000, p100-7; George Washington to Congress, John U. Rees, The Great Distress of the Army for Want of Blankets, p4-10; William Livingston to George Washington, Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Bowman’s Troops Return in John U. Rees, The Great Distress of the Army for Want of Blankets, p4-10; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Anonymous Report, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 98; Congress to George Washington in John Rees, Supply Shortages, Suffering Soldiers and a Secret Mission During the Hard Winter of 1780, Military Collector & Historian, v52, n3, Fall 2000, p100-7