Forman's Additional Regiment Merged into the New Jersey Line

As noted in prior articles, David Forman was the most powerful man in Monmouth County throughout 1777—he commanded the Monmouth County militia (and the militia of bordering counties) as its Brigadier General and commanded an Additional Regiment of the Continental Army assigned to defend Monmouth County. However, Forman abused his power in a variety of ways. In November, the New Jersey Legislature voided the county elections in which Forman influenced the outcome and then Forman resigned his New Jersey militia commission in a related dispute with the legislature.

David Forman Loses His Regiment

Shortly after that, the New Jersey Legislative Council, the Upper House, learned that Forman’s troops were being used as a private labor force to construct a salt works at Barnegat. The New Jersey government complained of Forman’s conduct to George Washington. On March 25, 1778, Washington wrote Forman accordingly:

The opinion of the Council of your State is so directly opposed to the continuance of the men at the salt works you are erecting that, to avoid the imputation of partiality and remove all cause for censure, both with respect to you and myself, I am induced to direct they may for the present join and act with Colo. Shreve's [Israel Shreve] regiment.

Forman followed orders. On March 28, he filled out a list of officers (Major William Harrison; Captains John Burrowes, William Wikoff, Thomas Marsh Forman, John Combs; Lieutenants Gilbert Imlay, William Hall, Robert Pemberton; Ensign William Schenck) and ordered them to join the main body of New Jersey troops (commonly called the “New Jersey Line”} at Valley Forge. The orders included a note that Lt. Hall was a prisoner of the British. Forman recommended that his officers be allowed to maintain their rank (officers were sometimes squeezed out of their commissions when regiments were combined). Forman’s regiment had only four companies, three of which were greatly undersized—a full regiment had eight full-sized companies.

Forman’s men marched to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on April 10 and were likely re-uniformed out of the red coats that had caused them so much trouble at the Battle of Germantown and elsewhere. Immediately after leaving their camp at Manasquan, a Loyalist raiding party razed Forman’s Union Salt Works they had been guarding. Forman and Shreve appealed for help.

So, Washington returned the men to New Jersey. An orderly book for the New Jersey Line noted "the detachment from Forman's Regt now in camp to be got in readiness immediately to join their Regiment [4th New Jersey] now in the Jerseys." The New Jersey Line consisted of four under-sized regiments at the time with the 4th Regiment actively recruiting in Monmouth County. The New Jersey government would soon consolidate the four regiments down to two to regiments and implement a draft to fill the ranks in the remaining two.

Defending the New Jersey Shore

The transfer of Forman’s men to the New Jersey Line left the New Jersey shore undefended, and its salt works were an attractive target for British and Loyalist raiders eager to punish rebels and disrupt the Army’s salt supply (necessary for preserving its food). On April 14, Washington wrote Governor William Livingston regarding the requests from New Jersey to better defend both the Atlantic shore and the western bank of the Delaware River from British raiding parties.

I have ordered the few men of Colo. Forman's Regiment who are here, to join Colo. Shreve, which will make a small addition to his force, and it is my intention, if I can do it consistent with the safety of the Army, to send over another of the Jersey Regiments; but as this is a matter of great uncertainty, and will depend entirely upon my reinforcements; I would not wish that the people should count upon it.

Washington ordered Colonel Shreve to guard shore from Shrewsbury to Egg Harbor. But also ordered him to be ready to leave the shore on short notice: "You will keep your troops under your command in a most compact order" and rejoin the main body of the Continental Army when the British Army leaves Philadelphia.

Washington also took the opportunity to state his philosophy about using a regiment of Continental troops to guard an area—such as Monmouth County—that was vulnerable to British-Loyalist raids.

A few hundred Continental troops quiet the minds and give satisfaction to the people of the Country; but considered in the true light, they do rather more harm than good. They draw the attention of the Enemy, and being not able to resist them, are obliged to fly and leave the Country at the mercy of the foe. But as I said before, the people do not view things in the same light, and therefore they must be indulged, tho' to their detriment.

Over the next three years, Washington would repeatedly send detachments of Continental troops into Monmouth County—though he was deeply suspicious of the value of stationing troops there. Within days of Forman’s regiment leaving the shore, a punishing British-Loyalist raid destroyed several of the salt works.

The Dissipation of Forman’s Former Regiment

As for Forman’s regiment, by the summer of 1778, hard service and low morale took its toll and it withered further. Desertion advertisements demonstrate this. Historian John Rees wrote of the strength of Forman’s former regiment in September 1778. While Captain John Burrowes’s Company remained large (roughly 40 men), the other three companies had withered to near-nothing:

• Thomas Marsh Forman: 1 captain, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 1 musician, 4 privates present, 2 privates sick;

• Capt. John Combs: 1 captain, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 13 privates;

• Capt. William Wikoff: 1 captain, 1 sergeant, 2 corporals, 3 privates present, 3 privates sick, 1 sick absent, 1 on command.

William Stryker, who studied New Jersey’s Revolutionary War soldiers in the late 1800s, claimed that Forman’s former regiment was down to 68 men at year’s end.

The company of Captain John Burrowes was the only functioning company left of Forman’s regiment. A March 1779 return of that company documents its difficulties. The company included: Lt Gilbert Imlay, Sergeant Michael Erickson (reduced in rank in September 1778) and Corporal Jacob Allen. Several months after being taken away from Forman, the men were still identified as “Forman’s Regt” on some Army documents. The company had raised 36 privates in early 1777. Of these 36 men, half had enlisted for three years and would soon be eligible to leave the Army, and half for the “length of war.” Few of the men served without some type of interruption. By March 1779:

• 5 had deserted (3 returned),

• 1 dead,

• 1 captured (exchanged),

• 12 missed time due to sickness (many noted as “sick at Freehold”),

• 9 missed time due to furlough,

• 2 confined by the Continental Army,

• 5 sent “on command” to Shrewsbury in September 1778.

It appears that the withered Additional Regiment was eventually combined with Monmouth County’s 1778 draftees and other later recruits and consolidated into two companies under Burrowes, who was eventually promoted to Major, and put in command of the two companies. A third company of the New Jersey Line from Monmouth County was commanded by Captain Jonathan Forman and never had a relationship with Forman’s Additional Regiment. The Monmouth men were now integrated into the New Jersey Line. Their service under General John Sullivan in a campaign against the Iroquois is the subject of another article.

Related Historic Site: Valley Forge National Historical Park

Sources: David Forman, Troop Return, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 48, March 28, 1778; Orderly Book, National Archives, Misc. Numbered Records, 3: 19; George Washington to William Livingston, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 11, pp. 256, 436; Berg, Fred A., Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments, and Independent Corps (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1972) p 43; Forman’s Additional Regiment returns, Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93, reels 126-129. Transcribed by John U. Rees; Capt. John Burrowes, Muster Rolls, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 105, p2-33; William S. Stryker, Officers and Men of New Jersey in the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1967); Israel Shreve, Return, The Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 169, 143, Israel Shreve to George Washington, February 25, 1779. Transcribed by John U. Rees.