John Bacon Slaughters Gloucester Militia at Barnegat

A year after the surrender at Yorktown (October 1781), the British had retreated into a defensive crouch in New York City, drydocked Loyalist raiders, and started relocating Loyalists to Canada. They were actively negotiating a peace treaty in Paris premised on American Independence. Despite all of this, the Revolutionary War on the Jersey shore was not over.

Small bands of Pine Robbers—domestic Loyalist partisans—had operated along the shore since 1778. By 1782, they had consolidated around Clamtown (present-day Tuckerton) at the southern tip of Monmouth County (Stafford Township) in two large gangs led by William Davenport and John Bacon. While Davenport generally avoided battle, Bacon was unafraid of confrontation, as when he routed the Stafford militia at Manahawkin in late 1781. When Davenport was killed by militia in June, John Bacon led the last significant Loyalist force operating in New Jersey.

The Long Beach Massacre

Bacon’s most infamous attack was the so-called Long Beach Massacre, a night attack against Gloucester County militia camped south of Barnegat in which 21 militiamen were killed or wounded. On November 2, the New York Royal Gazette reported that on October 25, 1782:

A cutter bound for St. Thomas ran aground on Barnegat shoals. The American galley Alligator, Capt. [Andrew] Steelman, and twenty five men plundered her… but was attacked the same night by Captain John Bacon, with nine men, in a small boat called Hero's Revenge, who killed Steelman and all the party except four or five.

A prior article reveals that the British vessel was originally an American merchant ship, captured by the British ship, Virginia, with “a very singular” cargo of tea worth £20,000. This meant the ship likely had only a small prize crew on board when it reached the Jersey shore—making it more vulnerable to American privateers.

The Pennsylvania Packet would also report on the captured ship and Bacon’s attack:

The cutter from Ostend bound to St. Thomas, mentioned in our last, ran aground on Barnegat shoals the 25th ultimo. The galley Alligator, captain Steelman, from Cape May, with 25 men, plundered her on Sunday last of a quantity of Hyson Tea and other valuable articles; but was attacked the same night by captain John Bacon and nine men in a small boat called Hero's Revenge, who killed Steelman, wounded the first Lieutenant and all the privates (four excepted) were either killed or wounded: the latter were sent to doctor with a flag of truce, by the captors, and the galley was brought in here on Wednesday last.

John Dennis of the Gloucester County militia served under Steelman and was at Bacon’s attack. He later recalled Bacon’s attack in detail in his veteran's pension application. A British vessel ran aground on Long Beach while trying to avoid the New Jersey privateer, Rainbow, co-owned by Andrew Steelman of Great Egg Harbor. Dennis recalled that the Rainbow "had fallen in with a British letter of marque [privateer], loaded with dry goods, bound for New York – The letter of marque was armed, and on Long Beach and run aground there.” Dennis recalled his militia company going to secure the vessel:

Twenty five men, deponent was one of them, volunteered their services, and entered on board a whale boat [Alligator] at Great Egg Harbor, under the command of a sea Captain named David Scull and Lieutenant Andrew Steelman. They had to go about sixty miles to the beach where the letter of marque was run a-shore.

Dennis next recalled landing on Long Beach and securing the vessel, but being unable to move the vessel or its cargo due to bad weather:

Arrived on Long Beach and went to work to save the property. The weather and surf was bad. The letter of marque lay about three miles from the main land but in the surf on the beach. They were there between two and three weeks, the weather being so bad that part of the time they could not work. They had got the goods out of the vessel on the beach, in a tent two or three hundred yards long.

On October 25, Dennis recalled they were finally ready to move, “the goods ready and were waiting only for scows to take them off.” The militia may have been lax because “they looked out and saw no enemy near.” Dennis then discussed the surprise nighttime attack by Bacon and his men. He was incorrect in stating that British regulars were in the attack:

The Captain (Scull) placed a guard all around the encampment. The night was pretty dark and the Americans had a considerable fire around which the men and officers laid. Captain Scull and Lieutenant Steelman laid together. The enemy (British from New York and tories) came about seven o’clock at night after the party and fired, wounded Captain Scull in his thigh and killed Lieutenant Steelman. Nearly all the American party were taken.

Dennis escaped: “The guard of which deponent was one and a few others, got clear. Deponent ran along the beach, wading in some places, for about nine miles, then went on the mainland and went home.” Dennis discussed the fate of his colleagues, “The prisoners were soon exchanged. Captain Scull died some years afterwards of his wound, which never got well.”

In 1783, James Somers, the other co-owner of the Rainbow, narrated Bacon’s attack while testifying against the double-dealing privateer, Nathan Jackson. Somers recalled "that a vessel appearing in a fight off Egg Harbor, the Rainbow went after her.” He stated that, “The Rainbow had driven the vessel on shore - that she was a cutter & the Rainbow's people were saving her cargo & they employed a number of inhabitants to help save the goods.” Somers claimed that local “hired hands from the shore had gone & informed Captain Bacon, a refugee, & joined with his party.” Somers recalled Bacon’s attack. The Loyalists “shot Captain Steelman & some of his crew dead and wounded. David Scull while lying at a fire some distance from the Rainbow; and they went & took the Rainbow & the rest of her crew."

There are several antiquarian accounts of the Long Beach Massacre, some of which are incorrect on verifiable facts. For example, one account states that the militia were from Cape May County rather than Gloucester County. Other accounts exaggerate key parts of the action. For example, one account claims that Bacon’s party “poured shot” into the sleeping militia. But the single-shot muskets of the era and small size of Bacon’s party makes it improbable that gunfire killed and wounded most of the 21 militiamen. Most of the militia were likely killed by bayonet (as was the case in the Osborn Island Massacre in 1778) or were hunted down while fleeing (like Philip White in March 1782).

Historian David Fowler, working from antiquarian and primary sources, discerned important information from antiquarian accounts not offered in the primary accounts above:

• A disaffected local, Wiliam Wilson of Waretown, was cited for tipping off Bacon to the location the wounded ship and militia guard;

• Bacon rowed the wounded to shore under a white flag;

• Afterward, Bacon took the Loyalist vessel and the militia boat, Alligator, to New York.

Fowler notes that after the massacre, a party of Gloucester militia, in retaliation, stormed the house of Bacon's father-in-law which “was full of London traders.” But Bacon was not there, and the interrogated men offer no usable information.

Bacon Takes Another Prize in December

In early December, Bacon took another prize near Barnegat. The New York Gazette reported on December 7 that, “Last Monday, in a galley from this place, Capt. Davenport [not the Pine Robber], captured a brig in Little Egg Harbor.” But Captain Davenport’s galley “grounded coming down the channel” and therefore “was obliged to abandon this prize.” Davenport’s problems worsened when, “He was attacked soon after in the Inlet by a 16 gun schooner which he was obliged to fight in order to get out.” Davenport was killed and his Lieutenant “concealed himself” rather than fight. The Loyalist galley was taken and “the prisoners were put ashore on 8 Mile Beach, between Egg Harbor and Barnegat, where they remained in starving condition for three days.” Bacon rescued the Loyalist crew and galley. They “were taken off by Capt. John Bacon of the Black Jack whaleboat, from this port, and sent here in a prize of Capt. Bacon's."

Bacon remained an active partisan until his death in 1783.

Related Historic Site: Barnegat Lighthouse

Sources: Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 207; Pennsylvania Packet, November 7, 1782; David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 259-60; Edwin Salter and George C. Beekman, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Monmouth Democrat, Freehold, 1887) pp. 46-47; Munn, David, “The Revolutionary War Casualties,” The Jersey Genealogical Record, vol. 55, (September 1982): p 131; Veteran Pension Application, National Archives, John Dennis, W.8196, State of Ohio, Clermont County; Alfred M. Heston, Editor, South Jersey - A History, 1664 - 1924, Volume I (New York and Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1924) p 240; Library of Congress, Revolutionary War Prize Cases, M162, reel 1, cases 91-2, David Forman v. Nathan Jackson; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, November 2, 1782, reel 2906.