Jonathan Forman’s Long Service in the Continental Army

Jonathan Forman was born into a prominent family from Middletown Point. He was the son of a successful merchant and son-in-law to John Burrowes, Sr., the Chairman of the County Committee, (which coordinated anti-British dissent before the Revolution). Members of his extended family included several of the county’s leading supporters of the Revolution: militia colonel, Samuel Forman; judge Peter Forman; sheriff John Burrowes, Jr.; and Continental Army Colonel and judge David Forman. Born in 1755, Jonathan Forman was a recent Princeton graduate at the start of the Revolution; he was not yet deep into career pursuits that would make long term military service difficult.

On June 18, 1776, Jonathan Forman enlisted for five months service in the New Jersey Flying Camp Regiment headed by his kinsman, David Forman. Jonathan was commissioned a Lieutenant under his brother-in-law, Captain John Burrowes, Jr. Since both company officers were from Middletown Point, it is probable that they raised their company from that village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Forman served through the disastrous New York campaign and retreat into New Jersey.

While most of David Forman’s Flying Camp returned home at the end of November to arrest Loyalists and then laid low during the December Loyalist insurrections, Jonathan Forman stayed with the Army. He enlisted as a captain, under Monmouth County’s Lt. Colonel David Brearley, in the 1st Regiment of the New Jersey Line on November 23, 1776 (some documents list January 1, 1777 as his enlistment date). He would remain in the New Jersey Line for the rest of the war—serving longer than any other Monmouth County officer.

The Military Service of Jonathan Forman, 1777-1778

Forman was with Washington’s Army all through 1777, except in the month of August when he was sent home to retake deserters. This is recorded in his journal:

12th, myself got liberty to go to Jersey on command after Deserters / 13th, set out this morning with Capt. [Isaiah] Wool, being provided with horse, arrived that day at Allentno [sic] / 14th, arrived home [Middletown Point] where continued till 27th then set out with Capt. Wool to join the Regt / 28th, Allentno / 29th, C'pers Ferry [Coopers] / 30th, join'd the Regt at Brandywine.

He returned in time to be with the Continental Army for its defeats at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown.

Muster rolls from Forman’s Continental Army company have survived for much of 1778 and 1779. These muster rolls reveal a lot about Forman’s command. Based on surnames of the men in Forman’s company it is safe to assume that the company was raised from Monmouth County, though it is likely that a few people from other locales served alongside the Monmouth Countians. Starting in 1777, Continental Army recruits enlisted for terms of either three years or the length of the war.

Through 1777, Forman’s company had more than 50 rank and file (near full strength). At a time when much of the Army was very short on men, Forman’s company was much larger than most. However, absences were high—18 men were absent in January 1778, and a slightly different list of 18 men were absent in February 1778. The absences occurred during the fabled winter camp at Valley Forge—when Washington’s camp shivered through the winter outside of Philadelphia while the British wintered comfortably in Philadelphia.

Forman’s company traveled across New Jersey that June and fought at the Battle of Monmouth. During the Monmouth Campaign the New Jersey Line saw significant action and endured losses (12 wounded, 7 missing, 9 captured, 2 killed in battle, 2 others dead). Forman’s company had only one documented loss: Private Daniel Stevens deserted on the day of the Battle of Monmouth.

Forman spent four days at Englishtown after the battle, but went home for a day. Forman recorded in his journal: "29th at English Town… July 2d, went home [Middletown Point] and returned to Englishtno where we lay till Thirst [Thursday]." There is no evidence of exceptional furlough or desertions in Forman’s company even when the company was close to home. This suggests that the company had high morale; it is possible that short absences were winked at by officers and went undocumented.

From Englishtown, Washington’s Army marched out of Monmouth County, but Forman’s company stayed and accompanied Colonel Daniel Morgan’s regiment as it shadowed the British on their withdrawal to Sandy Hook. Forman’s journal entries reveal that his company stayed in Monmouth County until July 14, several days longer than Morgan:

The Main Army then moved to Spotswood / Our Brigade being left to observe the motion of the en'y [enemy]. Colo march'd that morning to Mr. Denice's, myself sent off to Midle Tno [Middletown] where the en'y [enemy] had possession of the heights to get intelligence[.] Col Morgan laying there with abt [about] 200 Riflemen and part of his Excellency's guards returned Saturday [the] 11th on guard / Sunday 12th, went to Mid Tno [Middletown] with Colo D [Elias Dayton] and David B [Brearley] to reconnoiter [reconnoiter]. The eny [enemy] moved off to Sandy Hook and embark'd / the Brigade moved down to VM [Van Mater] Mills where we lay till Tuesday, the 14th, march'd abt [about] 3 o'clock a.m. to Spotswood abt [about] 14 miles distant.

Forman was back with the Continental Army at Elizabethtown by July 18 when he was dispatched to carry a body of British prisoners to Morristown. Forman was sent home again in October when General William Maxwell, commanding New Jersey’s troops, sent him to gather information on the British incursion at Little Egg Harbor:

Genl Maxwell has sent two Messengers to Major [Richard] Howell for Intelligence, I have now desired him to send Capt. Forman (who is well acquainted in that Country) to go to Middletown, Naversink &c. and get all the Intelligence he can and immediately to return.

That same month, Maxwell sent one officer to each New Jersey County to recruit for one month. Forman was selected for Monmouth County. As noted below, Forman apparently stayed home for another four months after that, missing the brutal winter of 1779 at Morristown.

The Military Service of Jonathan Forman, 1779

While Forman served continuously through the war, his junior officers did not. One of his original Lieutenants, Daniel Pearson, left the army on December 1, 1778. The other, Ephraim Whitlock, transferred commands on March 1, 1779. The new Lieutenants (Cyrus DeHart, Absalom Bonham) were probably not from Monmouth County and this might reflect the company’s rank and file evolving over time to be less Monmouth County-centered. In fact, by March 1779, only eighteen of the January 1777 rank and file were still serving in Forman’s company. March 1779 also appears to have been a low point for Forman’s company—its fit and present rank and file had dipped to 33 men. 23 more were unfit:

• eight men had deserted,

• two were furloughed,

• one was absent with leave,

• eleven were sick & absent,

• one was confined.

That same month, Forman was one of several New Jersey Line officers to petition the legislature regarding inadequate support for its soldiers. Forman followed up with a letter directly to George Washington. On March 8, he wrote:

It will be proper to inform your Excellency that the officers of the Jersey Brigade have repeatedly at almost every session of the Assembly since 1777 memorialized upon the necessities of the troops but we have the misfortune to inform your Excellency that not a single resolve was entered into the minutes on our favor... We have lost all confidence in our Legislature, reason and experience forbid that we should have any.

Forman specifically noted that the officers were owed several months pay and then concluded:

We have the highest sense of your ability and virtue, the execution of your orders has given us pleasure, that we love the service and we love our Country; but when that Country gets so lost to virtue & justice as to forget to support its servants, it then becomes their duty to retire from that service.

Forman then signed another petition of complaint to the New Jersey Assembly on April 17. His discontent continued into May when he wrote Governor William Livingston on behalf of the officers of the First Regiment on May 8. Forman noted that previous pleas for assistance for their suffering families were ignored and again threatened resignation:

So long ago as last winter we informed the Council of our determination to leave the service unless we were properly provided for, and from them we again received assurances that provisions should be made for us... We love the service, and we love our Country; but when a Country gets so lost to virtue and justice as to forget to support its servants, it then becomes the duty to retire from service.

Forman was not whining without merit. A return of his company on July 30, 1779, shows that his company was shockingly short on supplies. Of his 44 non-commissioned men, they are were short on the following essentials: 9 hats, 8 coats, 19 vests, 43 breeches, 44 stockings, 11 shoes (one or more), 24 shirts, 43 frocks, 10 blunderbusses, 3 firelocks, 3 bayonets, 3 cartridge boxes, 3 belts, 6 scabbards, 9 flints, 33 cartridge boxes (less a full complement of 24), 30 turn keys, 31 priming wires, 34 canteens, and 8 knapsacks.

Washington wrote General Maxwell about Forman’s protests, He was unsympathetic:

Our troops have been uniformly better fed than any others—they are at this time very well clad and probably will continue to be so—While this is the case they [the complaining officers] will have no just cause of complaint. It is important that any misconception on this point should be rectified.

However, Washington also used the opportunity to lobby both Governor Livingston and the Continental Congress for more provisions for the Army. It is unknown exactly when conditions improved for the Army. But New Jersey troops soon went west into Pennsylvania to fight in the Iroquois Campaign. Provisions likely flowed into camp prior to that assignment. There is no record of Forman complaining in the later years of the war.

Jonathan Forman’s Military Service, 1780-1783

If there was a taint on Forman’s reputation for complaining, it was temporary. On November 20, 1781, he was promoted to major in the 1st Regiment of the New Jersey Line. He was stationed at King’s Bridge in Westchester County, New York where he married Mary Ledyard on March 5, 1782. In August, Forman was at Newburgh where he became commander of a combined New York-New Jersey battalion. General Edward Hand wrote him: “You are appointed to the command of a battalion of infantry to be composed of New Jersey and York flank companies.” His four-company command stretched as far as Peekskill.

Forman was entrusted to determine who could and could not pass enemy lines. He was at Dobbs Ferry on September 11, 1782, when he forwarded George Washington letters intercepted from a Loyalist and passports from men seeking to go to New York:

I do myself the honor to enclose for your Excellency the receipt for a letter sent the 8th inst. address’d for Sir Guy Carleton, together with eleven private letters receiv’d last evening… Also a passport from Brigadier Genrl. [Moses] Hazen for Mr. Garosens passing to New York who I have ordered to remain att Mr. Lawrence’s near this post untill I am informed of your Excellency’s pleasure.

On December 11, Forman wrote George Washington again:

Mr J. Odle who I permitted yesterday to go between the lines has just returned and informs that Sir Guy Carleton with about 5,000 of the Enemy at New York were preparing to embark; that the transports for their reception were haul’d to the wharfs on Saturday last but waited for a fair wind. The 17th Dragoons was said to compose a part tho’ he could not learn the particular Corps, or given destination for the troops; for this purpose I shall permit him again in two or three days, when he says he will be able to obtain a better account, of the whole.

Forman might have indicated a desire to finally leave service at this point. A December 26 order notes discharge from the Continental Army. However, Forman did not leave the Army and he was, in fact, promoted to Lt. Colonel and given a short-lived regimental command on February 11, 1783. In April, when Washington’s Army downsized, Forman was furloughed home. He remained commissioned in the Army until November 13.

Three other Monmouth Countians—David Forman, David Brearley, and David Rhea—were also colonels in the Continental Army. The former lost his command in early 1778 and the latter two left the army in 1778 and 1779 respectively. Jonathan Forman was younger than David Forman, Brearley and Rhea and started the war at a more junior rank than these men. Despite Forman’s discontent in 1779, he endured the many battlefield defeats, late pay, scant supplies, and many other privations to serve all the way through the war. He was a true patriot.

Jonathan Forman was a founding member of the Society of Cincinnati in 1783 and remained active in the New Jersey militia after the war. He was colonel and led a regiment of federalized New Jersey militia into Pennsylvania to suppress the so-called “Whiskey Rebels” in 1794. Forman was living in New York State by 1800, and became a Brigadier General in that state’s militia on April 14, 1800.

Caption: Jonathan Forman led a company of Monmouth troops through the famous winter at Valley Forge. He served in the army from 1776 into 1783, longer than any other Monmouth County officer.

Related Historic Site: Valley Forge National Historical Park

Sources: Richard Harrison, Princetonians: 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014) vol. 1, pp. 377-8; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during The War of the Revolution April 1775 to December 1783 (Washington DC: The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Inc., 1914) pp. 110, 179, 216; Some muster rolls from Jonathan Forman’s company are mistakenly included in Muster Rolls of New York Provincial Troops, 1755-1764, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1891 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1892), pp. 324-33; Captain Jonathan Forman’s Muster Rolls, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 48, p44, 47, 48 & Coll. 11, p6; John Rees, 'They Answered Him with Three Cheers': New Jersey Brigade Losses in the Monmouth Campaign, www.revwar75.com/library/rees/Njlosses.htm; Munn, David, Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey, (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1976) p 132; Jonathan Forman, Anonymous Revolutionary War Diary, Fellows Papers, box 2, Special Collections, Rush-Rhees Library, University of Rochester; transcribed by John Rees; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 16, 1 July–14 September 1778, ed. David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006, pp. 94–95; Lord Stirling to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 17, 15 September–31 October 1778, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, pp. 300–301; Orders to from William Maxwell to Capt. Jonathan Forman, Library of Congress, Peter Force Collection, 7E, reel 1, William Alexander, #70; William S. Stryker, Officers and Men of New Jersey in the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1967); Jonathan Forman to George Washington, Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-10176; New York Historical Society, Fairchild Collection, item: Jonathan Forman; Selections from the Correspondence of the Executive of New Jersey, From 1776 to 1786 (Newark, NJ: Newark Daily Advertiser, 1848) p 146; Dennis Ryan, A Salute To Courage The American Revolution as Seen through Wartime Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979) p 151; New Jersey Historical Society, Jonathan Forman, Account Book; National Archives, Numbered Record Books, Records of Military Operations and Service, Orderly Books 60, Apr 27, 1782-Aug 9, 1782, p145; Forman’s discharge is mentioned in John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 24, p 474; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 20, 8 April–31 May 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 439–441; Berg, Fred A., Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments, and Independent Corps (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1972) p 82.

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