New Jersey Assembly Struggles to Support State Troops

When the cavalry of Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee left Monmouth County in fall 1780, it marked the last time that Continental troops were stationed in Monmouth County. This put added responsibility on Colonel Asher Holmes’s undersized regiment of State Troops, raised from Monmouth County to defend Monmouth County. In a prior article, it was noted that New Jersey’s June 1780 recruiting law gave Continental Army recruiters significant advantages over State Troop recruiters. Now, with Lee’s withdrawal, the poor condition of Holmes’s regiment came into focus.

Asher Holmes and David Forman Appeal to State Assembly

On October 28, Holmes and most of his State Troop officers (Captains David Anderson and Samuel Carhart; Lieutenants Benjamin Corlies, John Blake, and David Imlay; Ensigns John Schenck and Peter Vanderhoff) petitioned the New Jersey Assembly:

The men under our command have not received any part of the pay due to them since their entering into this service, which makes the soldiers very uneasy; and as we know not in what money we will be paid, whether old Continental bills or the new emission, are therefore at a loss to know in what manner our pay rolls should be drawn as by the law for raising said troops, they are to have the same pay and rations that is allowed Continental troops, and at this time what they may be, we humbly conceive the Legislature of the State are to determine.

Within Monmouth County, Holmes was a political opponent of Colonel David Forman, leader of a set of Machiavellian Whigs who bitterly complained about his locally-negotiated prisoner exchanges with the enemy. Yet Forman understood that State Troops protected his family and property. So, Forman, on October 31, wrote his allies in the New Jersey Assembly (Nathaniel Scudder and Thomas Henderson who had prevailed in a tainted election) in support of the State Troops.

Forman warned of a 300-man Loyalist raiding party under Colonel John Simcoe that was poised to strike Amboy and then withdraw through Monmouth County to Sandy Hook. Forman warned, “If Col Simcoe should land at Amboy, he will more than probably make his retreat through Sandy Hook.” Forman’s report, given the size of his force and Simcoe’s feared reputation, likely stirred emotions in the Assembly—but it was largely incorrect. Simcoe raided Amboy with only 80 men, and he headed west into Somerset County, rather than south into Monmouth County.

Forman also wrote starkly about the condition of the State Troops:

Capt. Anderson, who commands the company of 6-month men at Shrewsbury has six cartridges per man, and that Col Holmes has no cartridges to give him - I inquired if there were any cartridges in the magazine at this place - found there was not one - the ammunition that was sent for Col Holme's Regt, I have myself delivered at different times to the troops on duty.

Forman also complained that Colonel Daniel Hendrickson's Shrewsbury militia had only 40 dozen cartridges for roughly five hundred men. Forman concluded, "This is our present situation - a frontier county, at all times exposed to incursion, now immediately threatened, with not a single dozen cartridges to be given out."

On October 31, the minutes of the New Jersey Assembly recorded receiving Holmes’s petition, "setting forth that the troops under their command have received no pay since their entering the service, and praying that the paymaster may be furnished with a sum of money sufficient for payment of the troops." Forman’s letter must have arrived at about the same time. Together, the two appeals impacted the Assembly. It responded with uncharacteristic speed. On November 1, it passed by a bill, by a 27-2 vote, to dispatch Nathaniel Scudder to Monmouth County with 80,000 cartridges and 1,000 flints "for the use of the militia of Monmouth and detachments of State Troops there stationed, to be delivered to Col. Holmes."

While the quick action of the Assembly was laudable, it was far from a long-term solution for the state’s inability to consistently pay or supply its State Troops. Three months later, on January 24, 1781, Captain Anderson wrote Governor Wiliam Livingston with an old complaint:

The raising of [State] troops is much retarded by reason of no money being paid to the men discharged from the late service, I could wish that the day could be had that the men could be got with ease at little or no expense.

The letter was delivered by Lieutenant Elisha Shepherd, who, It was hoped, would return with the money owed the troops.

Other State Troop Difficulties

Months before the problems of October 1780, Holmes had difficulties provisioning and paying his State Troops. On May 26, 1780, as Holmes was mustering his regiment, he was chastised for buying provisions from local sources rather than the state’s purchasing agent. Robert Morris wrote because Holmes did not use the state’s agent, Holmes would have “difficulty in the settlement of your account... nor can this matter be rectified.” Morris, a leading voice on financial matters in the Continental Congress, warned Holmes to purchase from state contractors in the future.

On September 22, Holmes wrote a long memorial to the New Jersey Assembly about being unable to settle the accounts with the state and his men. This was due to a shortage of funds from the Legislature and also because his records were lost when the British Army sacked his house the day before the Battle of Monmouth. As a result, Holmes declared that "he is rendered incapable of procuring sufficient accounts in order to reach a settlement." The state of New Jersey appointed a commissioner, Thomas Henderson, to settle the accounts of Holmes’s state troops. As late as December, Henderson was still working to do so.

In May 1781, Holmes worried about the security of Monmouth County in a letter to Livingston. He forwarded a note from Ensign David Imlay, commanding the State Troops at Toms River, who had appealed to Captain Samuel Carhart (of Middletown) for more men:

Ensign Imlay, stationed at Toms River (by order of your Excellency) is calling on him [Carhart] for more men to reinforce him at that post, as part of Imlay's men have enlisted in the Continental Army; Capt. Carhart & almost every other person acquainted with our shore are of opinion that this number of men at this time [is] too small for the purpose intended, defending the frontiers of that part of the county.

Holmes was worried by the dwindling number of State Troops in his command, and the lack of support from militia from other counties ordered into Monmouth County:

I believe the number of men enlisted here don't much exceed half what the law has directed to be stationed in this county for the defense of its frontiers, every post is much too weak and the inhabitants in this part of the country who have stood firm and exerted themselves on every action during this contest, are much exposed to the ravages of our enemies - and some of the counties in this State have not sent any men for the defense of the frontiers.

Holmes asked Livingston to again order militia from other counties to defend distressed areas like Monmouth. Livingston did so but the response from other counties was again lackluster. While companies of militia did station in Monmouth County, their frequency and force size was rarely what Holmes or Livingston requested. Monmouth Countians were largely on their own to defend themselves.

Related Historic Site: National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey

Sources: National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - David Imlay; David Forman to Nathaniel Scudder and Thomas Henderson, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War Documents, #102; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, October 30 and November 3, 1780, p 10-16; David Anderson to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, January 24, 178; Robert Morris to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; Morristown National Historical Park Collection, reel 23, Thomas Henderson; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, May 6, 1781.