Pine Robbers Defeat Militia at Cedar Creek

In December 1782, the Revolutionary War, as a military event, was over in most of the United States. However, the Jersey shore between Toms River and Little Egg Harbor was a glaring exception. Illegal trade with the British continued to flourish and conflicts occurred when London Traders and privateers came upon each other. More violent was the Pine Robber gang of John Bacon, which killed and wounded 21 militia in nighttime attack on October 25 and then seized a vessel and skirmished with privateer sailors on December 15.

Earlier in the war, Bacon and his colleague, William Davenport, commanded parties as large as 70 as men, but it appears that the size of Bacon’s gang had dwindled to less than half that size by late 1782. However, Bacon operated along the lower Monmouth shore (Stafford Township) and Little Harbor Township of Burlington County where he was generally supported of disaffected locals. With local assistance, his smaller parties remained capable of defeating local militia.

The “Battle” of Cedar Creek in Newspapers and Letters

On January 8, 1783, the New Jersey Gazette reported on Bacon’s skirmish with Burlington County militia. The “battle” occurred at Cedar Creek in Stafford Township on December 27:

Captain Richard Shreve of the Burlington County light-horse and Captain Edward Thomas of the Mansfield militia, having received information that John Bacon with his banditti of robbers were in the neighborhood of Cedar Creek bridge, collected a party and immediately went in pursuit of them.

The report stated that Bacon's men had "the advantage" of holding better ground, but the militia bravely attacked anyway:

It was nevertheless determined to charge them, the onset of the part of the militia was furious and opposed by the refugees with great firmness for a considerable time, several of them having been guilty of such enormous crimes as to have no expectation of mercy should they surrender. They were nevertheless at the point of giving way when the militia were unexpectantly fired upon from a party of inhabitants near that place who had suddenly come to Bacon's assistance. This put the militia in some confusion and gave the refugees time to get off.

The militia had one man (William Cook) killed and one more (Robert Reckless) fatally wounded. Bacon’s party lost one man (Ichabod Johnson). Bacon and three other Pine Robbers were wounded. Seven locals were taken prisoner for assisting Bacon and lodged in the Burlington County jail. The militia also took a "considerable quantity of contraband and stolen goods in searching some of the suspected houses and cabins on the shore."

The New York Gazette printed the same report.

Colonel Israel Shreve, leading the Burlington County militia, wrote Governor William Livingston on the skirmish at Cedar Creek the day after it occurred. His report mirrors the newspaper account, but provides additional information on militia party:

This evening a party of horse and foot returned from several days search for Bacon and party. Our party consisted of six horsemen and twenty foot... The party returned by way of Cedar Creek Bridge in Monmouth County.

Shreve also noted that it was Bacon’s men who showed themselves to the militia, ready for a fight: “While refreshing at a tavern, Bacon and his party appeared at the bridge.”

The “Battle” of Cedar Creek in Veteran’s Pension Applications

A handful of militiamen submitted veteran’s pension applications that included narratives of the Battle of Cedar Creek. Benjamin Shreve recalled the battle and his return to Cedar Creek in January:

This affirmant was engaged in the Battle of Cedar Creek on the 26th of December 1782, in which battle William Cook was killed and Robert Reckless mortally wounded, of which wound he did on 8th day of January 1783. This affirmant had his horse wounded in the neck, his pistol butt broken, and the flint knocked out of his carbine. After this engagement, he returned home, procured another horse and with 18 of his company returned immediately to Cedar Creek, which was about 40 miles distant, there to take care of the said Robert Reckless and guarded him from the Tories and refugees about that neighborhood.

While out raising provisions for his guard in January, Shreve observed that “the left leg of the affirmant’s pantaloons which was quite bloody.” He recalled:

Upon examination, this affirmant had by some means unknown received a wound immediately below the knee pant from which the blood was freely flowing. Doctor Swain, the physician, who had charge of the wounded soldier, put a plaster on the wound which became so much inflamed that this affirmant was unable to perform military duty.

When Reckless died on January 8, Shreve’s party returned home with the dead man’s body.

William Potts also recalled the battle at Cedar Creek vividly:

We were attacked by the Refugees on a long, open causeway with a deep morass on each side. The enemy was posted in the thick woods and brush at the far end of the causeway. They fired on us and shot down two young men who were mounted, one dead, and the other mortally wounded. We brought them off and retired on the count of the disadvantage of our position, leaving them (the enemy) in the possession of the ground they occupied.

Like Shreve, Potts reported on the return to Cedar Creek in January:

In one week afterwards we returned with a strong re-enforcement, and secured the woods and swamps from Egg Harbor to Toms River, but could find no trace of them - We took about twenty of the disaffected (not in arms) prisoner, and lodged them all in jail at Burlington for trial.

William Sutton recalled additional details about the skirmish, stating that, in addition to Cook and Reckless dying, a handful of militiamen were wounded: “Thomas Salter, Thomas Cook and Samuel Beakes and others from the militia were wounded." Four days later, Sutton was back on the shore where he "assisted in capturing Thomas Bird, who was a very desperate and active refugee who had been a terror of the countryside" and also captured some of Bacon’s men, "Holmes and several others."  Sutton stated that his company was "kept in a constant state of alarm" by Bacon whose "daring and cruelty" and leadership of "numerous bands of Wood Rangers, Tories and Refugees" terrorized the shore from "Burlington [County] to Toms River." Bird’s capture is discussed in the appendix of this article.

Abner Page wrote of marching “from Slawtown through Burlington County into the pines of Monmouth County in pursuit of the Tories and refugees, came upon them at Cedar Creek Bridge.” He recalled:

Here we had an action in which we lost one man killed, Sergeant Cook, one mortally wounded, Robert Reckless, who died shortly after. Bacon, the leader and commander of the enemy, was wounded but got off, was sometime after killed and fell into our hands. I still continued under Captain Shreve, scouring the Pines and along the shore, in pursuit of the enemies, refugees & robbers who were constantly committing depredations on the inhabitants - burning, robbing & stealing horses and driving off their cattle.

John Salter recalled that, “He marched with the said company to the head of Wood Swamp in the County of Monmouth to arrest some London Traders.” Shortly after that, he went out again:

He again went out with the said troop under Captain Richard Shreve to Monmouth County to repel an incursion made by the Tories and refugees, and at a skirmish at Cedar Creek Bridge between the Jersey militia composed of a company commanded by Captain Edward Thomas equipped both to act as cavalry and infantry.

William Newberry briefly recalled that he was at Cedar Creek and that "the skirmish lasted about two or three hours and night came on, so that the refugees got to go to their boats."

Perspective

David Fowler, who comprehensively studied Bacon, notes that after the skirmish at Cedar Creek, colonels Israel Shreve of Burlington County and David Forman of Monmouth County exchanged recriminations. Shreve charged that the Monmouth militia should have long since disarmed the Tories of Stafford Township; Forman countered that Shreve was unable to control the land that his militia was assigned.

In reality, neither the Monmouth nor Burlington militias were negligent. Pine Robbers were comprised of and supported by disaffected locals in a region that had never been effectively-governed by or supportive of the Continental cause. Pine Robbers laired in salt marshes that negated land approaches from horse and artillery. Defeating the Pine Robbers and quelling unrest in the lower shore region posed formidable political and military challenges for New Jersey’s leaders. These challenges could not be overcome by the occasional marches of militia companies from outside the region.

However, Bacon’s attack at Cedar Creek was a Pyrrhic victory for the Pine Robbers. They lost several men (killed or captured). Bacon was wounded and two of his key comrades, Ichabod Johnson and Thomas Bird, were killed. While the Pine Robbers won the day on December 27, militia returned a few days later and faced no opposition when they did. Bacon would never again have the strength to stand against a militia party.

Historians disagree about when and where the last battle of the American Revolution was fought. Yorktown was the last formal battle between the Continental and British armies; battles between Great Britain and France continued to be fought on other continents for nearly a year after Cedar Creek; skirmishing between American frontiersmen and Native Americans continued well into 1783. But some historians have pointed to the fight at Cedar Creek as the last battle of the Revolutionary War. A reasonable argument can be made that it was.

Related Historic Site: Cedar Bridge Tavern

Appendix: The Capture of Thomas Bird

Historian David Fowler, who studied the Pine Robbers exhaustively, concludes that Thomas Bird and his brother, Richard Bird, were both notorious Pine Robbers.

Richard Bird, served in the New Jersey Volunteers early in the war. He was stranded at Barnegat (likely while London Trading), and was apparently captured and jailed for a year. Antiquarian sources suggest that he lived in a cave near Cedar Creek late in the war and escaped capture more than once. According to an antiquarian source, Richard Bird was killed while in a cabin with a woman. The woman may have set him up, as she was "rifling the dead man's pockets within seconds of his death." Postwar veteran’s militia narratives do not corroborate these details about Richard Bird’s death, but do establish that he was Pine Robber hunted down by state troops in 1781.

Court records provide a more documentation of the robberies of Thomas Bird. He was indicted before Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer for grand larceny in October 1782 (along with Elisha Bennett). The indictment read: “Thomas Bird, late of the Township of Dover, laborer, and Elisha Bennett, late of the same, laborer, with force of arms" took "one certain whaleboat of the value of three pounds and the goods and chattels of one John Chadwick" which Bird and Bennett "did feloniously steal, take and carry away." Bird and Bennett pled not guilty.

Thomas Bird either escaped from prison or was paroled prior to sentencing. We know this because he committed another robbery on November 15, 1782. According to David Fowler, Bird was captured in a combined Burlington and Monmouth militia campaign to take Bacon in January 1783 (following the Battle of Cedar Creek). The militia also captured one of Bacon’s trusted boatmen, Jo Crumill, during this campaign.

Bird was indicted for an additional robbery at the next Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer, in July 1783 and again pled not guilty. The indictment read: "Thomas Bird, late of the Township of Dover" on November 15, "with force of arms… in the dwelling house of Abraham Platt… feloniously did make an assault" on Platt "and endanger his life." In addition, Bird "did feloniously put one watch chain of the value of four schillings, one blanket of the value of five schillings, and one small whaleboat of the value of three pounds.” There is no record of Bird’s sentencing.

Sources: Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, January 15, 1783, reel 2906; New Jersey Gazette, January 8, 1783, reel 1930; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p212-3; Howard H. Peckham, ed, The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), p 98; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Newberry; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Benjamin Shreve of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#  NJ  16273690; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Potts; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of William Sutton of NJ, National Archives, p37-9; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Abner Page of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#  NJ 25889537; Contained in: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Salter of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 14666904; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 265-7; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) pp 169-70 and 268-9; Kobbe, Gustav, The Jersey Coast and Pines. (Gustav Kobbe, 1889) p 70; Signed by Grand Jury Foreman -- Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer, NJ State Archives, #33983; Elisha Walton, Foreman of the Grand Jury, Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer, NJ State Archives, #33980.