Provisioning the French Fleet Via Rumson

On July 11, 1778, a large French fleet anchored off Shrewsbury, an opening the connected the Shrewsbury River to the ocean four miles south of Sandy Hook. They came to annihilate the smaller British fleet that had withdrawn inside the Hook. The fleet had a 14-9 advantage in large warships, and their largest ships carried more cannon than any of the British ships. However, the French had two problems: First, they did not know if their large ships could successfully navigate the narrow channel that served as the shipping lane into lower New York Harbor; second, the French fleet was out of fresh water and provisions for their 11,000 men after three months at sea.

The need for water was dire. Admiral Charles Henri D’Estaing, leading the fleet, wrote, “the leakage, waste and pilferage of the food, and excessive consumption, as well as several irregularities in the plan for water, left us little.” He was disappointed that local boats did not greet the fleet: "We received hardly any advice or signal, no ship from Long Island or the Jersies was zealous enough to come." So, D’Estaing decided to personally lead a landing party on July 12. The apparent destination was the freshwater spring immediately south of Sandy Hook on the Navesink Highlands, often identified as “the watering place” on maps.

The French Come Ashore in Monmouth County

To get there, the French likely sought to send the landing party through “the Gut”—a channel of water that, due to violent storms the prior winter, now separated Sandy Hook from the mainland. D’Estaing was advised that the watering place was within reach: “A pilot gave to us by the Americans assured us we could cross the bar at Sandy Hook and get water there."  The Gut, however, likely had a strong flow that created novel currents and sand bars on the ocean side. These new hazards were probably unknown to the pilot.

The attempt to traverse the Gut was a fiasco—boats overturned and men drowned in the fast water. Samuel Cooper wrote: “he [D’Estaing] threw himself into a small Boat… the Navigation of which was so extremely difficult, as to cost him an Officer, many Sailors, and a Number of Boats." The expedition was made worse by the appearance of British troops who blocked the French from escaping the fast water by coming onto Sandy Hook. D’Estaing wrote: “The cavalry and infantry of the English appeared on the coast with the bar, preventing us from landing.” On the far side of the Gut, British ships were close enough for D’Estaing to see their flags. The French had to retreat.

The second landing was at Black Point (present-day Rumson). The French entered the Shrewsbury River. Lieutenant Jean-Julien Chevalier LeMauff, with the Admiral, described the journey:

The Admiral himself went down in the morning into this river with two boats fit out to reconnoiter the country, which appeared to us well peopled, as we lacked fresh victuals of every kind, and even water, having passed three months at sea.

Across the river at Black Point (Rumson), D’Estaing first met the locals. The Admiral recalled:

I was received by a few foot soldiers; after a short time, which seemed very long to me, I was received by a Quaker, 'A friend of Everybody in the World', but more a friend of the English than Americans, proved to me by his remarks and by the tea he gave me, which I did not find very good. I was able by this undertaking to make contact with several of the best Patriots, and the acquaintance of the dirty river Shrewsbury, as well as getting some fresh water from the wells.

D’Estaing’s host was probably John Hartshorne, a prominent Quaker who lived near the probable French landing point. Hartshorne’s granddaughter, Lulu, recalled what she was told about John Hartshorne meeting D’Estaing. Hartshorne “brought him [D’Estaing] and some officers home to breakfast, one [French officer] was quartered at the house a considerable time, a very Gentlemanly intelligent man -- spoke English very well."

D’Estaing needed to establish an outpost in order to “find water and to establish correspondence with General Washington.” LeMauff described that outpost.

The next morning the General sent me with a detachment to employ the means of watering there by wells; to accomplish this daily we had a detachment of 250 men, 4 cannons, and some swivel guns mounted on carriages. The inhabitants being American but, in number, several to be found who are Royalists, we feared that some English detachments might come to attack us.

One of the locals of ambiguous loyalty was Benjamin White. He wrote of the French:

A French fleet came to anchor off Jumping Point and sent their boats ashore for water. They were cut off by the British fleet from obtaining the watering places [closer to Sandy Hook]. I assisted them in carting their empty casks, filling them and returning through the surf.

A Loyalist newspaper, the New York Gazette, reported on another meeting. A Scot naval officer serving in the French fleet "went ashore at Shrewsbury; the inhabitants finding he spoke good English crowded to converse with him." The officer was reportedly condescending toward them. Further, "he looked upon their independence as only a dream, for France or Britain must have this Country."

From Philadelphia, Cooper wrote of D’Estaing’s cool reception from disaffected locals:

Not a person had come to him from the Shore: That part of the Jerseys had not then the Reputation of the greatest Zeal for the common Cause: Nothing presented itself to the Squadron of our Allies, unacquainted with our Coasts, but an inaccessible Shore.

Continental Government Sends Supplies to French

As the French procured a trickle of provisions from people living along the Shrewsbury River, the Continental Congress sought to provide more. On July 12, Richard Henry Lee of Congress wrote D’Estaing:

A commissary has orders quickly to collect 50 bullocks and 700 sheep with a quantity of vegetables and a number of poultry, and he will wait on your Excellency to know your pleasure... I am to inform you that in Little Egg Harbor or Toms River, neither of them far from the Hook, fresh water may be conveniently obtained.

George Washington also sought to get supplies to the French, writing a commissary on July 15:

I desire you immediately to select Fifty of your best Bullocks, and give orders to have two hundred Sheep, if to be procured and a quantity of poultry purchased in the most convenient part of the Country. They are intended as a present to the Count D'Estaing Admiral of the French Fleet now laying off Sandy Hook. You are to send them to the Coast as expeditiously as possible.

The French diplomat at Philadelphia, Conrad Alexandre Gerard, also sought to get supplies to the fleet after receiving a list of needs from D’Estaing:  "I have curtailed the salted beef because it is not in abundance this season” but he advised the Admiral of local supplies “of fresh meat for your crews at a better price than that of salted meat. We expect to be able to furnish almost all the articles; however, it will take several days.” Curiously, Gerard asked D’Estaing to buy him a slave: “Sir, if there are some negroes for sale in this country… have the goodness to send [one to] me.”

Lee again wrote D'Estaing on July 16 that Congress was sending "a supply of water and fresh provisions… with all possible expedition.” A French frigate in the Delaware Bay, Chimera, with local vessels, “will be dispatched immediately with as much water as we can find Casks for.” Beyond that, Lee noted:

The same vessels will bring your Excellency some hundred barrels of bread and flour, with a small supply of fresh provisions. A Commissary has orders quickly to collect near Shrewsbury and the Hook 50 Bullocks, 700 Sheep, with a quantity of vegetables and a number of poultry.

Lee reminded D’Estaing that “fresh water can be conveniently obtained" at Toms River and Egg Harbor.

On the same day, one of Monmouth County’s leading patriots, David Forman, arrived at the French outpost. Capt. Choin of the French Army introduced him to D’Estaing: "We are sending you a Colonel from the militia who knows the [Shrewsbury] river, but he arrives by only one horse and carriage” to avoid attracting attention of the British. John Laurens reached Shrewsbury the next day.

Colonel John Laurens, the son of the President of the Congress, had “taken quarters at Shrewsbury" to help the French. He went aboard the French fleet accompanied by Forman. In a July 17 letter, Laurens noted that Forman had already been out to see the French. He said of Forman: “A Gentleman for whom I have the highest esteem on account of his indefatigability and great sacrifices... He is a man of enlightened understanding." Laurens also wrote of the difficulties in finding provisions for the French:

I found the fleet under the greatest difficulty in procuring water; its distance from the shore was too great to role [sic] the casks down to the place of embarkation; the disaffected citizens either refused their wagons or granted them only at an exorbitant price.

In addition, the French suffered some losses while rowing heavily-laden boats through the surf to their ships. On July 15, "4 seamen of the Aimable were drowned in passing the bar.” The next day, “Our large dinghy stove [overturned] on the bar, two men drowned and several sheep."

The promised livestock had not reached the French on July 18. That day, Reverend James Caldwell, a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress, was at Freehold: “I have just received General Washington's order from Congress to send the Admiral 50 best bullocks, 200 sheep, poultry & I am preparing to transmit this well-timed present in the best manner I can.”

The traffic of small vessels from Shrewsbury Inlet to the fleet was watched by the British. Rear Admiral James Gambier, wrote about it on July 19: “The [French] fleet have been ever since watering at the mouth of Shrewsbury River near the Navesink, where they appear to do it with great convenience and dispatch.” The British were also debriefed by a Loyalist fisherman, Samuel DeHart, who “was taken Prisoner… fishing of[f] the Sea Bass bank.” DeHart said that “Washington made the Fleet a present of 500 fat oxen—the French have landed a great many Troops in the Jerseys." DeHart was partially correct.

On July 21, Reverend Caldwell wrote that he finally gathered and drove the requested livestock to the French fleet. "Yesterday got them [cattle] on board, the sheep and poultry not gathered on time." He also wrote that the French had “a very plentiful supply of hard money, and easily tempted the Monmouth people to prepare to this market." In a second letter, Caldwell noted that the French did not want the sheep he brought them, "told me he had a supply of sheep waiting in another way.” The provisions made it on board the French fleet just in time for it to leave for Rhode Island.

Caldwell was angry. The French “stripped, then sunk or burnt" the captured fishing boats and kept the local fishermen they had taken "except young Samuel DeHart whom I happened to see while I was on board." Caldwell likely did not know that DeHart was a British informer. Caldwell wrote that Captain Patrick Dennis was told that captured fishermen would be “sent ashore for trial by their Country & it was consented.”  Perhaps the French better knew the danger of placing men like DeHart on parole until a trial could be arranged.

The Jersey Shore Responds to the French Fleet

The arrival of the French fleet was big news up and down the Jersey Shore. Whig villages like Chestnut Neck (upriver from Little Egg Harbor) and Toms River sent pilots and ships to the French. But the villages were tiny in comparison to the needs of the French fleet. For example, Captain Samuel Brown of Forked River sailed out of Toms River, “his boat was intended for the fleet to ferry her their [American] signals.”

The arrival of the French fleet chased the British off the Jersey shore and that unleashed several small privateers and militia boats previously blockaded in New Jersey’s small ports. This is well-documented by maritime historian Donald Shomette, who wrote: "The French alliance ingited a dramatic escalation in the number of active privateers and a stunning increase in British losses." Prizes taken by American privateers jumped from 128 in 1778 to 298 in 1780.

The unleashing of local privateers in summer 1778 is evident in New Jersey Admiralty Court advertisements and the letters of John Van Emburgh, a privateer owner at Toms River. He wrote of privateers entering and leaving port in July 1778. The departure of the British was the reason: “The enemy vessels has now left the bar [off Toms River] … the privateers are again out.”

The French Quit Sandy Hook

The French decision to quit Sandy Hook for Rhode Island was forced by the realization that their large ships were ill-suited for entering the channel north of Sandy Hook, but inadequate provisions likely hastened this decision. D’Estaing wrote Washington about this on August 3: “The extreme difficulty of procuring water at Shrewsbury, and the tardiness with which it is collected from different places, have long since obliged me to retrench our allowance.”

The British understood this also. On July 23, the day after the French left for Rhode Island, three British ships went to the abandoned French outpost. Captain James Parker wrote:

Three of our ships ly [sic] where the French lay yesterday. A Fisherman came up, says he was taken by the French & has been a week with them. Says they landed their sick at Shrewsberry, about 4 or 500, that they wanted water & could only get trifling supply from thence.

While New Jersey and Continental leaders did their best to supply the French, the Shrewsbury Inlet anchorage was too far from commissaries to promptly bring them the needed provisions. The disaffection of the Shrewsbury shore compounded the problem. The inability to trust the residents of Shrewsbury would soon push Washington to station a company of Continentals there.

Related Historic Site: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: Judith M. Olsen, Lippincott, Five Generations of the Descendants of Richard and Abigail Lippincott (Woodbury, N.J.: Gloucester County Historical Society, 1982) pp. 159-61; Samuel Cooper to Ben Franklin, Ben Franklin Papers online: http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=37&page=240a002; Journal of LIeutenant Jean-Julien Chevalier LeMauf, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 359-360; Henri Doniol, ed., Histoire de la Participation de la France à l'Établissement des États Unis d'Amérique: Correspondance Diplomatique et Documents, 5 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1876–99), vol. 3, p. 447-9; Lulu Hartshorne’s account is in Monmouth County Historical Association, Collection #86, box 1, folder 21; Henri D’Estaing to George Washington, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 369-370; Jedidiah Huntington, Huntington Papers, Connecticut History Society Collections, vol. 20 (1923), p 411; George Washington to Jeremiah Wadsworth, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw120217)); Alexandre Gerard in Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 397; Richard Henry Lee to Henri D’Estaing in Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 359-360; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Charles Paulin, Out-Letters of the Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty (New York: Navy History Society, 1914) vol. 1, p 267; James Caldwell to Elias Boudinot, Library of Congress, Elias Boudinot Coll. Letters; Capt. Choin to Henri D’Estaing in Henri Doniol, ed., Histoire de la Participation de la France à l'Établissement des États Unis d'Amérique: Correspondance Diplomatique et Documents, 5 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1876–99), vol. 3, p. 327-32; John Laurens, The Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the years 1777-8 (New York: New York Times, 1969) pp. 206-7; The loss of French boats is documented in the Logbook of the Languedoc, printed in Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 233; James Gambier to Earl of Sandwich in Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 465; Interrogation of Samuel DeHart, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 527; United State Naval Academy, Rosenbach Coll., James Caldwell; James Caldwell to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 50, July 23, 1778; Capt James Parker, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Naval History Foundation: Washington DC, 2018) vol 13, p 480; Henri D’Estaing to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw120322)).