The Battle of the Navesink

As discussed in other articles, Monmouth County’s militia “laid down their arms” during the Loyalist insurrections of December 1776—hundreds of militiamen accepted British “protection” by signing British loyalty oaths. When a regiment of Pennsylvania troops toppled the Loyalist insurrectionists in January, the Monmouth militia stayed home.

In late January, 1777, as the Pennsylvanians prepared to leave, Dr. Nathaniel Scudder (a lieutenant colonel of the militia) reassembled the 1st Regiment of the Monmouth militia—at least those men who would be reassembled. The Pennsylvania Post reported: “Many of the inhabitants of Monmouth County in New Jersey who received written [British] protections are now determined to return them to his Britannic Majesty's Commissioners in [gun] cartridges.”

In early February, a detachment of roughly 140 Monmouth militia marched east to the Navesink Highlands where it set up camp. Historians differ on the location of the camp: either Portland Manor, the home of Richard Hartshorne, the regiment’s Quartermaster, or the nearby home of his brother, Esek Hartshorne. They constructed a beacon to warn out the Shrewsbury militia in the event of an enemy incursion. Some of the men had been only there two nights when the British attacked.

British Accounts of the Battle of the Navesink

A British officer, Thomas Sullivan, offered the most complete account of what happened next. He wrote that on February 10, Major Gordon with 170 British regulars (another report says 200) from the 26th Regiment “embarked from Sandy Hook with the intention of cutting off a party of rebels stationed at the Highlands of Neversink.” He continued:

After being detained on board by hard gales of wind and bad weather for 3 days, they landed (wading up to their waists) on the beach at the Highlands, about 2 miles below the Enemy’s post. A little before day [on February 13], they marched and surprised the piquet without firing a shot: From thence, they proceeded a mile further to a house to which they approach from two different ways (the flanking companies to the right), a guard posted about 200 yards from the house was first alarmed. Thereafter, firing a few shots, together with the main body, who at first affected to form and make a stand, being pushed by the Battalion, fled too soon for the Grenadiers and Light Infantry to come up enough to cut off their retreat.

Sullivan reported that 72 militiamen were captured (other reports claim 74) and between 30 and 40 escaped. He also reported that “several dead bodies were found in the woods where the soldiers buried them.” The prisoners included two militia captains and four lieutenants. The British took the militia’s stores, including “3 barrels of powder, 770 ball cartridges, some salt provisions and 10 quarters of fresh beef.” One British soldier was killed in the battle. After the battle, Sullivan noted that “the prisoners were carried on board the Syren [at Sandy Hook]. Many of them had certificates from having taken the [British] Oath of Allegiance, which they took to cover their deceit.”

A newspaper report in the New York Royal Gazette corroborated Sullivan’s account; it also included information on the supporting role played by Colonel John Morris’s New Jersey Volunteers:

The guides were intelligent and behaved very well. Col. Morris's new levies...had been detached to a different place, picked up some of those who made their escape from Hartshorne's, together with an officer and small party had crossed the river from the rebel's post at Black Point, for the business of Tory hunting.

Historian Edward Raser noted that Morris learned of the militia camp when he led a Loyalist party to Black Point to salvage a beached vessel. There, he chased off a small militia guard. The vessel was a British supply boat driven ashore during a storm on February 1; it was too badly damaged to sail. A disaffected man, Cornelius McClease Jr., alerted Morris’s men to the vessel and the militia camp near it.

General William Howe, commanding British forces in America, wrote about the Battle of the Navesink twice. In February 1777, he reported to the British Foreign Secretary, “A considerable number of the rebels having appeared on the heights above the Light House at Sandy Hook, Major Gordon with 200 men landed behind them, attacked and defeated them, killing several and taking 74 prisoners, which has occasioned the rebels to abandon all that part of Monmouth county." Two years later, Howe wrote about the mixed loyalties of the Monmouth militiamen:

In the Pockets of the Killed, and Prisoners, were also found Certificates of those very Men having Subscribed a declaration of Allegiance, in Consequence of the Proclamation of the King’s Commissioners for a general amnesty.

American Accounts of the Battle of Navesink

There are no surviving contemporary accounts of the Battle of the Navesink from the Monmouth militia. The closest to it is an “account of losses” compiled by Captain Barnes Smock of Middletown. He reported losing a “rifle gun,” cartridge box, pistol, and silver hinges during the battle. After the war, however, many militiamen wrote about the battle in their veteran pension applications. The most complete account was from Henry Vunck:

In the latter part of January 1777, he was drafted by orders from Col Nathaniel Scudder to serve for one month company mustered under Lieut. John Whitlock at Freehold and marched through Middletown to Sandy Hook and were out as near as he can recollect 17 days. The party to which he belonged were surprised and taken prisoner by the 26th regiment of British troops and Lieut. Whitlock was killed. The prisoners were put on board the British guard ship at Sandy Hook and remained there a few days and was then removed to the Sugar House in the city of New York where he was kept until in the fall where he removed to and was confined on board the transport ship Goodenough for 2 months and 7 days. Was then sent to the hospital where he remained until he was exchanged, where he returned home having been gone from the time of the draft one year and one month, and having suffered while a prisoner great privations and … in poor clothing and scanty & unwholesome provisions. Many of the prisoners died in consequence of this treatment.

The treatment of the captured militiamen is detailed in the next article. Vunck’s narrative is corroborated by several other militiamen. Interesting additional details are offered in other accounts.

Peter Crawford recalled mustering with his father and that “his father was shot down by his side at the Highlands of Navesink.” Matthias Smith recalled that his companions were captured but he made his escape after “his hat was shot through and the belt of his drum shot off.” John Bennett recalled a half-dozen militiamen being captured the day before the battle (probably by John Morris’s New Jersey Volunteers), “having gone over in a skiff to learn what was the cause of the firing the night before." James Bowne recalled missing the battle because “he had permission that night to go home for clothes - and by that means escaped being made prisoner.”

The Battle of the Navesink was the worst defeat of the war for the Monmouth militia and it set back efforts to restore the militia and civil government in Monmouth County. But with more Monmouth Loyalists leaving the county there would be new opportunities to rebuild the militia.

Related Historic Site: Portland Manor (Portland Place)

Sources: Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, p 277; Andrew D. Mellick, Jr., Lesser Crossroads, ed. Hubert G. Schmidt from Andrew D. Mellick, Jr., The Story of an Old Farm (1889 reprint) (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1948), p 302; Thomas Sullivan, Journal of Operations in the American War, American Philosophical Society, p180; William Howe to George Germain, Letter extracted in North British Intelligencer or Constitutional Miscellancy, 1777, p 413; London Gazette, March 18, 1777; The Narrative of Lieut. Gen. Sir William Howe, in a Committee of the House of Commons, on the 29th of April 1779, Relative to His Conduct during His Late Command of the King’s Troops in North America, London, 1780; Mary Hyde, The Battle of the Navesink Highlands, American Monthly Magazine, vol 9, 1896, pp 27-28; Hyde, Battle of the Neversink", New York Times, February 23, 1896; Mary Hyde, Battle of the Neversink", New York Times, February 23, 1896; Mary Hyde, Battle of the Neversink", New York Times, February 23, 1897; Wiliam Howe’s Testimony before Parliament, The History of Civil War in America (Mew's Gate, United Kingdom: T. Payne & Sons) p 272; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Benjamin Berry of VA, National Archives, p4-6; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Timothy Mount; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Van Note of Ohio, S.1161; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Peter Crawford of PA, www.fold3.com/image/#15198310; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Harmonus Peak NY, www.fold3.com/image/#25834037; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Matthias Smith of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#16882568; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - James Perrine; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Bennett, www.fold3.com/image/#13715628; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Tunis Vanderveer; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - James Bowne; Barnes Smock, Account of Losses, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #1059; William Stryker, Officers and Men of New Jersey During the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1967); Edward Raser, "American Prisoners Taken at the Battle of the Navesink," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, vol. 45, n 2, May 1970, p50-1.