The Capture of Lt. Col. Klein and Others Seeking to Go to New York

Wiliam Klein was born in Germany but was living in America when the Revolutionary War began. In 1776, he helped raise the so-called German Regiment—a Continental Army unit comprised of German-American immigrants from Maryland and Pennsylvania. He served as a major in Washington’s Army through the campaigns of 1776, 1777, and 1778 (including the Battle of Monmouth campaign). In September 1778, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel of the regiment. But the regiment diminished in size and was consolidated out of existence in June 1779; Klein was squeezed out of his command.

Klein apparently became disaffected. He petitioned and received permission to return to Germany, but getting to Germany was difficult. Few, if any, American ships were Germany-bound and any American ship that attempted to do so faced a high likelihood of capture passing the British Isles. In comparison, there was regular traffic between British-held New York City and German ports—shuttling men and supplies between home and German soldiers in America. Klein apparently decided that defecting to the British was the best way to get home.

The Capture of Lt. Colonel Klein

On January 9, 1781, Colonel David Forman of Manalapan wrote Governor William Livingston about Klein. He discussed Klein’s passage across New Jersey to Manasquan:

A certain Lt. Col. Klein, late of the American Army, and discharged vizt June 1779 - Col Klein left Philadelphia, come by way of Yarkey's Ferry, from there across the country to a certain Walter Curtis at Manasquan.

Curtis was a Quaker who defied his church’s pacifism by serving in the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers before deserting and returning home. He was convicted of an unnamed misdemeanor (likely illegally trading with the British) in 1779 and fined £150 and then fined in 1780 for militia delinquency. In 1781, he had a bond cashed for missing a required court appearance, and then was convicted of another misdemeanor with a massive £500 fine. It is probable this fine was for his complicity with Klein.

Forman’s letter discussed Klein’s arrest for attempting to go to New York illegally:

On the way through the back parts of Upper Freehold some of the inhabitants took the alarm from his going down in a wagon of and in company of a certain John Jones, they pursued and overtook Mr. Klein at the aforementioned Curtis', your Excellency will observe by the enclosed affidavits of Elisha Stout that Mr. Klein inquired how he, Col Klein, should get to New York; they took and brought up Col Klein to the Grand Jury - in the course of our examining him we was fully convinced his destination was New York, his confession was induced fully.

The arrest of a Continental Army senior officer for attempting to defect to the enemy merited the attention of newspapers. New Jersey Gazette reported on January 17, "Lt. Colonel Klein, formerly in the service of the United States, was last week apprehended in the County of Monmouth on his way to New York." The Pennsylvania Evening Post ran the same report a week later.

Klein was brought before New Jersey’s Chief Justice David Brearley. Brearley was an Upper Freehold resident who likely knew the people who arrested Klein, and he likely knew Klein from their common service as mid-level officers in Washington’s camp from 1776 to 1779. On February 1, Brearley wrote Livingston about Klein. He explained that Klein was looking for a disaffected shore resident to take him to New York, but because Klein was not a New Jersey resident and had permission to return to Germany, it was unclear if he could be prosecuted under New Jersey law. Brearley was unsure what to do with him:

I am at a loss with respect to Lt. Col. Klein and don't incline to have anything to do with him. I think it would be very hard to punish him by the laws of this State... but to set him at liberty will be an encouragement for him to attempt it again.

The Governor and Klein apparently reached an accord. Livingston pardoned Klein on February 8 on the condition that he return to Pennsylvania and never return to New Jersey.

Other Captures in Monmouth County

Historian Harry Ward wrote that escaped British and Loyalist prisoners used the Pinelands of Monmouth and Burlington Counties as "a sort of underground railroad" to go within British lines. Other articles demonstrate that dozens of so-called London Traders, disaffected Monmouth Countians, regularly ferried goods (and, when necessary, people) from Monmouth farms into British lines. Klein’s curious capture was one of many cases of disaffected men or former soldiers seeking passage to New York via Monmouth County. Seven other cases are summarized below (list is not exhaustive):

• June 1779: Three British soldiers who escaped prison in Frederick, Maryland walked to New Jersey. With a local guide named Atkinson, they were “apprehended making their way through the pines to the Monmouth seashore, in order to get to New York."

• August 1779: "Samuel Slack & John Shellman [horse thieves who previously escaped jail in Philadelphia] were taken up at Freehold.” The thieves presented a false passport and were released by local officials who did not detect the false document.

• February 1780: A party of 22 British prisoners and two runaway slaves “with their guide, Joseph Hayes, were taken up as they were passing through Monmouth County on their way to New York."

• May 1780: Two Pennsylvania outlaws, John Smith and Robert Smith, wanted for murder, attempted to escape to New York via Monmouth County. A local Whig “forced them to throw down their weapons… marched them several miles, and lodged them in jail at Freehold.”

• June 1780: A party of 34 German soldiers serving in the British army "were taken up in Monmouth County. They were on their way to New York, piloted by persons as yet unknown. These gentry are sent to Philadelphia."

• November 1780: Monmouth Countians, Robert Woodward, Robert Wilson and “three Negroes" escaped the state prison in Trenton “by undermining the same.” They were seeking to “get to the enemy.” A $2,000 reward offered for taking Woodward; a $250 reward for the others.

• January 1781: Five Loyalists escaped from prison in Philadelphia “they have been made prisoners by the Rebels and confined in Philadelphia gaol, from whence they fortunately escaped on the 10th inst.” They arrived in New York, via Monmouth County, on January 19.

Monmouth County and the Continental Army Mutiny

In December 1780, Pennsylvania and New Jersey soldiers in Washington’s Army mutinied at Morristown. According to William Smith, a leading Loyalist in New York, the British commander in chief, Henry Clinton was “pleased and yet I think distrustful of the mutineers.” Clinton, via spies, offered the mutineers the back pay owed to them by the Continental Congress if they would defect to the British. He also “advised their [mutineers] crossing the south branch of the Raritan, and going into Monmouth” where disaffected locals could link them up with Loyalist boats to ferry them to New York.

Clinton ordered Elisha Lawrence (the pre-war Monmouth County Sheriff who commanded the 1st Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers through 1777) into Monmouth County to consort with the mutineers. Lawrence was ordered "to go out to Mount Pleasant [near Middletown], [and] from there, by Scott's Tavern, try to get to Princeton” to link up with an unnamed man in direct contact with the mutineers. The order continued:

If they mean to come join us, to tell them that we have been ready to go into the Jerseys whenever they choose to call upon us. If they have anything to propose, we shall be ready to hear anyone they send and will be answerable to their safety.

Lawrence apparently went into Monmouth County, though there are no letters that detail his time there. As late as January 29, Clinton was discussing plans to ferry mutineers over from Monmouth County "from whence our boats and vessels could easily bring them off." However, through a combination of concessions and punishments, the mutinies collapsed. While the mutineers never came into Monmouth County, the episode shows that the British high command viewed Monmouth County as the most permeable place in New Jersey for bringing over defectors.

Relevant Historic Site: Morristown National Historical Park

Sources: Klein’s service record is summarized in Fracis Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army (Washington, D.C. The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Inc. 1914); David Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, January 9, 1781; information on Walter Curtis is Michael Adelberg’s Biographical File, unpublished at the Monmouth County Historical Association; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post, January 1781; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, January 1781; David Brearley to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 135-6, 140; Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Provincial Council, 1859, p285; Papers Relating to the War of the Revolution, v3, p285; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, August 4, 1779; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, February 23, 1780; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, June 7, 1780; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 5, p 129; Harry Ward, Between the Lines, (Bloomsbury Academic, 2002) pp.110-1; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971)  pp. 373-4; Carl Van Doren, Mutiny in January: The Story of a Crisis in the Continental Army (New York: Viking, 1943), pp. 177, 228.