Lt. Colonel Tupper's Continentals Attack on Sandy Hook

As discussed in prior articles, the British Navy secured Sandy Hook in April 1776. But Sandy Hook’s strategic location at the entry point of New York Harbor and the imminent arrival of the British Army made it a tempting target for the Continental Army.

In May 1776, Lt. Colonel Benjamin Tupper of Massachusetts commanded a regiment of Continentals stationed at Perth Amboy. In addition to commanding a regiment, he was commodore over a squadron of small sailing vessels and whaleboats in Raritan Bay. Two British frigates, Phoenix and Asia, and their tenders, faced them at Sandy Hook. The disparity in heavy guns between Tupper’s motley flotilla and the British frigates made it impossible to attack Sandy Hook by sea.

In early May, Tupper apparently asked George Washington about attacking the British by landing on the Middletown shoreline and marching up Sandy Hook to capture the peninsula and lighthouse. Washington’s aide de camp, Robert Harrison, responded cautiously: "On dislodging the people at the Light House, he [Washington] does not mean to advise an attempt, unless you are certain it will be met with success - a miscarriage would douse the spirits of the men."

But Tupper remained focused on Sandy Hook, even as more British ships arrived. On June 4, he wrote:

There was two ships arrived within the Hook yesterday, there is now at the Hook eight sail of square wrigd [rigged] vessels and five small craft, besides the Asia & her small Tender. It is thought (but we can’t certainly determine) that three of the vessels which lately arivd [sic] is the Roebuck, the Marcury [sic] & the Liverpool.

Tupper also was annoyed by the conduct of the Middletown militia under Colonel George Taylor. The militia received three British deserters and immediately dispatched an officer to interrogate them. But the militia “stupidly let them pass toward Philadelphia without asking them scarcely a question."

In mid-June, Tupper moved his men to attack Sandy Hook. On June 17, one of Tupper’s men, Solomon Drowne wrote that "a part of the Artillery Regt and a number of volunteers have gone on an expedition to take ye watering place from ye Asia's men, or drive ye regulars from their fort at ye Light House and destroy it." It appears that Tupper’s party landed on the Middletown shore on June 18, but did not immediately advance on Sandy Hook due to “inconveniences”. Tupper needed cannon, and waited for them to arrive by barge.

Under cover of night, Tupper’s men marched up Sandy Hook during the early hours of June 21. He attacked Sandy Hook before dawn. A public version of his report on the battle was printed in several newspapers:

This morning about 4 o'clock, we attacked the Light House with about 300 men; they were strongly reinforced being (as I saw a boat go from Long Island) previously informed of our design. I continued the attack for two hours with field pieces and small arms, all the time being between fires from the shipping and the light house, but could make no impression on the walls. I returned to my camp at the south end of the Cedars, which I have occupied for two days and nights, and sent out 50 men for some game; they have this minute attacked them with small arms, and seven boats are making for land from the ships. My men are in high spirits & well, not one of them either killed or wounded.

Additional details on the attack were included in Tupper’s private letter to George Washington. In direct contradiction to the public report, Tupper claimed that the British were surprised by his advance:

I advanced within 150 yds. of the Light House in so secret a manner that my party was undiscovered. I advanced with an officer and desired to speak with the commanding officer, and after a few words he fired several shot at me, but as God would have it, he mist [sic] me. I returned to my party and ordered the artillery to play, which continued about an hour, but found the walls [of the light house] so thick as to make no impression.

Tupper also noted that he held his ground despite taking fire on two sides: "I occupied the ground about two and a half hours between the smart fires viz. to men of war on the one side & the Light House on the other." Tupper concluded his private letter by again complaining about the Middletown militia: "It is a little strainge [sic], I received no assistance from the Jersies, tho' it was earnestly requested." Local militia might have guided Tupper to a better position from which to launch the attack.

Solomon Nash, an artilleryman under Tupper, wrote the attack. He provided additional details in his account. He noted that the cannon needed to be floated to Tupper on barges from Middletown Point [Matawan] on June 20: "This morning at 6 o'clock, landed at Spermacity Cove within four miles of the Light House, we got our field pieces ashore and there til about 9 o'clock p.m.” Nash’s account blames his own cannon for the failed attack: “The Light House being so strong that we could make no impression on it.”

In July, Massachusetts newspapers, informed by letters home from Tupper’s men, offered some additional information on the battle. The Freeman's Journal reported that the attack failed because Tupper’s cannon were too small to damage light house. "Our men… not having heavy cannon sufficient to make any breach in the Light House." The American Gazette suggested it was heavy fire from the British frigates that “poured in a heavy fire on our men on our flank” that drove off Tupper’s men.

A British officer who arrived at Sandy Hook four days later reported on the battle from a British vantage point (note the differing figures on the size of Tupper’s force and resulting casualties):

Five hundred rebels with two brass field pieces, six pounders, were driven off by a Sergeant and Corporal of the 57th Regiment, with five of Governor Tryon's men; they killed 14 of the rebels, one of whom we hear is a Major; we expect it will be attacked again soon, but we are well prepared for them.

Immediately after the attack, the British had an engineer, Lawrence Hartwick, survey Sandy Hook and recommend improvements. Hartwick noted the thickness of the lighthouse and the need for artillery around it. He measured that the lighthouse was 735 yards from the nearest cedar trees (presumably a safe distance) but there was a need to clear tall meadow grass within 525 yards of the light house.

The fortification of the Hook was noticed. A Middletown militiaman, Richard Sutphin, looked over at Sandy Hook and later recalled that “the British troops took the light-house and converted it into a fort." Regardless of the steps taken, Sandy Hook remained an attractive target for Americans throughout the war. Tupper’s attack would not be the last attempt to capture it.

Related Historic Sites: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: Bruce Bliven, Under the Guns, New York 1775-1776 (New York: Harper & Row, 1972) p 236-7; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 2, Letterbooks; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 4, 1 April 1776 – 15 June 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991, pp. 323–325; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 4, 1 April 1776 – 15 June 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991, pp. 436–437; New York City During the American Revolution: Being a Collection of Original Papers (NY: New York Mercantile Association, 1861) p98-99; Library of Congress, NY Gaz & Weekly Mercury, reel 2904; The Library Company, Pennsylvania Ledger, vol. 1, Jan. 1775-Nov. 1776; The Library Company, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Bruce Bliven, Under the Guns, New York 1775-1776 (New York: Harper & Row, 1972) p 314-5; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 5, p 663. New Jersey Archives, "Newspaper Extracts," 1st. series, vol. 1, p 132; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 36, June 21, 1776; Solomon Nash, Journal of Solomon Nash, A Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Privately Printed, 1861) pp. 20-1; Margaret Willard, Letters on the American Revolution 1774-1776 (Associated Faculty Press, 1968) p 326; Pennsylvania Journal, June 21, 1776

Freeman's Journal, July 6, 1776; Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn, (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878) v3, p91; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Thomas Cummings of Massachusetts, National Archives, p30; Lopez, John. “Sandy Hook Lighthouse.” The Keeper's Log, Winter, 1986, pp. 5-6; David C. Munn, comp., Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey (Trenton, N.J.: Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Geology, 1976) pp. 91-3; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Richard Sutphin.