The Revolution in Today’s Ocean County
You know about the Revolution in Boston and Philadelphia. But did you ever wonder what happened here? Several skirmishes were fought in Ocean County, which was part of Monmouth back then.
During the Revolution, Waretown and Manahawkin men fought together on land and sea. Some served as soldiers with the Fifth Company of the Monmouth Militia, men between 16 and 60 capable of bearing arms. They served under Captain Reuben Randolph, a tavern keeper in Manahawkin.
Some of your ancestors were Privateers. Since the colonies had no navy, the Continental Congress authorized sea captains to become legal pirates. They captured British ships. Our Privateers and the British fired cannon at each other on the water. Whoever won kept both ships, and put the losing sailors in prison (left).
We didn’t fight land battles with Redcoats here, but we fought several skirmishes with loyalists, Americans who sided with the king. Our own neighbors became enemies. People were divided on how they felt about the war. One third were Patriots, who wanted to be free. One third were loyalists, who wanted to stay with Great Britain. And the last third just wanted to be left alone. Even families disagreed.
William Franklin
You know how hard Ben Franklin worked for Independence. But his son, William Franklin (left), sided with the king. William was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. He founded The Board of Associated Loyalists, who did a lot of damage here. Ben was furious, and stopped talking to William. They never made up, even after the War. Ben left nothing to William in his will. He said, “If his side had won, I’d have nothing left to leave!”
Privateers on Barnegat Bay
Washington didn’t have enough soldiers to take New York back from the British. So our privateers attacked another way. We captured their supply ships. Privateers got rich auctioning the cargoes, but it was dangerous, too. They said, “Privateering is the most profitable racket in the world—so long as you don’t get your throat cut.”
Privateers who got caught wound up on floating British prison ships, like the Jersey. They were chained below decks. There was no heat in winter, or fresh air in summer. Diseases killed thousands.
Our privateers fought 85 recorded naval battles. We cost the British government over 20 million dollars in losses, capturing supply ships at least once a week, sometimes whole convoys. This constant drain of men and money was one of the main reasons the British got tired of the war.
Bloody John Bacon
The most dangerous loyalist around here was called “Bloody John Bacon,” for the many men he killed. Before the war, he was a farm worker from Manahawkin. He raided the homes of Patriots, stealing food, clothes, and money. He especially targeted members of the Monmouth Militia. The Soper family were Patriots who owned a shipbuilding business called Soper’s Landing, on the border between Barnegat and Waretown. Joseph and his son Reuben were both in the Monmouth Militia.
Bloody John raided Soper’s Landing many times. He had a spy named Wilson who worked at the shipyard. Every time the Soper’s sold a ship, Wilson told Bacon, who came and stole the money they’d just earned.
Finally, the family worked out a way to trick Bacon. They divided their money into two pouches, a big one and a small one. They buried both in the yard. When Bacon and the Loyalists came to steal the cash, the Sopers let him dig up the small pouch. He thought that was all, and went away happy.
Several other members of the Monmouth Militia were targeted by Bloody John and his men. Bacon’s men dragged Captain Randolph out of bed, and tied him to a tree in a swamp. He escaped. Later, when Bacon came looking for him, Captain Randolph’s wife hid him under goose down she had been saving in a large barrel for a feather bed.
Silas Crane jumped out the window when he saw Bacon and his men coming. Crane managed to escape, but Bacon still shot him in the thigh.
Privateer Captain Studson caught Bacon sneaking into Barnegat Inlet on a whaleboat, and tried to arrest him. Bacon shot Studson dead and escaped.
Stories of the Monmouth Militia
William Giberson was another loyalist like Bacon. The militia was called when Giberson and his men stopped at Falkenburgh’s Tavern in Tuckerton. Our militia were outnumbered, so they jumped on an old farm wagon to retreat across the bridge to West Creek. Halfway across, the wagon broke down, and Giberson fired at them. Thankfully, the old muskets weren’t very accurate, and no one got hurt.
Giberson was eventually captured, and thrown into Burlington County jail. However, he escaped when his sister visited. They exchanged clothes. Giberson looked so much like his sister that when he came out, the jailer actually helped him get back in the wagon.
Waretown Patriots made salt for Washington’s army by evaporating it from bay water. The army used it for food and gunpowder. The Brown family had a salt works on Oyster Creek. The Newlin family had one on the Waretown bayfront. Another loyalist outlaw named Richard Davenport wanted to keep the salt away from Washington.
So Davenport sailed along Barnegat Bay, wrecking salt works, and stealing from the families who owned them. Finally, the Militia caught up with him, just as he finished burning Brown’s and was heading for Newlin’s. Davenport had a big barge with forty men when our militia came up in a whaleboat, with a half dozen patriots rowing like crazy.
Davenport stood up and laughed at the Patriots, because they were so outnumbered. But he didn’t know they had a small swivel cannon on board (left). By standing up like that, he made a perfect target. Boom! He got hit, and flew backwards over the side. His men were so panicked, the barge turned over. They waded away in all directions as fast as they could.
The Camburn family of Waretown hid a couple of Washington’s soldiers at their farm, who were on their way to deliver messages. The soldiers were being chased down the highway by a band of Loyalists, intent on stealing their letters. Joseph Camburn was so determined to keep Washington’s men safe that he hid the soldiers in his house. He let their horses sleep in his dining room, so the Loyalists wouldn’t find anything if they searched the barn.
An important skirmish happened at the old Manahawkin Baptist church (left). Our militia heard Bloody John was on the march, so they mustered at Captain Randolph’s tavern.
Our militia waited all night, but Bacon didn’t show, so some men went home. Finally, at dawn, sentinels heard the loyalist’s bayonets clanking together as they marched. Our few remaining militiamen rushed to meet them. One was killed, and another wounded. He recovered, even though the musket ball went completely through him—in his shoulder and out his chest.
Old records say the doctor passed a silk handkerchief clear through the wound, in one side and out the other. Bloodstains remained on the church floor, where the wounded were carried. Bacon won the battle, and continued on his way.
You know about George Washington and Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth. But did you know that Waretown and Manahawkin men were there, too? When Washington called for volunteers, our Monmouth Militia marched all the way up to Freehold in 100° heat. They were put in reserve, waiting to be called to fight.
But General Charles Lee disobeyed Washington’s orders and called a retreat when he shouldn’t have. Some people think the British paid him to mess up on purpose. Washington was so mad, an old journal says he “swore like an angel from heaven.” Because of Lee’s mistake, our men never got called into the battle, and marched all the way home without seeing action.
Captain Joshua Huddy and Colonel Tye
Patriot Captain Joshua Huddy also had skirmishes with local loyalists (left). The British promised freedom to any slave who deserted his master and fought for the king. Some slaves took advantage of this. They called themselves the “Refugees,” and were based at Sandy Hook. The most famous runaway was their leader, a former slave from Shrewsbury named Titus.
Titus was owned by a Quaker named John Corliss. By the 1770s, most Quakers were teaching their slaves to read and write, and freeing them at age 21. But not Corliss, who was an exceptionally hard master.
Titus took the name “Colonel Tye,” and became a fierce fighter for the loyalist cause. Colonel Tye was such a good fighter, the British even paid him to harass Patriots.
In 1780, Colonel Tye heard that Captain Huddy was alone at his tavern in Colt’s Neck. Tye decided to capture him. Sure enough, no one was there that day but Huddy and a servant girl named Lucretia Emmons, about twenty years old. Although Huddy’s militiamen weren’t there, they had left their guns behind.
Rather than surrender, Huddy thought fast. He had Lucretia load all the guns and place them in upstairs windows. Each time he fired, Lucretia followed, re-loading. Rushing from room to room, window to window, Huddy and Lucretia held off fifty loyalists so well that they thought an entire garrison was with him. The Refugees decided to burn the tavern down.
Finally, Huddy agreed to surrender if the Refugees would put out the flames. The Refugees were mortified to discover they had been held off for two hours by one man and a young woman. The gunfire roused the neighborhood, and Huddy’s militiamen were coming, so the Refugees let Lucretia go and dragged Huddy back to their whaleboats. The militia came in hot pursuit, and the chase became a running battle where six loyalists were killed.
As Tye and his men pushed out to open water, the militia fired again. In the confusion, Huddy jumped overboard and swam ashore, holding up his arms and screaming “I am Huddy!” So his own men wouldn’t accidentally shoot him.
The Toms River Blockhouse Fight
Perhaps the most famous skirmish around here was the attack on the Toms River blockhouse. It was a square wooden stockade, built in 1777, to guard the salt from Barnegat Bay (left). It was made of pointed logs, seven feet high, with openings to fire muskets through. There was no door. Men climbed in and out on a ladder. A swivel cannon stood on each corner. About 25 militiamen lived inside, in a log barracks. Captain Huddy was the commander.
The trouble began when Patriot Privateers captured a loyalist ship named Lucy near Waretown. William Franklin and the Board of Associated Loyalists decided to wipe out our Toms River Privateers once and for all.
William Franklin sent a British warship called the Arrogant from New York, with about 40 loyalists. At dawn on March 24, 1782, the loyalists attacked. The fort held out until their ammunition was gone. The loyalists over-ran it and killed or wounded several defenders in hand to hand combat. Huddy escaped.
The loyalists decided Huddy might be hiding in a nearby home, so they burned the town. They spiked the Patriot’s cannon, and threw them in the river. Eventually, they found Huddy. They sent him to prison in New York. But suddenly, Huddy was hauled out of jail and put on the warship Britannia.
The Fate of Captain Huddy
William Franklin gave Huddy to his friend, Loyalist Captain Richard Lippincott. Lippincott’s brother-in-law, a loyalist named Phil White, had been captured by Patriots a week before, and shot trying to escape. Lippincott wanted to kill Huddy in revenge, even though Huddy had nothing to do with killing White.
Without trial or jury, Lippincott and the loyalists put Huddy ashore near the Highland Lighthouse at 10 am on April 12, 1782. They hung a noose from a tree limb and set a barrel underneath. Huddy’s last words were, “I die innocent, and in a good cause.” One of the loyalists kicked the barrel, and Joshua Huddy swung dead. Lippincott pinned a sign to Huddy’s shirt: “Up goes Huddy for Phillip White.”
Huddy’s Fate Impacted Peace
The hanging was big news. When George Washington heard, he was furious. He called his generals together at West Point to plot revenge. They decided if Lippincott wasn’t turned over immediately, a British prisoner taken at Yorktown, of equal rank to Huddy, would be hanged by the Americans.
Lippincott, by this time, was hiding with British General Clinton in New York, who refused to hand him over. So Washington ordered: Each British Captain captured at Yorktown must draw a slip of paper from a hat. All were blank, except one marked, “Unfortunate.”
A nineteen-year-old named Charles Asgill drew the fated slip. He said, “The only thing I ever won was my own execution!”
In the meantime, Ben Franklin was in Paris, with a peace delegation, trying to negotiate a treaty to end the war. Lady Asgill, the captain’s mother, wrote long, pleading letters to the delegates, begging them to help. Even the King of France got involved (left). This issue actually suspended the peace treaty.
Finally, George Washington decided that nothing good could come from hanging another innocent man. Asgill was released, “as a compliment to the king of France.”
The Massacre of Long Beach Island
But the war wasn’t over yet. Just before the Revolution ended, the worst local battle was fought. It became known as the “Massacre of Long Beach Island.” In October of 1783, Patriot Privateers on a ship called the Alligator found an abandoned British ship stuck on a sandbar at Barnegat Inlet. They unloaded the cargo. They had to work fast, before waves broke up the stranded ship. By the time they finished, it was dark, so the Patriots camped on the beach until morning.
While they were sleeping, Wilson, the Loyalist spy, told Bacon what was happening. Just before dawn, Bloody John and his men sailed to the Island. They tiptoed up to the sleeping Patriots in the dark and slit their throats. They stole the Alligator, and sold it in New York. Twenty-five patriots were killed that night, including Reuben Soper.
The Last Battle of the Revolution
By now, the Jersey shore had enough of John Bacon. The Burlington Militia cornered him at Cedar Bridge Tavern (left). At the last minute, other loyalists came to Bacon’s rescue, and he escaped. Before getting away, Bacon killed a man named William Cook in what was probably the last battle of the Revolutionary War.
Cook’s brother swore revenge. He and Captain Stewart tracked Bacon to William Rose’s Tavern in Tuckerton. In the scuffle, Cook stabbed Bacon with a bayonet. They tackled him to the floor. When Bacon surrendered, they let him up. Bacon knew he’d be hanged for his crimes, so he pretended to faint, then jumped up and tried to escape. Captain Stewart fired, hitting Bacon just as he opened the tavern door.
Bacon was dead, but the angry militia wasn’t finished with him. They threw his body into an old farm wagon and paraded his corpse through the towns he had terrorized, showing off the capture of Old Monmouth’s Most Wanted. The militia even planned one final indignity: burying Bacon in the middle of a busy intersection so he’d never rest.
They were tearing up the road, with a crowd of cheering onlookers, when Bacon’s brother arrived, and asked for the corpse. The militia relented, and gave him to his family.
In one last twist of fate, Bacon was killed wearing a shirt he had stolen from Soper’s Landing. The old records say “It became his winding sheet.”
Official word of the peace treaty ending the Revolution came less than a week later. Bloody John was the last casualty in the War for Independence.
Fifth Company Privates
•Michael Bennett, Jeremiah Bennett, Samuel Bennett, Israel Bennington, Joseph Brown I, Joseph Brown II, Joseph Camburn, William Casselman, Thomas Chamberlain, Luke Courtney, Seth Crane, Amos Cuffee, David Howell, David Johnson, Thomas Johnson, David Jones, Thomas Kelson, Philip Palmer, Jr, Linus Pangburn, Benjamin Paul, Benjamin P. Pearson, Job Randolph, Thomas Randolph, Enoch Read, David Smith, Joseph Soper, Reuben Soper, Zachariah Southard, Jenny Sutton, Sylvester Tilton
You know about the Revolution in Boston and Philadelphia. But did you ever wonder what happened here? Several skirmishes were fought in Ocean County, which was part of Monmouth back then.
During the Revolution, Waretown and Manahawkin men fought together on land and sea. Some served as soldiers with the Fifth Company of the Monmouth Militia, men between 16 and 60 capable of bearing arms. They served under Captain Reuben Randolph, a tavern keeper in Manahawkin.
Some of your ancestors were Privateers. Since the colonies had no navy, the Continental Congress authorized sea captains to become legal pirates. They captured British ships. Our Privateers and the British fired cannon at each other on the water. Whoever won kept both ships, and put the losing sailors in prison (left).
We didn’t fight land battles with Redcoats here, but we fought several skirmishes with loyalists, Americans who sided with the king. Our own neighbors became enemies. People were divided on how they felt about the war. One third were Patriots, who wanted to be free. One third were loyalists, who wanted to stay with Great Britain. And the last third just wanted to be left alone. Even families disagreed.
William Franklin
You know how hard Ben Franklin worked for Independence. But his son, William Franklin (left), sided with the king. William was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. He founded The Board of Associated Loyalists, who did a lot of damage here. Ben was furious, and stopped talking to William. They never made up, even after the War. Ben left nothing to William in his will. He said, “If his side had won, I’d have nothing left to leave!”
Privateers on Barnegat Bay
Washington didn’t have enough soldiers to take New York back from the British. So our privateers attacked another way. We captured their supply ships. Privateers got rich auctioning the cargoes, but it was dangerous, too. They said, “Privateering is the most profitable racket in the world—so long as you don’t get your throat cut.”
Privateers who got caught wound up on floating British prison ships, like the Jersey. They were chained below decks. There was no heat in winter, or fresh air in summer. Diseases killed thousands.
Our privateers fought 85 recorded naval battles. We cost the British government over 20 million dollars in losses, capturing supply ships at least once a week, sometimes whole convoys. This constant drain of men and money was one of the main reasons the British got tired of the war.
Bloody John Bacon
The most dangerous loyalist around here was called “Bloody John Bacon,” for the many men he killed. Before the war, he was a farm worker from Manahawkin. He raided the homes of Patriots, stealing food, clothes, and money. He especially targeted members of the Monmouth Militia. The Soper family were Patriots who owned a shipbuilding business called Soper’s Landing, on the border between Barnegat and Waretown. Joseph and his son Reuben were both in the Monmouth Militia.
Bloody John raided Soper’s Landing many times. He had a spy named Wilson who worked at the shipyard. Every time the Soper’s sold a ship, Wilson told Bacon, who came and stole the money they’d just earned.
Finally, the family worked out a way to trick Bacon. They divided their money into two pouches, a big one and a small one. They buried both in the yard. When Bacon and the Loyalists came to steal the cash, the Sopers let him dig up the small pouch. He thought that was all, and went away happy.
Several other members of the Monmouth Militia were targeted by Bloody John and his men. Bacon’s men dragged Captain Randolph out of bed, and tied him to a tree in a swamp. He escaped. Later, when Bacon came looking for him, Captain Randolph’s wife hid him under goose down she had been saving in a large barrel for a feather bed.
Silas Crane jumped out the window when he saw Bacon and his men coming. Crane managed to escape, but Bacon still shot him in the thigh.
Privateer Captain Studson caught Bacon sneaking into Barnegat Inlet on a whaleboat, and tried to arrest him. Bacon shot Studson dead and escaped.
Stories of the Monmouth Militia
William Giberson was another loyalist like Bacon. The militia was called when Giberson and his men stopped at Falkenburgh’s Tavern in Tuckerton. Our militia were outnumbered, so they jumped on an old farm wagon to retreat across the bridge to West Creek. Halfway across, the wagon broke down, and Giberson fired at them. Thankfully, the old muskets weren’t very accurate, and no one got hurt.
Giberson was eventually captured, and thrown into Burlington County jail. However, he escaped when his sister visited. They exchanged clothes. Giberson looked so much like his sister that when he came out, the jailer actually helped him get back in the wagon.
Waretown Patriots made salt for Washington’s army by evaporating it from bay water. The army used it for food and gunpowder. The Brown family had a salt works on Oyster Creek. The Newlin family had one on the Waretown bayfront. Another loyalist outlaw named Richard Davenport wanted to keep the salt away from Washington.
So Davenport sailed along Barnegat Bay, wrecking salt works, and stealing from the families who owned them. Finally, the Militia caught up with him, just as he finished burning Brown’s and was heading for Newlin’s. Davenport had a big barge with forty men when our militia came up in a whaleboat, with a half dozen patriots rowing like crazy.
Davenport stood up and laughed at the Patriots, because they were so outnumbered. But he didn’t know they had a small swivel cannon on board (left). By standing up like that, he made a perfect target. Boom! He got hit, and flew backwards over the side. His men were so panicked, the barge turned over. They waded away in all directions as fast as they could.
The Camburn family of Waretown hid a couple of Washington’s soldiers at their farm, who were on their way to deliver messages. The soldiers were being chased down the highway by a band of Loyalists, intent on stealing their letters. Joseph Camburn was so determined to keep Washington’s men safe that he hid the soldiers in his house. He let their horses sleep in his dining room, so the Loyalists wouldn’t find anything if they searched the barn.
An important skirmish happened at the old Manahawkin Baptist church (left). Our militia heard Bloody John was on the march, so they mustered at Captain Randolph’s tavern.
Our militia waited all night, but Bacon didn’t show, so some men went home. Finally, at dawn, sentinels heard the loyalist’s bayonets clanking together as they marched. Our few remaining militiamen rushed to meet them. One was killed, and another wounded. He recovered, even though the musket ball went completely through him—in his shoulder and out his chest.
Old records say the doctor passed a silk handkerchief clear through the wound, in one side and out the other. Bloodstains remained on the church floor, where the wounded were carried. Bacon won the battle, and continued on his way.
You know about George Washington and Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth. But did you know that Waretown and Manahawkin men were there, too? When Washington called for volunteers, our Monmouth Militia marched all the way up to Freehold in 100° heat. They were put in reserve, waiting to be called to fight.
But General Charles Lee disobeyed Washington’s orders and called a retreat when he shouldn’t have. Some people think the British paid him to mess up on purpose. Washington was so mad, an old journal says he “swore like an angel from heaven.” Because of Lee’s mistake, our men never got called into the battle, and marched all the way home without seeing action.
Captain Joshua Huddy and Colonel Tye
Patriot Captain Joshua Huddy also had skirmishes with local loyalists (left). The British promised freedom to any slave who deserted his master and fought for the king. Some slaves took advantage of this. They called themselves the “Refugees,” and were based at Sandy Hook. The most famous runaway was their leader, a former slave from Shrewsbury named Titus.
Titus was owned by a Quaker named John Corliss. By the 1770s, most Quakers were teaching their slaves to read and write, and freeing them at age 21. But not Corliss, who was an exceptionally hard master.
Titus took the name “Colonel Tye,” and became a fierce fighter for the loyalist cause. Colonel Tye was such a good fighter, the British even paid him to harass Patriots.
In 1780, Colonel Tye heard that Captain Huddy was alone at his tavern in Colt’s Neck. Tye decided to capture him. Sure enough, no one was there that day but Huddy and a servant girl named Lucretia Emmons, about twenty years old. Although Huddy’s militiamen weren’t there, they had left their guns behind.
Rather than surrender, Huddy thought fast. He had Lucretia load all the guns and place them in upstairs windows. Each time he fired, Lucretia followed, re-loading. Rushing from room to room, window to window, Huddy and Lucretia held off fifty loyalists so well that they thought an entire garrison was with him. The Refugees decided to burn the tavern down.
Finally, Huddy agreed to surrender if the Refugees would put out the flames. The Refugees were mortified to discover they had been held off for two hours by one man and a young woman. The gunfire roused the neighborhood, and Huddy’s militiamen were coming, so the Refugees let Lucretia go and dragged Huddy back to their whaleboats. The militia came in hot pursuit, and the chase became a running battle where six loyalists were killed.
As Tye and his men pushed out to open water, the militia fired again. In the confusion, Huddy jumped overboard and swam ashore, holding up his arms and screaming “I am Huddy!” So his own men wouldn’t accidentally shoot him.
The Toms River Blockhouse Fight
Perhaps the most famous skirmish around here was the attack on the Toms River blockhouse. It was a square wooden stockade, built in 1777, to guard the salt from Barnegat Bay (left). It was made of pointed logs, seven feet high, with openings to fire muskets through. There was no door. Men climbed in and out on a ladder. A swivel cannon stood on each corner. About 25 militiamen lived inside, in a log barracks. Captain Huddy was the commander.
The trouble began when Patriot Privateers captured a loyalist ship named Lucy near Waretown. William Franklin and the Board of Associated Loyalists decided to wipe out our Toms River Privateers once and for all.
William Franklin sent a British warship called the Arrogant from New York, with about 40 loyalists. At dawn on March 24, 1782, the loyalists attacked. The fort held out until their ammunition was gone. The loyalists over-ran it and killed or wounded several defenders in hand to hand combat. Huddy escaped.
The loyalists decided Huddy might be hiding in a nearby home, so they burned the town. They spiked the Patriot’s cannon, and threw them in the river. Eventually, they found Huddy. They sent him to prison in New York. But suddenly, Huddy was hauled out of jail and put on the warship Britannia.
The Fate of Captain Huddy
William Franklin gave Huddy to his friend, Loyalist Captain Richard Lippincott. Lippincott’s brother-in-law, a loyalist named Phil White, had been captured by Patriots a week before, and shot trying to escape. Lippincott wanted to kill Huddy in revenge, even though Huddy had nothing to do with killing White.
Without trial or jury, Lippincott and the loyalists put Huddy ashore near the Highland Lighthouse at 10 am on April 12, 1782. They hung a noose from a tree limb and set a barrel underneath. Huddy’s last words were, “I die innocent, and in a good cause.” One of the loyalists kicked the barrel, and Joshua Huddy swung dead. Lippincott pinned a sign to Huddy’s shirt: “Up goes Huddy for Phillip White.”
Huddy’s Fate Impacted Peace
The hanging was big news. When George Washington heard, he was furious. He called his generals together at West Point to plot revenge. They decided if Lippincott wasn’t turned over immediately, a British prisoner taken at Yorktown, of equal rank to Huddy, would be hanged by the Americans.
Lippincott, by this time, was hiding with British General Clinton in New York, who refused to hand him over. So Washington ordered: Each British Captain captured at Yorktown must draw a slip of paper from a hat. All were blank, except one marked, “Unfortunate.”
A nineteen-year-old named Charles Asgill drew the fated slip. He said, “The only thing I ever won was my own execution!”
In the meantime, Ben Franklin was in Paris, with a peace delegation, trying to negotiate a treaty to end the war. Lady Asgill, the captain’s mother, wrote long, pleading letters to the delegates, begging them to help. Even the King of France got involved (left). This issue actually suspended the peace treaty.
Finally, George Washington decided that nothing good could come from hanging another innocent man. Asgill was released, “as a compliment to the king of France.”
The Massacre of Long Beach Island
But the war wasn’t over yet. Just before the Revolution ended, the worst local battle was fought. It became known as the “Massacre of Long Beach Island.” In October of 1783, Patriot Privateers on a ship called the Alligator found an abandoned British ship stuck on a sandbar at Barnegat Inlet. They unloaded the cargo. They had to work fast, before waves broke up the stranded ship. By the time they finished, it was dark, so the Patriots camped on the beach until morning.
While they were sleeping, Wilson, the Loyalist spy, told Bacon what was happening. Just before dawn, Bloody John and his men sailed to the Island. They tiptoed up to the sleeping Patriots in the dark and slit their throats. They stole the Alligator, and sold it in New York. Twenty-five patriots were killed that night, including Reuben Soper.
The Last Battle of the Revolution
By now, the Jersey shore had enough of John Bacon. The Burlington Militia cornered him at Cedar Bridge Tavern (left). At the last minute, other loyalists came to Bacon’s rescue, and he escaped. Before getting away, Bacon killed a man named William Cook in what was probably the last battle of the Revolutionary War.
Cook’s brother swore revenge. He and Captain Stewart tracked Bacon to William Rose’s Tavern in Tuckerton. In the scuffle, Cook stabbed Bacon with a bayonet. They tackled him to the floor. When Bacon surrendered, they let him up. Bacon knew he’d be hanged for his crimes, so he pretended to faint, then jumped up and tried to escape. Captain Stewart fired, hitting Bacon just as he opened the tavern door.
Bacon was dead, but the angry militia wasn’t finished with him. They threw his body into an old farm wagon and paraded his corpse through the towns he had terrorized, showing off the capture of Old Monmouth’s Most Wanted. The militia even planned one final indignity: burying Bacon in the middle of a busy intersection so he’d never rest.
They were tearing up the road, with a crowd of cheering onlookers, when Bacon’s brother arrived, and asked for the corpse. The militia relented, and gave him to his family.
In one last twist of fate, Bacon was killed wearing a shirt he had stolen from Soper’s Landing. The old records say “It became his winding sheet.”
Official word of the peace treaty ending the Revolution came less than a week later. Bloody John was the last casualty in the War for Independence.
Fifth Company Privates
•Michael Bennett, Jeremiah Bennett, Samuel Bennett, Israel Bennington, Joseph Brown I, Joseph Brown II, Joseph Camburn, William Casselman, Thomas Chamberlain, Luke Courtney, Seth Crane, Amos Cuffee, David Howell, David Johnson, Thomas Johnson, David Jones, Thomas Kelson, Philip Palmer, Jr, Linus Pangburn, Benjamin Paul, Benjamin P. Pearson, Job Randolph, Thomas Randolph, Enoch Read, David Smith, Joseph Soper, Reuben Soper, Zachariah Southard, Jenny Sutton, Sylvester Tilton