This is the second in a two-part series about a little-known secret Revolutionary War mission in South Jersey involving General George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, the French Fleet and a plan to attack the British in New York City.
In October of 1779, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton, and Brigadier General Louis Lebègue Duportail left West Point, New York, and traveled to Philadelphia en route to Lewes, Delaware. Convinced that a better location for making contact with the French Fleet was across the Delaware Bay in New Jersey, the officers arranged for a crossing to the southern tip of Cape May County.
Duportail, commandant of the Continental Corps of Engineers; and Hamilton, aide to General George Washington, were headed for the Batsto, known then as Bat Stove. The location and its amenities were important and well-known to the Continental Army.
Batsto was an iron forge and village that supplied the army with vital supplies including musket balls. It stood near the Forks of the Mullica River, where cargo traveled upriver from Chestnut Neck – a haven for privateers and smugglers who captured goods from British cargo ships and sent them on to markets and the army.
The quickest route to Batsto from Cape May was up old Shore Road to Beesleys Point Ferry, across the Great Egg Harbor Bay to Somers Point and Somers Mansion and continuing up Shore Road in Gloucester County (present-day Atlantic County) to Chestnut Neck (present-day Port Republic).
From Chestnut Neck there were dirt paths that ran up the Mullica River to the Forks and from there to Batsto. With a bit of luck, the general and colonel could pay for a barge to take them upriver with the incoming tide, a vital consideration which would allow the officers to analyze the river and its environs.
A route across the Great Egg Harbor into Somers Point would allow Duportail and Hamilton to meet with Colonel Richard Somers, commander of the 3rd Gloucester Militia, and the officer responsible for security in the Egg Harbors, the barrier islands, the bays and up the rivers. Colonel Somers’ assistance was vital to the officers’ mission of linking up with the French Fleet, securing maritime pilots, identifying fresh water and food supplies, and securing the cooperation of the local people and militia.
As circumstances would have it, in the fall of 1779 a direct route up Shore Road was dangerous for senior Continental officers in uniform. Refugees, the name given to loyalist militia who were ostensibly in the service of the king, were very active in the Egg Harbors. Reports circulated of attacks by loyalists in flatboats on shipping up the Egg Harbor River, a recent attack on the Absecon Salt Works and various skirmishes in the area. Additionally, the British Navy and loyalist privateers were active along the barrier islands and immediately offshore.
Refugees or irregulars were motivated by fierce patriotism, profit, and often revenge. Continental officers were wanted dead or alive.
With such concerns in mind, Duportail and Hamilton changed course to transit to Batsto via the interior backroads and trails, turning inland, possibly in the vicinity of Dennis Township, and proceeding to the historic town of Tuckahoe, across the Tuckahoe River to what is today Route 50, then up to the Great Egg Harbor River to Mays Landing. At this point, Duportail and Hamilton traveled for a day along 44 miles of ever-narrowing roads and paths, highlighted by dense pine and cedar forests with occasional farms and homesteads, but more often across creeks and streams.
Earlier cartographers had labeled parts of the Egg Harbor area the “Great Sandy Desert,” a region considered in the late 1600s to be inhospitable to settlement except along rivers and streams. Arrival at Mays Landing left 18 more miles of travel to reach Batsto.
Duportail and Hamilton wrote to Washington on Oct. 26 to report on their location and situation. It was addressed from the “Great Egg Harbour Landing.” The location was likely Mays Landing.
“We have since fixed on this place about forty-four miles from the extremity of Cape May (or eighteen miles short of the Batsto Furnace, which we found to be more remote than had been represented) and as far as we can learn from 100 to 110 miles of Sandy Hook – about fifty from Philadelphia.”
Duportail and Hamilton provide in the same letter important information to Washington to justify their stop at the “Great Egg Harbour Landing” and not continuing on to what may have been a previously discussed positioning at Batsto.
“Your Excellency will easily perceive the reasons of our choosing this station. Admiral d’Estaing would not lose time by a procedure of this sort, but might content himself with sending some transports under escort of a few frigates to receive the provisions for the fleet and proceed himself directly on to Sandy Hook… These considerations induced us to cross the Delaware and take the position at which we now are, where, or in the vicinity, we propose to remain till the arrival of the Count, till intelligence from him decides the inutility of a longer stay, or till we receive your Excellency’s orders of recall… If the fleet should appear off the Delaware we can be there in twelve hours after its first appearance, and if at the Hook in less than four days.”
Given the training, experience and caliber of these officers, the several-week period that Duportail and Hamilton spent in the Mays Landing area would have been spent doing reconnaissance of the region. Hiring local pilots based on the recommendations from local leadership required meeting with the leaders and local pilots, especially the local militia leadership.
Documenting the local road system and waterways that would serve as the primary supply lines into New Jersey harbors, especially in areas not previously visited by senior Continental officers, required eyes-on reconnaissance to meet Washington’s exacting standards.
In the end, an invasion of New York City was not to be. Admiral d’Estaing, in concert with the southern Continental Army forces under the command of Major General Benjamin Lincoln, besieged and assaulted the British entrenchments around Savannah on Oct. 9. The outcome was a devastating loss for the French and Continental Army. Over 800 allied forces were killed or wounded. Brigadier Casimer Pulaski, commander of the Continental Cavalry, was mortally wounded and Admiral d’Estaing was wounded sufficiently to merit his return to France.
The British had held Savannah since late 1778, and New York City since 1776. The British Army and Navy were well prepared for an expected assault by General Washington and the Continental Army.
The defeat at Savannah may have been a blessing for the French and Continental armies. Vice Admiral d’Estaing took part of his fleet back to France, laden with wounded, while sending the remainder to the Caribbean to defend the valuable islands that Europe viewed as the true crown jewels of the Americas.
Without the French Fleet and Army, a successful attack on New York City was impossible. It was also late in the season. Though Washington demonstrated competence in winter campaigning, the army and logistics required for an assault on New York City were simply not sustainable during the frigid winters of the late 1700s. With the loss of d’Estaing’s fleet, Duportail and Hamilton were recalled to West Point to resume their regular duties.
Though Washington’s plans for attacking New York City were never implemented, two intended objectives of Washington’s plan were achieved. In late October of 1779, the British abandoned both the deep-water port of Newport, Rhode Island, and Stony Point and Kings Ferry to the south of West Point. The British troops were needed to reinforce the southern colonies and New York City itself. The British also abandoned Sandy Hook, across the bay from the city, further reinforcing the city garrison.
Newport, Stony Point and Kings Ferry were among Washington’s early objectives in the plan to take New York City. They were abandoned without losing a single soldier in direct assaults on these prepared positions.
Though the withdrawals made sense for the British to bolster New York City defenses, in upcoming offensive actions in the southern colonies, the advantages to the Continentals were multifold.
The Continental Army quickly reoccupied Newport, and during the 1780 summer campaign season, the French Fleet used Newport as an operating port and supply base. The Continental Army occupied Stony Point and Kings Ferry.
Cape May County and the Egg Harbors are an interesting chapter in the story of the American Revolution. In the fall of 1779, southern New Jersey could have been a significant player in Washington’s attack on New York City if he ever made one.
As history would later record, on Nov. 25, 1783, General Washington and the Continental Army marched into New York City on the heels of the British Army’s withdrawal, as per the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. New York City was reoccupied without battle and bloodshed – the best possible outcome for any general and army.
