The Affair at Little Egg Harbor took place on October 15, 1778, in

South Jersey South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. American Loyalists killed 45 Patriot men,

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ting them as they slept. The massacre took place about one week after the Battle of Chestnut Neck, a British raid aimed at suppressing

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

s who used the area as a base to harass and seize British ships and their cargoes.

Background

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer Captain

Patrick Ferguson Major Patrick Ferguson (1744 – 7 October 1780) was a British Army officer who designed the Ferguson rifle. He is best known for his service in the 1780 military campaign of Charles Cornwallis during the American Revolutionary War in the ...

led a raid on Chestnut Neck, on the Mullica River, to retrieve supplies taken by

s and try to stop their use of the town as a base for the distribution of their prizes and shipment of captured goods to General Washington at Valley Forge.

Kazimierz Pułaski Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski (; March 4 or 6, 1745 October 11, 1779), anglicised as Casimir Pulaski ( ), was a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander who has been called "The Father of American cavalry" or "The Sold ...

and his newly raised forces were ordered to oppose his actions.

Pulaski's Legion Pulaski's Legion was a cavalry and infantry regiment raised on March 28, 1778 at Baltimore, Maryland under the command of Polish-born General Casimir Pulaski and Hungarian nobleman Michael Kovats de Fabriczy for their service with the Continen ...

, along with three companies of light infantry, three troops of light horse, and one artillery detachment, arrived the day after Ferguson departed Chestnut Neck. But their arrival did stop Ferguson from raiding the iron works at Batsto. The plan was to attack Batsto, but the river proved too shallow and time ran out, Batsto remained untouched. and stemmed their attacks on privateers at The Forks of the

Mullica River The Mullica River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in southern New Jersey in the United States. The Mullica was once known as the ''Little Egg H ...

. For a week the two forces were at a standoff.

Attack

Pulaski's troops reached the

Little Egg Harbor Little Egg Harbor is a brackish bay along the coast of southeast New Jersey. It was originally called Egg Harbor by the Dutch sailors because of the eggs found in nearby gull nests. The bay is part of the Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoa ...

district (near present-day Tuckerton), and immediately set up camp on a farm. Lt. Gustav Juliet, a deserter, found Ferguson and told him of Pulaski's encampment; he mentioned that morale was fairly low, and security almost nonexistent. Ferguson promptly loaded 250 of his best men onto boats and rowed them, in the dark, some to what is now Osborne Island. He marched them to the site of the infantry outpost, which comprised fifty men a short distance from the main encampment. At first light, Ferguson ordered the attack; he took only five prisoners and his men, all American Loyalists, killed nearly 50 men. Pulaski eventually led up his mounted troops, causing Ferguson to retreat to his boats, and leaving a few men who had fallen into the Patriot colonists' hands.

Legacy

*The farm land which was the site of the massacre has been developed as the Country Club Estates; a small parcel of the colonial farm was preserved on a plot of land between Hollybrook Drive and Cedarbrook Lane. *The Pulaski Monument is located on Pulaski Blvd in the Mystic Island section of Little Egg Harbor.

References

*Information adapted from Boatner's ''Landmarks of the American Revolution'', 1992 ed. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Affair at Little Egg Harbor 1778 in New Jersey Ocean County, New Jersey

Battles of the American Revolutionary War involving Great Britain Battles of the American Revolutionary War involving the United States Privateering in the American Revolutionary War

Background

Attack

Legacy

See also

References