To George Washington from Brigadier General William Maxwell, 28 May 1780
From Brigadier General William Maxwell
One mile from Elizth Town [N.J.] 28th May 1780
Sir
I wrote to Your Excellency on friday,1 informing that I arived at this place on thursday last, which day the Engineer was to have been here, to begin the works;2 otherwise I should not have left my old station so soon;3 as he is not come according to promise, and I have had no reason asigned me why he did not come I am at a loss what to think of the Matter.4
As the Engineer only sett one stake at each of the four corners there will no one undertake to carry on the work.
Coll Ogden is sick at Chatham who propos’d to have done something at it. I should not have troubled Your Excellency with this only that I thought it probable I might be suspected of neglect in carrying on the works, though the lightness of our diet, would hardly authorize us working much. My sittuation is such that I think they cannot surprize me, but if they come out with a much superior force, they may move me from my Baggage & Camp equipage. Coll Dayton is under apprehensions that some intiligence he had coming from New York in writing is lost; it was certainly on the way that night, the Enemy came out to New Ark; the man nor intiligence not heard of since; it is supposed the Enemy have taken him.5 I send You a New York Paper of the 24th on account of one piece directed to Mr Rivington.6
Capt. Reading informed me Yesterday that he had a Sergt a Corporal and four men taken by the Enemy when over, they took also two men of the Connecticut line that was confined by the Civil authority; they attempted to burn the Jail but some woman put it out. The Sergt was left at a certain place to conduct some Men that was expected in from Pattrole, to the main body, but he staid too long.7 Capt. Thos Blanch of the Bergan Militia has sent me one Lieut. & one private of the New York Militia; he says he took them near Bergan woods on friday morning in company with John Berry commonly called John De Regular, the noted Horse thief whome they killed and burried there.8 They were all taken in arms, and sent to the Commissary of prisoners for this State.9 He is at Sussex Court I shall keep them till he arives.
The Enemy sent back the same night by one of our Flag Boats that was over, 10 or 12 of the most suspitious persons they had taken in the morning on parole. This is a game they are playing I find every where they can, to keep their friends clear of duty and to call them in & send them out when they please, either for intiligence Trade or carrying out counterfit money; possibly if our Legislator was fully acquainted with the matter, they would devise some mode to disolve such paroles and prevent the like in future10 I submit it to Your Excellency, and am Your Most Obedient Humble Servant
Wm Maxwell
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Maxwell is referring to his letter to GW of 26 May.
2. For Captain Rochefontaine’s involvement with these fortifications near Elizabeth, N.J., see GW to Maxwell and to Stirling, both 19 May; see also GW to Maxwell, 16 May, found at Maxwell to GW, 15 May, source note, and Maxwell to GW, 17 May.
3. Maxwell previously had set up temporary headquarters at Connecticut Farms (now Union), N.J. (see Maxwell to GW, 15 May).
4. For Rochefontaine’s absence, see GW to William Greene, 23 May, source note.
5. For the recent British raid on Newark, N.J., see Maxwell to GW, 26 May, and n.1 to that document.
6. Maxwell probably is referring to an article addressed to “the PRINTER” (James Rivington) that appeared in The Royal Gazette (New York) for 24 May. “ONE OF THE SUFFERERS” signed the piece, which begins: “AS the rebels have without the least degree of truth, presumed to charge us with severity to their prisoners, I beg leave through your paper to inform the public of an instance of their cruelty, which I trust never was, nor ever will be paralleled by any act of those in the service of our King.” The writer then described his capture by a privateer nine months earlier and the treatment of captives “crouded together in the hold, and the hatches close shut upon them, without water, or the least refreshment for more than twelve hours.” Allegedly, “four of them were smothered” and others would have “shared the same fate, had not the cries of the unhappy wretches disturbed the ship, and induced the officers, more for their own sakes … to open the hatches.” Upon arrival in Philadelphia, the prisoners were “put to a very scanty allowance.”
7. Maxwell is referring to the British raid on Newark.
8. Maxwell probably is referring to a recent skirmish between New Jersey militiamen and Loyalist associators based at a blockhouse near Bull’s Ferry, N.J. (see Thomas Lloyd Moore to GW, 22 May, and n.3 to that document). Capt. Thomas Blanch with a party of militia scouted the post on the night of 27 May but found it too strong to attack. Part of Blanch’s force met six enemy, killed two, and took two prisoners. One of the dead was the “noted murderer and robber John Berry” (, 253–54).
Thomas Blanch (1740–1823), of Bergen County, N.J., served as a militia captain until late December 1780 when he became a captain in the state troops raised in Bergen County to reinforce the Continental army for one year. A death notice in the Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot for 18 June 1823 reported Blanch as “twice prisoner among the enemy, and once severely wounded.” After the war, Blanch served several terms in the New Jersey legislature.
John Berry, a Hackensack, N.J., Loyalist, was also known as John or Jack “the Regular,” suggesting previous service in the British army. He collected intelligence in Bergen County, where he committed numerous murders (see , 254).
9. Elisha Boudinot was the New Jersey commissary of prisoners.
10. The New Jersey legislature eventually took action to remove Loyalist prisoners “on Parole within ten Miles of the Enemy’s Lines, into the interior Parts of the State” (N.J. Gen. Assembly Proc., 15 May–28 June 1781, 101).