What comes to mind when you think about the American Revolution?  Did all the action happen around Lexington and Concord, or Yorktown.  Perhaps you are aware of a battle a little closer to home in a place called Monmouth NJ.  What if we told you that Atlantic County was home to some significant Revolutionary battles and actually musted a significant fighting force in the Cause for Independence.

Richard Somers answered his new country’s call for soldiers by forming the 3rd Battalion Gloucester County Militia (at that time what is now Atlantic County was still a part of Gloucester County).  Initially created to prevent British raiders from stealing cattle from uninhabited barrier islands including Ocean City, Absecon Island, and Brigantine. Their service included coastal defense, utilizing fortified positions at Somers Point to repel British naval incursions and securing the Jersey Shore.  We found evidence of an attack on Somers Point coming through the Ocean City, Longport Inlet that was repelled.

The 3rd Battalion is also credited with distracting the 1,500 Hessians — German mercenaries hired by the British — to the point where they were not able to come to the aid of the British when they were needed to move against George Washington. The battalion marched all the way up to Bordentown and harassed the Hessians, but stayed just out of range to the point where the Hessians gave chase.

They taunted the Hessians, fired at a distance, and lured them all the way to Mount Holly so Washington could take Trenton with minimal resistance.

 Who were the local men who mustered in the cause of freedom?  Do we know anything about them, stories, there struggles?

Our Librarian, Norman Goos, was familiar with Revolutionary War Pension Act of 1832. Under this law, anyone who served in the militia, or the Continental Army or Navy, for at least six months during the Revolutionary War were entitled to a lifetime pension from the Federal Government. Something no South Jersey Gentleman could resist.

Norman challenged a friend at the New Jersey Archives to find as many of the pension applications as she could with references to the 3rd Battalion. Initially they had 25, but through diligent research the number has grown to 41, via various sources, including the Library of Congress and Villanova University. Finding the scanned pension applications was the first step in a long process. Once transferred to PDF format, a team of about 20 volunteers went through each one in a painstaking process of interpretation and transcription. The effort was challenging because language and punctuation used back then didn’t follow the rules of grammar and spelling we are accustomed to today. Many applications were signed with a simple “X.” Other documents were illegible.

To date we have transcribed the pension applications of the following patriots.  When completed, there will be a 400-page book telling the stories of these men who were either fishermen or farmers, ship builders or businessmen — a proud history that counters the popular narrative that militia from this area played a passive role in the Revolutionary War.  This project will be available, in book form, from the society for $TBD, plus $TBD S&H.

The Patriots