View source for Affair at Little Egg Harbor

{{Short description|Massacre of the American Revolutionary War}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Little Egg Harbor massacre
| image             = 
| caption           = 
| partof            = the [[American Revolutionary War]]
| date              = October 15, 1778
| place             = near Little Egg Harbor, present-day [[Tuckerton, New Jersey]]
| result            = British victory
| combatant1        = {{flag|United States|1777}}
| combatant2        = {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Great Britain}}
| commander1        = [[Kazimierz Pułaski]]
| commander2        = [[Patrick Ferguson]]
| strength1         = 50
| strength2         = 250
| casualties1       = 45 killed<br />5 captured
| casualties2       = 3 killed<br />3 wounded
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox American Revolutionary War: Northern coast 1776-1781}}
| coordinates       = {{coord|39.572|-74.356|type:event_globe:earth_region:US-NJ|display=ti}}
}}

The '''Affair at Little Egg Harbor''' took place on October 15, 1778, in [[South Jersey]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. American Loyalists killed 45 Patriot men, [[bayonet]]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]]s who used the area as a base to harass and seize British ships and their cargoes.

==Background==
{{Main|New Jersey in the American Revolution|Battle of Chestnut Neck}}
[[British Army]] officer Captain [[Patrick Ferguson]] led a raid on Chestnut Neck, on the Mullica River, to retrieve supplies taken by [[privateer]]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.

[[Casimir Pulaski|Kazimierz Pułaski]] and his newly raised forces were ordered to oppose his actions.  [[Pulaski's Legion]], 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 Village, New Jersey|Batsto]]. The plan was to attack Batsto, but the river proved too shallow and time ran out, Batsto remained untouched.
<ref>Franklin Kemp. Nest of Rebel Pirates
</ref> and stemmed their attacks on privateers at The Forks of the [[Mullica River]]. For a week the two forces were at a standoff.

==Attack==
[[File:Massacre plaque.JPG|thumb|Massacre plaque]]
Pulaski's troops reached the [[Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey|Little Egg Harbor]] district (near present-day [[Tuckerton, New Jersey|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 {{cvt|10|mi}} to what is now [[Mystic Island, New Jersey|Osborne Island]].  He marched them {{cvt|2|mi}} 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.<ref>{{cite web  | last = Wrobleski  | first = Joseph  | title = Pulaski Legion Memorial Little Egg Harbor Massacre  | publisher = Historical Marker Database  | date = April 14, 2010  | url = http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=29783  | access-date = 2012-02-28  | archive-date = 2017-11-11  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171111204726/https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=29783  | url-status = dead  }}</ref><ref>{{citation   | last = Kent   | first = Bill | title = JERSEYANA; One Soldier's Battle to Preserve the Memory of Others | newspaper =[[The New York Times]] | date = December 28, 1997   | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/28/nyregion/jerseyana-one-soldier-s-battle-to-preserve-the-memory-of-others.html | access-date = 2012-02-28 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[American Revolutionary War#Stalemate in the North|American Revolutionary War § Stalemate in the North]]. Places 'Affair at Little Egg Harbor' in overall sequence and strategic context.

==References==
{{NJhistory}}
*Information adapted from Boatner's ''Landmarks of the American Revolution'', 1992 ed.
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQIrAAAAYAAJ&q=%22little+egg+harbor%22+october+1778&pg=PA22|title=The affair at Egg Harbor, New Jersey, October 15, 1778|first=William Scudder|last=Stryker|publisher=Naar, Day & Naar|year=1894|location=Trenton, NJ}}
{{Reflist}}

{{New Jersey in the American Revolutionary War}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Affair at Little Egg Harbor}}
[[Category:1778 in New Jersey]]
[[Category:Ocean County, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1778|Little Egg Harbor]]
[[Category:Battles of the American Revolutionary War in New Jersey|Little Egg Harbor]]
[[Category:Battles of the American Revolutionary War involving Great Britain]]
[[Category:Battles of the American Revolutionary War involving the United States]]
[[Category:Privateering in the American Revolutionary War]]
[[Category:Battles in the Northern Coastal theater of the American Revolutionary War after Saratoga|Little Egg Harbor]]