Adam Hyler Captures Loyalist Regulars on Sandy Hook

Adam Hyler of New Brunswick was New Jersey’s most prolific and successful Revolutionary War privateer. As discussed in a prior article, Hyler launched a remarkable string of attacks against British-held New York and Sandy Hook, consisting of at least 17 actions between April 1781 and his death in August 1782. Based on surviving documentation it appears that about half of Hyler’s crew was from Monmouth County—particularly Middletown Point (Matawan) from which New Jersey’s first maritime raids against New York City and Sandy Hook were launched. While Hyler’s exploits were many, his most impressive attack occurred in May 1782 when he captured a party of British regulars sent from Sandy Hook to attack him.

Hyler’s attack against Sandy Hook began with taking four small vessels near Sandy Hook, but, as reported in the New York Gazette, on May 29, Hyler was forced to give up some of these vessels:

Mr. Hyler paid a visit to our fishing boats last Saturday and took three boats and a prize, inward bound, without [outside Sandy Hook]; he was pursued by an armed vessel dispatched from one of his Majesty's ships, which obliged him to run the prizes ashore.

Hyler Captures Loyalist Regulars on Sandy Hook

On the same trip, Hyler took on a larger party of British regulars. The New Jersey Gazette reported that on May 25:

Capt. Hyler with his armed boat, being in the Shrewsbury River, a party of twenty-five men, a party of British troops, under Capt. Schaak, was detached to intercept them. Hyler discovered them and landed thirteen men with orders to charge; when four of the enemy were killed and wounded, and the Capt. and eight men taken prisoners. By the firing of a gun it was supposed that others were killed, as they were seen to fall. Just before this affair, Hyler had met with a hurt, or otherwise he would probably not have let a man escape.

On June 27, Lieutenant H. Sinclair, at Sandy Hook, reported the event to General Cortland Skinner. He described “the arrival of the noted partisan Adam Hyler, with two whaleboats, off Shrewsbury Inlet, a short distance from the Gut." Captain Schaak with 21 men marched after him, with Sinclair staying back with half of the command. At 9 a.m., Sinclair "heard several volleys of musketry, accompanied by two or three rounds of cannon" that "made the necessary signal [for assistance] from the Light House to the Lion, man o war, lying off the Hook.” 40 marines from the Lion under Lieutenant Wood went to assist Schaak. However, they were too late. Sinclair reported on Schaak’s defeat:

We had not gone far when we met a refugee who told us he had attended Capt. Schaak and informed me that Capt. Schaak and several of his party were taken, the remainder of Capt. Schaak's party had fallen back to the Light House under command of a Sergeant.

Sinclair did not pursue "on account of Hyler probably being on the shoal, and a number of [State Troop] dragoons constantly hovering about the Jersey side of the Gut, which is fordable at low water." The next morning, 50 marines landed at Spermacity Cove to attack Hyler but "were informed that Hyler went off last night to Middletown Creek" in two boats.

The loss of the Schaak’s party at Sandy Hook was significant enough for Skinner to report it to the British Command in Chief, Guy Carleton. Skinner inferred that Sinclair did not follow orders to engage the enemy, “my instructions to him could not justify his march." Skinner then proposed to attack Adam Hyler's base. It is unclear if Skinner was referring to Middletown Point or New Brunswick, but he wanted the row gallies of Lt. Blanchard that razed Toms River in March rather than larger British navy vessels:

As Hyler has gone up the bay, I wish that Lt. Blanchard, with his boats, was ordered to this post. I think with these [boats] he [Hyler] could be followed to his haunts, his boats destroyed. The armed vessels [at Sandy Hook] may protect particular places, but cannot follow him.

One of Hyler’s men, John Riddle, recalled the clash with Schaak’s party in his veteran’s pension application. After taking three vessels, the privateers returned to Sandy Hook:

The next day we returned under British colors, and coming close alongside the fleet off Sandy Hook, we dropped sails and run into Sosbury [Shrewsbury] River. The same evening we passed through the narrow passage between Sandy Hook and the Highlands [the Gut], about sunset, when we spied a craft going across the guard ship in pursuit of which our Captain immediately sent the whaleboat.

Riddle (exaggerating the number of British troops) then described the action against Schaak’s party: “Perceiving a line of British soldiers marching down the beach,” Hyler’s men attacked:

We were but thirty strong, including the fifteen we had landed: the enemy about seventy. While we were looking over the beach for them from our vessel, they came suddenly round a point within pistol shot of us. The first thing we knew, [there] was a volley from the platoon, having come up on a solid column. Twelve of our men fired with muskets, and in such quick succession that the barrels began to burn our hands. The other three managed a four pounder, which the Captain ordered to be loaded... An opening by our four pounder being made thro’ their column, the enemy broke and run; and the fifteen men before landed, happening to come up, charged and took the Captain [Schaak] and nine of his men.

According to a notice published in the New Jersey Gazette, an Admiralty Court would be held at Raritan Landing on June 27 to hear Adam Hyler claims to:

• A whaleboat & two fishing boats "taken in the Shrewsbury River and off the Hook"

• A Black man, John Jeffrey, "taken on the 24th taken on board a schooner near the fishing banks"

• "15 stands of arms" from Captain Schaak’s party.

This indicates that Hyler carried off three boats, an African-American (to be sold as a prize of war), and arms—in addition to the prisoners taken that day.

Schaak was sent to Elizabethtown, but not initially confined. George Washington wrote to Colonel Elias Dayton, about Captain Schaak on June 11: “A Captain of the 57th Regt British, lately taken by Captain Hyler at the Light House, is on his parole at Elizabeth Town.” Washington asked Dayton to have Schaak “taken into safe custody… and guarded in such a manner as that he cannot possibly make his escape.” But Washington did not want a harsh confinement, instead Dayton should “have him treated with every species of tenderness and delicacy."

Caption: The HMS Lion served as the guardship at Sandy Hook when Adam Hyler’s privateers captured a party of British regulars. A party of marines from the ship arrived too late to help their comrades.

Related Historic Site: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: The New Jersey Gazette report is printed in Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 125; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J. : Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 467-477; H. Sinclair to Courtland Skinner, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #4675; Courtland Skinner to Guy Carleton, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #4681; Riddle, John, The Memoir of Colonel John Riddle, pp. 1-4. Personal photocopy. Correspondence from Jack Fulmer; George Washington to Elias Dayton, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw240366)); Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; George Washington to Elias Dayton, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw240366)).