Alarm Beacons Constructed in Monmouth County

In 1779, the British, believing the South was filled with Loyalists, sent an Army to invade Georgia. In the North, they replaced major campaigns with raids into New Jersey. George Washington camped inland near Morristown and relied on riders to inform him of British incursions. But riders were sometimes unreliable, and messages took several hours to deliver under even the best circumstances. In 1778, Continental and New Jersey leaders discussed establishing beacons which, when fired, could be seen by men attending the next beacon—lighting a chain of beacons could, in theory, speed word of a British attack.

Beacons were not a new idea. For centuries, they had been used on the continent of Europe to spread news of enemy attack. In New Jersey, the nascent state government’s Council of Safety, at its first meeting on January 10, 1776, recommended the construction of a set of warning beacons along the shore. Three months later, George Washington forwarded a plan to the New Jersey Provincial Congress for constructing beacons between the Navesink Highlands and Woodbridge. The beacons would alert New Jersey militia and the Continental Army of a British landing or a fleet arriving at Sandy Hook, but it is unlikely that beacons were constructed in 1776 amidst other competing priorities.

Monmouth County’s Warning Beacons

The plan to construct beacons across the parts of New Jersey most exposed to attacks reached fruition. in March 1779, George Washington wrote Governor William Livingston of a plan developed by General William Alexander (Lord Stirling) to construct 23 beacons from the Watchung Mountains southwest to Amwell and east through northern Monmouth County. Of the first eight beacons, Washington wrote: “I will have them erected.” For the rest, Washington requested that “Your Excellency [Livingston] will be pleased to give the order." This meant that fifteen beacons would be built and maintained by New Jersey militia. Stirling’s description of the hoped-for beacons included this instruction:

Each of the beacons are to be of the following dimensions: at bottom, fourteen feet square, to rise in a pyramidal form to about eighteen or twenty feet high, and then to terminate about six feet square, with a stout sapling in the center of about thirty feet high from the ground.

According to a list compiled by Baron Johan DeKalb – the last three beacons would be in Monmouth County "on Carter Hill in Monmouth" (near Freehold); "on Middletown Hill" and "on Mount Pleasant." A fourth beacon near the Navesink Highlands was not included in Stirling’s plan based on the advice of Joseph Holmes, one of Monmouth County’s legislators – presumably it would be impossible to defend. An April order discussed that the Monmouth beacons were to be fired when "the enemy invades Monmouth County or any part of Middlesex south of Raritan, or on the first appearance of the enemy going up Amboy Bay."

On April 12, General Nathaniel Heard of Middlesex County, commanding the Monmouth militia, wrote to Colonel Asher Holmes, commanding the Freehold and Middletown militias. Heard’s detailed direction included instruction that "these fires should be made of logs intermixed with brush squares at the bottom, about sixteen feet high and to diminish as they rise like a pyramid, and should be 18 or 20 feet high."

Heard’s orders reveal that he was more concerned with battling enemy raiders than getting word to Washington. He ordered beacons further forward than Stirling and he required that the beacons serve as militia rallying points. He wrote:

I have received orders from General Dickinson [Philemon Dickinson] to execute and erect beacons for your militia in case of alarm… you will immediately order the officers commanding to have their men attending the firing of these beacons.

When the beacons fired militia were ordered to muster at each of them:

1. companies of Michael Sweetman, John Walton, David Gordon, William Van Cleaf were to meet at the beacon at Bray's meeting house (south of Middletown);

2. companies of John Schenck, William Schenck and Samuel Carhart were to meet at the beacon on Vanderbelt's Hill (near Middletown);

3. companies of John Stillwell, Barnes Smock and Theophilus Little were to meet at the beacon on Ruckman's Hill (near Navesink).

The militia’s Light Horse company was to "be divided in three divisions, each of which to repair to each of the three posts, that they may forward intelligence from one post to the others." Holmes would oversee the construction of the beacons and would be compensated for expenses directly related to their construction: “You must keep an exact account of expenses attending to the fixing of these beacons which you will be pleased to transmit regularly."

The Loyalist officer, Elisha Lawrence, formerly of Upper Freehold, compiled a map of Monmouth County in spring, 1779. The map was likely to assist raiding parties and illegal traders. The map showed the location of beacons on Garretts Hill (west of Navesink Highlands); a beach on Highlands marked "watering place" (fresh water well); and on the Middletown shore opposite Horseshoe Bay on the Sandy Hook Peninsula. The map also showed the location of four companies of Benjamin Ford’s Continental troops in Monmouth County, one at Middletown, two more at Eatontown, and one at Tinton Falls. The map, if correct, showed that beacons were constructed far closer to the British base at Sandy Hook than Stirling had suggested and slightly closer than Heard had ordered—but it is possible that Lawrence’s map was incorrect.

Short Life of Monmouth County’s Beacons

What became of the beacons is unclear. Perhaps they were never fully constructed or perhaps they were fired once and not rebuilt. If they were as close to Sandy Hook as Lawrence’s map suggests, then the men firing those beacons were in great danger of capture. At least in Monmouth County, there is no reason to believe the beacons were long-lived. A May 1780 list of New Jersey militia rally points had the Monmouth militia assembling at South Amboy “along the shore towards Middletown” and at Deal. Beacons go unmentioned in the order.

In the three northeast townships (Freehold, Middletown and Shrewsbury), militia used “signal cannon” to indicate alarm and summon the militia. As early as September 1778, there is a documentation that militia “went on the boom" of the cannon, and men were fined for not turning out when the gun was fired. The booms of this cannon were likely effective at alarming the militia because a Loyalist newspaper particularly called out the disabling of the Middletown militia signal cannon in its report of the June 1780 raid that captured Captain Barnes Smock of Middletown.

In post-war veteran pension applications, six Monmouth militiamen from the Northeast townships mention marching at the boom of signal cannon, but none mention marching at the firing of a beacon:

• John Aumock recalled mustering on “a general alarm (which was announced by the firing of the alarm gun kept by Colo. Holmes), and then all the militia were called out together."

• John Carhart remembered,” under a signal from the alarm gun, the militia of the neighborhood, whether out under regular duty or not, repaired with all speed to the place of rendezvous.”

• Garrett Jeffrey recalled he would “repair immediately to all points of attack on the discharge of the alarm gun.”

• John Matthews also recalled mustering at the firing of a signal cannon: “the militia immediately laying aside all business at the report of the alarm gun & repairing to the place of rendezvous.”

• Koert Schenck recalled "all the militia were called out on the firing of the alarm gun.”

• Derrick Sutphin marched at the alarm gun, including a boom just after his wedding: “was called out the same week as the wedding, after the marriage, the alarm gun firing at Colo. Holmes’.”

There are no accounts of the Monmouth militia responding to an alarm via the lighting of a beacon. Riders continued to be used to alert George Washington on events along the Monmouth shore and Sandy Hook through the end of the war.

Related Historic Site: Beacon Pole Hill (Rhode Island)

Sources: Bob Rupert, The Blue Hills Beacons, Journal of the American Revolution, April 29, 2015, https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/04/the-blue-hills-beacons/#google_vignette; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 4, pp. 660, 662-3; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 1, p 1165; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety of New Jersey (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009) p 327; George Washington to William Livingston, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 14, pp. 281-3; Elisha Lawrence, Map, U. of Michigan, Clements Library, Map 237, Monmouth County; James Raleigh, "Beacon Bicentennial--1779," Monmouth County Historical Association Newsletter, vol. 7, n2, 1779, p1; Nathaniel Heard to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 3; Cherry Hall Papers, box 1; John Clayton to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, p341; George Washington to John Neilson, May 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-01952, ver. 2013-09-28); National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Matthews of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#23666685; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Garrett Jeffrey of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#24630193; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Derrick Sutphin; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Carhart; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Aumock; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Koert Schenck.