Asher Holmes Raises New Regiments of State Troops

Prior articles have discussed the first State Troops from Monmouth County. State Troops were local militiamen who volunteered for several months of continuous service, during which they were, per New Jersey law, "entitled to the same pay and rations" as Continental troops.  The first of these State Troops was an artillery company raised by Captain Joshua Huddy in 1777. In June 1779, as Continental troops were being withdrawn from Monmouth County, Colonel Asher Holmes was given permission to raise a regiment of State Troops to replace them. While Holmes likely never raised even half a regiment, the State Troops were deemed helpful, and regiments of State Troops were re-raised and continuously served in Monmouth County through the end of 1782.

Re-Raising State Troops in Monmouth County

The State Troops raised by Holmes in June-July 1779, enlisted for nine months. So, in March 1780, Holmes began enlisting new State Troops. He did this without a law from the New Jersey Legislature explicitly authorizing him to do so.

Colonel Holmes apparently pressed the case to re-raise the regiment of State Troops before the Legislature. A March 21 letter, from Governor William Livingston to Holmes alluded to this, and it appears that Holmes was given encouragement to raise the regiment even before the Legislature was able to act. In that same letter, Livingston acknowledged Holmes’s need to raise men for the defense of Monmouth County and authorized him to call up 80 militia for temporary service. These militia and State Troops would be sorely tested in the coming months—the Loyalist raids of 1780 were more frequent and intense than any other year of the war.

A March 11 document lists fourteen State Troop recruits. Thirteen of these men were from Freehold and Upper Townships (one from Middletown). All of the recruits were under age 24 except one (33-year-old Jonathan Jones of Freehold). The youngest was Solomon Ivins, Jr., of Upper Freehold, only 16 on the date of enlistment, but apparently 17 by his first date of service.

Apparently, Ivins’ enlistment caused quite a stir. Another recruit, Jacob Hall, recalled after the war that he “was then encamped at Freehold town when Capt. William Barton brought in a number of recruits for the Army, among them was young Solomon Ivins.” Soon after, “old Solomon Ivins (the Quaker Preacher) came to camp on horseback in order to induce his son to leave the company, and he would procure him a substitute." Hall wrote that young Solomon would not leave:

Young Sol had told the deponent that he had married Kitty Scott and offended the old man by doing so, and he had so much fuss on the matter, that he had enlisted, and more, he would not leave the Army to please the old fellow; the said Solomon Ivins was a good soldier and served until the close of the war.

Still lacking a law to raise a new regiment, Holmes continued recruiting. A list of recruits dated May 25, 1780, documents that Captain Samuel Carhart of Middletown Township had raised a full company of 54 men (including the fourteen raised in March). 31 of the recruits were under age 21, six were over 30 years old (42 year old George Smith was the oldest). 31 of the men were from Freehold Township, 18 from Middletown, 7 from Upper Freehold, and 1 from Middlesex County.

Recruiting Disparities between State Troops and the Continental Army

The New Jersey Legislature finally acted on June 14, 1780 (five days after a punishing raid against Middletown). It authorized Holmes "to raise a [second] company of volunteers for the defense of a part of the County of Monmouth [in addition to Carhart’s]." The law also authorized a smaller company of State Troops to be stationed at Toms River, where Loyalist raiders and Pine Robber gangs created a double threat. Lieutenants Joshua Studson and Ephraim Jenkins were appointed "to raise by voluntary enlistment" 30 men to defend the lower shore. Other counties were authorized to raise companies of state troops as well.

Importantly, the law also authorized recruiting officers across the state to raise 640 men for the Continental Army, including a 60-man quota for Monmouth County (the third highest county quota). Army units detached to Monmouth County recruited without contributing to the quote. The Virginia dragoons of Major Henry Lee's Virginia cavalry appear to have enlisted six Monmouth Countians while stationed in the county in 1780. So, Continental Army recruiters and State Troop recruiters directly competed. Army recruits received a L12 bounty and Army recruiters received a 30-schilling bonus for each recruit. State Troop recruits received no bounty; recruiters received no bonus.

Legislators likely knew that they put the State Troops at a significant disadvantage. A second law passed that month gave Holmes permission to complete his State Troop companies by drafting men out of local militia companies. On June 28, 23 men—exclusively from Freehold and Middletown townships, ranging in ages from 17 to 34—were drafted to complete Holmes’s two companies. The Toms River company recruited separately and its strength at this time is unknown.

The New Jersey Legislature further tweaked recruiting rules in 1781, but continued to provide greater incentives for Continental recruiters. Holmes had Captain Carhart write the Governor on June 5 about difficulties raising State Troops. Captains Carhart, Anderson, and John Walton were State Troop recruiters for the county and given a quota of 259 men to raise. Carhart wrote that he was unable recruit because:

1.) State Troops offered no recruitment bounty (while the Continental Army was offering a $200 bounty for enlistment), and

2.) the State’s late payment to the State Troops discouraged recruits.

Carhart complained that men were leaving the State Troops for Continental service. This made Carhart ask: “I must beg your Excellency's opinion whether men who are enlisted in our company can, with propriety, leave us to enlist in the Continental Army."

Several months later, in November 1781, the New Jersey Assembly considered Monmouth County’s Esek Van Dorn. He had been recruited out of the State Troops into the Continental Army. He petitioned the Assembly, "setting forth that he has been a considerable time over and above his term of enlistment [in the Army], and has been refused discharge.” He requested “the interdisposition of the Legislature" to release him. There likely was confusion over whether Van Dorn’s time in the State Troops counted toward his term of service in the Continental Army.

George Washington and Governor Livingston respected the mission of the Monmouth State Troops to stay home and defend the county. Shortly after the passage of the June 1780 law, Livingston excused the Monmouth militia and state troops from responding to the British incursion at Springfield, writing that “our regiments along the frontiers cannot be called from their own counties without exposing them to the ravages of the refugees." On August 3, Washington and Livingston exchanged letters about mobilizing New Jersey militia to respond to an expected British incursion into New Jersey. It was noted that Holmes was told to "remain there" in Monmouth County for three the next three months even during periods of alarm. There is no evidence that the State Troops were ordered out of the county.

Respect for the State Troops did not prevent Livingston from ordering Asher Holmes on, June 27, 1781, to furnish militia for three months of service with the Continental Army. The Governor wrote:

You are required to call forth half a class or sixteen men from the several companies in your Regiment, to be officered with a Lieutenant and suitable number of non-commissioned officers... to be in service three months.  They are to receive three schilling per day and exempted for nine months after the expiration of their service from their monthly call of duty.

The men were to report to Morristown on July 15. Similar requests were made from each New Jersey county and colonels were ordered to "fine according to the law, those who shall refuse." The call-out was largely ignored; as of August 6, only 60 men had come into Morristown. Colonel Robert Taylor of Gloucester County complained that his men (from Egg Harbor) refused to assemble because they were "so lately plundered" by Pine Robbers. There is no evidence that Holmes sent anyone to Morristown, but Samuel Forman, commanding the Upper Freehold militia, sent a company of men under Captain John Coward in August.

The Men Who Served in the State Troops

Service in the State Troops was hard and dangerous. State troops camped near enemy lines in northeast Monmouth County and frequently marched on reports of enemy landings. At times, they found the enemy and fought them, at times they chased shadows. The State was frequently late in paying and supplying the men.

Many of the men who joined the State Troops were already veterans of the local war. This is particularly illustrated in the pension application of John Brown. Before joining the State Troops, Brown served for six months under Colonel David Forman in his regiment of Flying Camp in 1776. He then served in the militia consistently. In April 1780, Brown was in a militia company that unsuccessfully attempted to repel a Loyalist-raid at Manasquan. Brown recalled that “some of his officers were killed in battle.” Soon after, he "was taken prisoner by the British at Shrewsbury & carried to New York, where he remained a prisoner in close confinement for 7 months & suffered cruelly from his captors.” Home again in Shrewsbury, Brown, perhaps fearing re-capture, enlisted in the State Troops. "He equipped himself as a mounted dragoon & volunteered to serve 9 months… during the latter part of that service he received a wound from a musket ball in his shoulder, which disabled him for 4 or 5 months."

Thomas Geron served in the State troops from May 1779 through the end of 1782. He served under various officers and locations, before settling into “a company of horsemen" under Captain John Walton. Geron recalled, “This applicant found his own horse, saddle & bridle, carbine, pistols, holsters & sword, and all other accoutrements necessary for the equipment of a horsemen, and that he was allowed 20 shillings a month for his horse over and above the pay allowed to the foot.” Geron “rode the express which carried intelligence of the arrival of the fleet at Sandy Hook from the Chesapeake Bay" (meaning that the British attempt to break the siege at Yorktown had failed). At the end of his service in November 1782, “a party of 15 men under Cornet Denice were detached from Freehold and stationed at Pleasant Valley… quartered among the farmers until they were discharged.”

Mark Lender, who exhaustively studied the New Jersey Line, concluded that after the surge of patriotism in 1776, the rank and file of the Army were poor men who primarily served for the money. The rank and file of the State Troops lacked the rich bounties, so they were likely motivated by more than money. The men who selected the State Troops were likely motivated to protect their neighborhoods and serve under men they knew, versus joining the Army, marching far away and serving under strangers.

Caption: Handbills advertised large bounties for joining the Continental Army. Recruiters for the New Jersey State Troops, defending Monmouth County, competed for recruits but could not offer bounties.

Related Historic Site: Morristown National Historical Park

Sources: List of Recruits, New Jersey State Archives, Dept of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3631; William Livingston to Asher Holmes, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 343-4; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Brown; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Solomon Ivins; New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3631, 3845; Authorization to raise another regiment of State Troops is discussed in Mark Lender, “The Enlisted Line: The Continental Soldiers of New Jersey”(Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1975) p 55; Act of the New Jersey General Assembly, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 22, item 11, #172-6; Information on the Toms River company is in National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 22, item 11, #172-6; Raising State Troops in June 1780 is discussed in Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p227; State Troop Return, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, New Jersey, folder 58, #123; George Washington to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 38; Major Henry Lee muster roll, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3736; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 22, 1780, p 267-268; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Geron of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#19729784; Samuel Carhart to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 215; William Livingston to Joseph Reed, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, p 433; William Livingston to Asher Homes, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 237, 244-5, 250 note; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 15, August 15, 1781; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 27, 1781, p 11.