Pennsylvania Continentals Travel Through Allentown

As noted in a prior article, Pennsylvania soldiers were ordered to march to Monmouth County in early July to quell the Loyalist insurrection in Upper Freehold Township. That regiment, under Colonel Broadhead, delayed their march and ultimately played no role in the campaign against the insurgents.

At least 3,000 other armed Pennsylvanians would travel across New Jersey in July on their way to join the Continental Army in the defense of New York and New Jersey. These men traveled through Allentown because it was an important crossroad connecting the Delaware River towns of western New Jersey with the towns and coastline of eastern New Jersey.

A handful of Pennsylvanians discussed their time in Allentown. The first recorded incident in Allentown occurred on July 7. Lt. James McMichael was part of 1,000 Pennsylvania Flying Camp on their way to Perth Amboy. He recorded that "Capt. Farmer's gun went off accidentally, and shot a soldier of his own company" that day. The man was left behind under the care of locals.

The orderly book of McMichael’s regiment offers additional information on the Pennsylvanian’s two days at Allentown. Perceiving the locals to be potentially mischievous or even dangerous, the regiment assigned "an officer's guard of thirty men to be mounted, five whereof to be placed with the wagons which are to be brought together as near as may be.” The purpose of the guard was likely to limit any pilfering or vandalism of the regiment’s supplies. The Pennsylvanians also placed a guard at the “commanding officer's doors," presumably to prevent an attack.

An order was also issued to locals: "The tavern keepers are not to sell any liquor to the soldiers without an order from an officer." And if there was any doubt that the Pennsylvanians perceived themselves as camping amongst the enemy, the regiment’s counter-sign during its stay in Allentown was “Tory.”

Colonel Samuel Miles’ regiment came through Allentown the day after McMichael’s and stayed one night. Miles’ orders for his evening in Allentown were similar:

The men to cook provisions as soon as can be delivered & hold themselves in readiness to march at a minute’s warning – the tavern keepers not to sell any liquor without an order from the officer.

Miles also ordered that “an officer’s guard to consist of thirty men mounted” should patrol the encampment. Miles made it to New Brunswick by July 9, but he would return later in the month in a belated attempt to quell the local Loyalist uprising.

More Pennsylvanians continued through Allentown, some going north to New Brunswick, others going east through Freehold. On July 18, the New Jersey Convention recorded that Colonel Burd, with his regiment of “Associators” (temporary soldiers), had arrived at Middletown. They would have passed through Allentown and Freehold during their march.

By July 26, General Hugh Mercer, commanding the patchwork of Continental forces in New Jersey facing the British on Staten Island, reported to the Continental Congress:

There are now on duty, of the Pennsylvania Provincial Battalions and the Association of the same Province, three thousand rank and file in all -- contained from Bergen Neck to Middletown, and these are not the only troops who have joined.

On August 10, Mercer further reported: “Our whole force, including N. Jersey militia, from Powles Hook to Shrewsbury, amount to eight thousand three hundred." It is not known whether the Pennsylvanians stationed in Middletown and Shrewsbury found the local militia uncooperative, as had Benjamin Tupper a few weeks earlier.

Mercer also observed boats traveling the Raritan Bay and bringing food to the British at Sandy Hook:

Shallops were sent with flour round to the fleet; but I am this moment informed by the officer of the guard on South-Amboy shore that soldiers appeared thick on their decks after getting round Billup's Point into Prince's Bay. This morning they fell down to Sandy-Hook. A flag was seen hoisted this morning on the Light-House, which is an unusual thing.

Even after the surge of July, companies of Pennsylvanians continued to travel across New Jersey. 

On August 17, the company of Captain Algernon Roberts reached Allentown. He complained about “the extraordinary conduct of the innkeepers, who had grown insolent to the degree that we could scarce refresh ourselves.” But Roberts also commented on the great generosity of the Upper Freehold farmers: "We found the inhabitants very kind and hospitable, supplying us in a plenteous manner, as their circumstances would admit."

Allentown would remain a critical crossroads and Pennsylvania soldiers would visit it again several more times during the American Revolution, some of which are subject of additional articles.

Related Historic Site: The Old Mill

Sources: McMichael, James, “Diary of Lieutenant James McMichael of the Pennsylvania Line, 1776–1778,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 16 (1892), 131–2; New Jersey Historical Society, collection 224, Orderly Book - Pennsylvania Regiment; Orderly Book, Col. Samuel Miles’ Regt., MG 224, New Jersey Historical Society; 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; 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 139; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 56; General Hugh Mercer, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 178, item 159, #153, 178; Algernon Roberts, "A Journal of a Campaign from Philadelphia to Paulus Hook," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 7 (1883), p 459.