The American Revolution in Monmouth County: The Theatre of Spoil and Destruction

by Michael S. Adelberg

Overview

Michael S. Adelberg brings to life the struggles within Monmouth County, a place that New Jersey governor William Livingston called "the theatre of spoil and destruction."

Like much of New Jersey during the American Revolution, Monmouth County was contested territory in between the great armies. As the Battles of Trenton, Princeton and Bound Brook raged nearby, the people of Monmouth County fought their own internal revolution; Loyalist partisans led insurrections and raids that laid waste to entire neighborhoods. In 1778, General George Washington rallied his Continental army and fought the British within Monmouth's borders, barely holding the field. Monmouth Countians joined the fight and then spent the following weeks caring for the wounded and burying the dead. The remaining war years brought more hardships, as they grappled with a local civil war charged with racial, religious and economic undercurrents - a local civil war that continued long after the Battle of Yorktown supposedly ended hostilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609490010
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	11/26/2010
Series:	Military
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,024,089
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Michael Adelberg has been researching the American Revolution in Monmouth County for more than twenty years. His essays on the American Revolution have appeared in academic journals like the Journal of Military History and historical magazines such as the Keeper's Log. His research has been the subject of articles in thought journals like the Wilson Quarterly and the Jersey Shore's leading newspaper, the Asbury Park Press. He is a book reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, and his first novel, The Thinking Man's Bully, will be published in 2011. Adelberg holds master's degrees in history and public policy and lives with his family in Vienna, Virginia. To learn more about the author and his publications, visit www.michaeladelberg.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword David J. Fowler 7

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

1 An Overview of the American Revolution in Monmouth County 15

2 "Conceiving Ourselves in a Precarious Situation": The Extent of Civil Warfare in Monmouth County 27

3 "I Am as Innocent as an Unborn Child": The Loyalism of Edward and George Taylor 43

4 "A Motley Crew at Sandy Hook": Monmouth's African American Loyalists 75

5 "They Do Rather More Harm than Good": The Continental Army in Monmouth County 97

6 "A Combination to Trample All Law Underfoot": Monmouth County's Retaliators 121

Concluding Thoughts and Further Reading 145

Index 151

About the Author 159