George Washington Orders Anthony Wayne to Attack a British Stronghold

In the spring of 1780, the large British garrison in New York City ran low on supplies and needed to augment its own stocks with fresh food, fodder for their horses, and fire wood from the surrounding area. Being within sight across the river, Bergan County, New Jersey was a focal point for British requisition efforts and suffered great depredations. In late May, Loyalists crossed from New York  and encamped in the upper part of Bergen Township. They built a blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry from which to conduct operations and in June launched a series of raids, pillaging as they went. At first, the Bergen County militia was their only opponent, and it was under the command of Colonel Theunis Dey, who was charged with defending the west side of the Hudson River above New York Bay. Dey was also a member of the New Jersey Assembly and the New Jersey Provincial Council. These continuous British raids in New Jersey – the so-called “forage wars” – kept the American inhabitants and militia in a constant state of emergency. 

Meanwhile General Washington, anticipating the arrival of French troops and planning on taking action against the British when they came, was waiting in frustration. While he waited, he kept his eye on the foe’s main force in New York, and selected for his encampment a series of locations best designed to accomplish that task. Aware of the British actions in Bergen County, from July 1 to July 29, 1780, Washington established his headquarters there at the home of Colonel Dey. At the Dey Mansion, Continental Army troops bivouacked on the property surrounding the house. Washington and his aides stayed in the mansion itself, while the “life guards”, the general’s personal guards, slept in the rafters in the attic. Washington was at Dey Mansion when the commander of the French Fleet, Count Rochambeau, arrived in Newport, Rhode Island with 6000 men. It was too late, however, for a 1780 campaign. 

General Anthony Wayne and his Pennsylvania Line were with Washington at the Dey Mansion in Bergen. Wayne was determined not to let the summer go by without a strike at the enemy, and on July 19 he submitted a three fold proposal to Washington. The commanding general respected Wayne’s initiative and judgment and together they studied the plan, which was to attack enemy positions in New Jersey along the Hudson River, hoping to accomplish three objectives. First, the venture would serve as a foraging expedition to help feed the Continentals._econd, the capture of the blockhouse would hinder the British army‘s supply efforts._hese two objectives, however, were subordinate to Wayne’s primary strategy._y the noise and smoke of the attack on the blockhouse, he hoped to draw British reinforcements across the Hudson to one of the landing spots in New Jersey where regiments of Continentals would be carefully hidden and prepared to sweep the enemy off the precarious rocky landing perches. On July 20, in this letter, Washington ordered Wayne to move forward with the plan. 

Letter signed. “You will proceed with the 1st and 2d Pennsylvania Brigades and Col. Moylan’s Regt. of Dragoons upon the execution of the Business planned in yours of yesterday. I do not at present think of any necessary alterations in plan submitted to me, except that of detailing a few Horse this afternoon to patrol all night, and see that the Enemy do not, in the course of the Night, throw over any troops to form an ambuscade. They need not go so low down, or in such numbers, as to create any alarm. They may inquire as they go, for Deserters, after whom they may say they are in pursuit. The enemy have so many emissaries among us that scarce a move or an order passes unnoticed. You are so well acquainted with the critical situation of the Ground, that it is needless in me to recommend the extreme of caution. I most heartily wish you success being with real Esteem Dear Sir / yr most obt Servt….” It is docketed on the address panel by Wayne himself, “20th July 1780, from Genl. Washington.”

On the morning of July 21, after careful reconnaissance and positioning of his troops, the raid began. Wayne’s artillery opened on the blockhouse but before long it was clear that the pounding was having little effect on the structure. However, the din from the Jersey shore did spur the British in Manhattan to action, and small boats began to assemble on the opposite side of the river._imultaneously, reports from other observers told of several vessels proceeding upriver from New York City. This is what Wayne had hoped for, and he and his aides positioned themselves north along the Palisades to where they could observe British movements._rom a vantage point they saw the transports suddenly stop and turn about in midstream, as though sensing a trap, and then sail back to the New York side. Thus Wayne’s promising plan failed and the operation was discontinued; the Americans had nothing to show for their effort but some captured livestock. On July 31, the Continental Army left New Jersey and moved on to a position in the Hudson Highlands.

Washington’s complaint of the prevalence of British spies in his camp was all too true, and unbeknownst to him, the problem reached to the highest levels. Just weeks later, he would be betrayed by one of his closest comrades, Benedict Arnold. And indeed the Wayne expedition itself has a small connection to the Arnold plot, as it was the subject of a satirical poem written by a young British officer, Major John Andre. The same day that the third canto of Andre’s poem was published, he was captured as he headed back to New York after conspiring with Arnold for the surrender of West Point. The poem, entitled “The Cow Chase,” mocked Wayne by name as a cattle driver, and the last stanza read as follows:

    “And now I’ve closed my epic strain,

    I tremble as I show it,

    Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne,

    Should ever catch the poet.”

Wayne’s quick action in moving his troops to West Point at the time of Arnold’s treason played a key role in foiling that plan, and then Wayne commanded the 1300 man guard at Andre’s execution on October 2, 1780.