“Allegations of prejudice, Revolutionary War history and protected birds: Public speaks out on warehouse plans,” app.com, June 17:
What would Founding Father and General George Washington think about plans to build a nearly 500,000-square-foot warehouse on a Revolutionary War site linked to the Battle of Monmouth in Upper Freehold? With the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain looming, would he scratch his head and try to understand why local governments and developers would want to desecrate Revolutionary War land?
How does a warehouse that generates nearly 500,000 square feet of polluting material and eats up land enhance the 24-mile Upper Freehold Historic Scenic Byway route? Yes, the Old York Road location is part of the Historic Byway, as listed on the town’s webpage.
Looks like Upper Freehold officials need a history lesson.
What happened at the Allentown encampment?
In Olivia Liu’s June 18 front-page story, readers learned what township and Allentown residents have known for a long time: the process was not fair, according to residents who attended and experts who testified.
Historical integrity was one of the issues I and Allentown sworn witness John Fabiano raised in our testimony on June 13. As for George Washington, neither the developer’s lawyers nor the archaeological experts detailed the Continental Army leaders’ interest in the British encampment at Allentown, then part of the Upper Freehold. In my sworn testimony as a historical expert, I documented the important intervention of Washington and his generals in moving their troops to the Allentown encampment on June 24, 1778. Even as the British moved to join another division at Imlaystown in the Upper Freehold, troops under Washington’s command were on the way to intercept. After the British left the Allentown encampment, there were skirmishes near it and one on the route, but no direct combat took place until three days later, when the decisive battle between the British and Americans took place in what is now known as the Battle of Monmouth.
But don’t take my word for it, believe the minutes of the War Council published by George Washington on June 24, 1778. We highlighted for the UFT Planning Committee the important War Council notes kept by George Washington at Hopewell, found both in the Library of Congress records, George Washington Papers, and the Founders’ Online archives. No questions or comments were received from the committee or the developer team regarding this meeting of Washington’s War Council.
Let me tell you the facts.
First, Washington had informed his major and brigadier generals that the British were marching in double columns that day, heading for the town of “Allentown.” General William Maxwell was already near the British with 1,200 men. General Philemon Dickinson reported that another 1,200 militia were “lying on the flank and rear of the British, obstructing their march.” Washington noticed that General John Cadwalader was leading 50 to 60 volunteers and “a detachment of the Continental Army,” totaling about 300 men. Washington asked the assembled leaders what to do. His question was, “… should we immediately launch a general attack on the enemy, or attempt a partial attack, or, if possible, take up a position which will force the enemy to attack?” The response was as follows: “A detachment of 1,500 men, which may be sent immediately if necessary, may serve on the enemy’s left flank and rear, in conjunction with the other Continental troops and militia already deployed around the enemy’s perimeter.”
The British encampment at Allentown was important to Washington: he was, in modern terms, “obsessed,” as evidenced by the nearly 20 documents, letters, orders, and correspondence exchanged between Washington and his leading military team, including Lt. Gen. Alexander Hamilton and Major General the Marquis de Lafayette, both part of the French army that fought for the Americans.
Why did the Active Acquisitions developer team and the Upper Freehold Planning Board overlook these “facts”? Were the U.S. military’s interests at odds with claims by some members of the Upper Freehold Planning Board that British troops were stationed in Allentown and that it would be unpatriotic to defend the land, or that British spies had made maps that were unreliable and thus devalued the land? Did the willful forgetting of important American history at the proposed warehouse site compete with the truth?
Do we not know what happened in the British camp?
As a historian, I have been trained to follow the facts, even when they are different from what I believe. When I was doing my own investigation into the murder of a slave woman by her owner in the Upper Freehold in 1784, I was surprised to see the coroner’s report unanimously find the slave owner guilty of murder. I did not expect such a result from a group that included slave owners. But I must remain faithful to the truth and report those “facts.”
Local historian Fabiano presented the UFT Planning Committee and our community with a map from the diary of Col. John Andre in the Huntington Library in California. I have also looked at the map and diary. The book that all sides refer to as the professional record of the Battle of Monmouth is “Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle.” While this book refers to Andre’s map, the text omits any mention or mention of the map of Allentown and Upper Freehold. Therefore, this map and history represents important information. There is so much new information coming out from local historians that we still do not have a complete picture of the British garrison in Allentown/Upper Freehold.
Regarding local black history, scholars have identified at least one noncombatant African-American piper, William Steeves, who participated in the skirmish at Crosswicks, the last stop for the British before they invaded and encamped in Allentown. My intuition is that there were many more free black soldiers and noncombatants on the British flank at Allentown, but research is needed. The British had a unit of 49 men and two women known as the “Black Pioneers” who traveled with General Henry Clinton’s army from Philadelphia to the Battle of Monmouth.
Scholars record that the group repaired roads and bridges and performed other non-military tasks. Conventional wisdom holds that all free blacks were part of the British forces that went to Imlaystown, not Allentown. However, more research is needed. In Upper Freehold, there were 72 enslaved men and older boys listed by number, not by name, on the town’s tax rolls in May and June 1778 (part of records from the New Jersey State Archives). What did African-American slaves in Allentown and other parts of Upper Freehold think when they saw British and American troops that included free black men and women?
We, the residents of Allentown and Upper Freehold, are playing a game of hide and seek with the Upper Freehold Planning Board regarding documentation, history and transparency. How can a town that takes pride in its history want to build a warehouse and destroy historic land as stated in the Upper Freehold website link above? We are hopeful that Monmouth County will step in and protect the land.
Sue Kozel is past vice chair of the Upper Freehold Historic Scenic Byway Commission.
