Continued

Page 2

 

By the end of May, most of Washington's 8000 man army had taken position in the Watchung Mountains along the Raritan Valley. To the south around New Brunswick, Daniel Morgan's Virginians along with other small American units lurked in the woods and fields attacking almost every British patrol or outpost.  Despite the constant skirmishing and the presence of Washington' army, enemy troops continued to pour into the vicinity of  New Brunswick, eventually bringing the strength of the King's forces in the area to almost 13,000 well trained soldiers.

In the American camp, uncertainty was prevalent.  Were the British going to try to advance west across Central New Jersey toward Philadelphia ?  Were they going to suddenly turn north and storm the mountains to directly attack Washington's Army ?  Only a 3 hour march separated the two armies and strict
vigilance was required to protect the American position.

To guard the main encampment, Washington placed his two best armed brigades in advanced positions securing strategic road passes across the First Watchung Mountain.  One of these brigades was commanded by General Anthony Wayne.  It was made up of four Pennsylvania Regiments most of whom were armed with .69 caliber muskets recently imported from France.  Many of Wayne's men were veteran's of the Trenton-Princeton campaign and the earlier operations in New York state.  They were widely recognized in the army as a first class fighting brigade and as such were assigned a position of honor in advance of the main Army.

At Morristown, Wayne's brigade had consisted of the 1st, 2nd, 7th & 10th Pennsylvania Regiments.  As the army moved south toward Middlebrook, Wayne's Brigade was augmented by a newly formed unit that had recently arrived from Philadelphia.  This new regiment had been authorized by the Continental
Congress on January 12, 1777 and was to consist of 8 companies raised in eastern Pennsylvania, eastern Maryland and Delaware. It was organized in Philadelphia during the spring.  Since the regiment had been authorized by the Congress and was made up of men from three different states, it was not originally assigned a number as a Pennsylvania Regiment.  Instead it was designated as an "Additional Continental" regiment and was theoretically under control of General Washington and not the state of Pennsylvania.

 "Additional Continental" regiments bore no numerical designations in the spring of 1777.  Instead they were referred to by the names of their commanding officers.  Wayne's new regiment had 155 men and was lead by the former lieutenant colonel of the 6th Pennsylvania Battalion.  This experienced officer had been recommended to Washington by Richard Henry Lee.  Washington accepted the recommendation and appointed Thomas Hartley to command.  Thereafter his unit was to be referred to as Hartley's Additional
Continental Regiment or more simply "Hartley's Regiment".

Thus the mystery of the "HR" button was solved.  No others were recovered from this camp and to the writers knowledge, these are the only two known specimens.  Some collectors have surmised that owing to the lack of recovered HR buttons, they may have been worn only by an officer or officers in the
regiment.  Unfortunately there is very little information regarding the uniforms of Hartley's men, therefore the exact usage of this button remainsuncertain.
 
After leaving New Jersey, Hartley's Regiment had a fairly brief but eventful life-span.  The unit took part in the defense of Philadelphia in the fall of 1777.  Along with the rest of Wayne's Brigade, the regiment was surprised and took heavy casualties during a nighttime British bayonet attack at Paoli Pennsylvania on September 20, 1777.  In early 1778, the unit was assigned to defend the Pennsylvania frontier against hostile Iroquois Indians.  On January 13, 1779, the remnants of Hartley's Regiment were consolidated with
Patton's Additional Continental Regiment and parts of Malcom's Additional Continental Regiment.  This new composite unit was designated as the 11th Pennsylvania Regiment.  After only 731 days, Hartley's Additional Continental Regiment ceased to exist.

Postscript - In 1999, the camp of Wayne's Brigade was the last remaining 1777 encampment of the American Army in the First Watchung Mountain range.  The discovery of the "HR" buttons along with other artifacts of Wayne's Brigade helped convince the County of Somerset to purchase the campsite from land
developers.  The area is soon to be opened as a public historical park---- EB  XRdsRev@aol.com


All artifacts were recovered from private property with permission of the landowner.
The following were used in the preparation of this article....

1) Writings of Washington - "Washington's Calculations of the Strength of His
Army, May 20, 1777"

2) "The Continental Army", by Robert K. Wright Jr., Center of Military
History, United States Army, Washington D.C., 1986