It was in the eastern valley overlooking Bloomingdale that an encampment of weary troops mutinied, consequently their two ringleaders were arrested, tried, and executed in the vicinity of what is now known as Union Avenue."Īt times, Pompton Lakes, Bloomingdale, and Riverdale, New Jersey, have all laid claim to the site of these historic events. Ī historic marker in Bloomingdale, New Jersey reads: "Federal Hill Historic Site-The site of the Revolutionary war era Pompton Mutiny which occurred in the cold harsh winter of 1781. These are pointed out as marking the lonely, dishonored graves of the two Jersey mutineers." However, despite numerous attempts, no historian has been able to locate these graves since that era. Mayers affirms that William Nelson, writing Paterson and Its Environs (Silk City) in the 1920s, was correct in his assertion that "In a thick wood, on the bleak and desolate summit of a rocky knob of the Ramapo Mountains, overlooking the Pompton Lakes Station on the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, the hearty traveler can find two rude piles of weather-beaten field-stones. Historians are also divided on what path the rebels took towards Trenton and where the actual location of their submission and execution occurred.Ģ1st-century historian Robert A. It is not readily apparent where Pompton Camp, as described in Washington's letters, was located. The entire body of troops was said to have been penitent and genuinely contrite in the time following the unsuccessful mutiny. The firing squad was reported to have discharged their duty and their weapons tearfully in slaying their former officers. Sergeants David Gilmore and John Tuttle were executed on the spot by a firing squad of 12 mutineers Sergeant George Grant was issued a pardon based upon testimony by the troop body that he had advocated peaceable return to duty throughout the events of the rebellion. Īlerted to this rogue faction by Pompton Camp Commander, Colonel Israel Shreve, who had in turn been informed by a woman whose name has been lost to history, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army George Washington "immediately ordered a Detachment from West Point, under the Command of Major General Howe ( Robert Howe) who surrounded the Mutineers by surprize in their Quarters, reduced them to unconditional submission & executed two of their Instigators on the spot-This has totally quelled the spirit of Mutiny, and every thing is now quiet." These soldiers began to make their way to Trenton to issue demands for a redress of grievances to the Continental Congress, in echo of the actions of their brethren in the Pennsylvania Line who had successfully sought similar redress. Burns notes (87) that in Caesar's version of the opening stages of the war ‘we find all the techniques that Caesar uses consistently to impose his coloration on the events while seemingly preserving his objectivity’.Acting beneath the auspices of Sergeants David Gilmore, John Tuttle, George Grant and the disguisement of copious amounts of spirits, about 300 soldiers from the New Jersey Line of the Continental Army mutinied. However, in this case, Cicero's letters provide an independent account of events (Cic, Att. This is especially true of his treatment of the Pompeian general Domitius and the mutiny of his men at Corfinium (Caes., B.C. Caesar of course attempted to justify his actions in crossing the Rubicon, while at the same time attempting to ruin the reputations of his enemies. Burns in particular focuses on the effects of Caesar's narrative on the historical tradition. Shackleton, ‘ Expectatio Corfiniensis’, JRS 46 ( 1956), 57– 64 Google Scholar Burns, A., ‘ Pompey's strategy and Domitius' last stand at Corfinium’, Historia 15 ( 1966), 74– 95 Google Scholar Hillman, T., ‘ Strategic reality and the movements of Caesar, January, 49 B.C.’, Historia 37 ( 1988), 248–52 Google Scholar. 68 For the opening manoeuvres of the Civil War see Bailey, D.
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