This listing is not intended to be an authoritative listing of actions at and near Hackensack.

It is intended to be
1) a merging and comparison of the several existing lists for such actions, and
2) a collection of relevant snippets from sources named in the various listings, downloadable online, available via internet searches or on my bookshelf.

Several actions not found in the listings were added (shown as "unlisted") when source material was discovered for them.

A number of the actions included on the various listings are included "as-is" without references if such were not provided or could not be found. 42% of the listings fit into this category. We know no more about them than before we started.

Some listings show source documents but I was unable to include snippets from them because I did not have access to the documents (specifically New Jersey Historical Society, New Jersey History Vols. NS, 13,1928; 78,1960; 85,1967). If anyone cares to contribute that information, it will improve this effort.

A few of the dates provided simply do not agree with those provided in the source docs, possibly due to typos or calculation errors. These are noted.

It is apparent that a few actions appear to be listed more than once. It is also probable, due to the insurgent nature of the conflict in the area over such an extended period, that there were a number of actions not mentioned in any of this material.

It is interesting to note what is present and what is absent for the different listings. One list contains about half the combined list; the other two contain only about one-third. Each listing contains actions shown only on that single listing.

Listings with documentation listed in Norman Desmarais, The Guide to the Revolutionary War in New Jersey, Busca, Ithaca NY, 2011, are shown with light cyan background.

Other names: [Can you provide alternative names for these action?]

What:

Hackensack NJ Actions
Date	Action	Listing	Documentation
2/15/1776	Hackensack. American victory	[RevWar75]	Docs needed.
11/21/1776	Hackensack. American victory	unlisted	Force, Am.Archives, V.3, 1776, p.874 [11/21/1776]
12/14/1776	Hackensack NJ. Gen. William Heath surprises British at Hackensack. Takes 60 prisoners, a few arms and a great quantity of stores.	[Alpha list] [Munn]	NJ History, 78,164. Docs needed. [12/17/1776] Desmarais NJ,p.20
12/25/1776	Hackensack NJ. 500+ Brit. troops & Buskirk's Militia Rgt. Abused & imprisoned the few found there.		Desmarais NJ,p.20
1/5/1777	Hackensack NJ. Geo. Clinton drove British out of Hackensack and occupied it.	unlisted	Fiske,Am.Rev.,V.1,p.245 [1/5/1777]
2/10/1777	Hackensack NJ	[Alpha list]	Docs needed.
3/22-24/1777	Hackensack NJ	[Alpha list]	Docs needed.
4/20/1777	Hackensack. Draw. Col. Isaac Beal (Am.) leads intelligence expedition to Hackensack.	[RevWar75] [Munn]	Leiby, Hackensack, 118. [4/20/1777]
4/20/1777	Hackensack Valley. Continental guard skirmished with Capt. Samuel Ryerson + 44 NJ Loyalists	[Alpha list]	Desmarais NJ,p.20
5/1/1777	Hackensack. Insuff. data	[RevWar75]	Docs needed.
6/10/1777	Hackensack. Draw. American light horse and 200+ Loyalists have skirmish.	[RevWar75] [Alpha list] [Munn]	NJ History, 1st Ser., 7,95. [6/10/1777] Desmarais NJ,p.20
9/11/1777	Hackensack NJ. Lt. Col. Aaron Burr rallies militia at Paramus and marches south. Defeats British force at Hackensack.	[Alpha list] [Munn]	NJ History, 78, 166. NJA 2,II, 42-44. [Not relevant] Desmarais NJ,p.21
9/14/1777	near Hackensack (3 mi). Lt. Col. Aaron Burr + 24 night attack on British picket guard.	[RevWar75] [Alpha list]	Desmarais NJ,p.21
9/30/1777	Hackensack NJ. 3000 Brits + 100 boats land nearby for plunder & forage	[Alpha list]	Desmarais NJ,p.21
10/5/1777	Hackensack NJ. Men armed with muskets & bayonets emptied John Varek's store.		Desmarais NJ,p.21
9/28/1778	near Hackensack. American victory	[Alpha list]	Docs needed.
9/30/1778 [9/22/1778?]	Hackensack NJ. Three thousand British in boats come up Hackensack River and plunder large area. Looks same as 9/30/1777 [Desmarais]	[Munn]	NJA 2,II, 454, 462-463,471-472, 484-485. [9/22/1778]
9/30/1778	Hackensack NJ, near About 100 Patriots (foot & horse) attack Hessian Capt. von Donup + 80, killed 2, 17 wounded & captured		Desmarais NJ,p.22
10/1/1778	Hackensack NJ. Col. Richard Butler, Capt. H.Lee 7 300+ surprised 150 Hessians, killed 10, captured 19 with no losses.		Desmarais NJ,p.22
11/1/1778 [10/1/1778?]	Hackensack NJ. British lose twelve men in skirmish with Gen. Charles Scott's light infantry.	[Munn]	NJ History, 1 Ser., 7, 109. [10/1/1778]
4/20/1779	Hackensack Valley. Draw	[RevWar75]	Docs needed.
4/21/1779	Hackensack NJ, near. Capt. Joseph Ryerson + 42 killed & wounded many of Continental advance guard, were then driven off by their main body of about 160. Possibly same as 4/20/1779.		Desmarais NJ,p.22
5/10/1779	Hackensack NJ	[Alpha list]	Docs needed.
2/10/1780	Hackensack. Insuff. data.	[RevWar75]	Docs needed.
2/11-12/1780	Hackensack. British troops raid Hackensack	unlisted	Ryan, NJ in the Am.Rev. [2/11-12/1780]
3/23/1780	Hackensack. American victory. Hackensack. Lt. Col. Duncan Macpherson commanding the Black Watch runs into stormy resistance during raid. Spends much time in wanton destruction.	[RevWar75] [Munn]	NJ History, 78,171. Need docs. Leiby, Adrian, The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley, Rutgers Univ. Press, p.239-244 [3/22/1780]
3/1780, end of	Hackensack NJ	[Alpha list]	Docs needed.
4/16/1780	Hackensack NJ. British force under Maj. Johann Christian [DuPuy] Dubay attacks American patrol and captures officer and three men.	[Munn]	NJ History, 78, 172. Docs needed.
5/23/1780	Hackensack NJ	[Alpha list]	Docs needed.
12/8/1780	Hackensack NJ. Thomas Ward's plunderers from Bergen Neck collect forage. Inhabitants retake cattle and scatter the robbers. [May be same as 8/29/1781]	[Alpha list] [Munn]	NJA Vol.5, p.137 [12/8/1780] Winfield, Hudson, 195-196. Wrong date. See [8/29/1781]. Desmarais NJ,p.23
4/1781	Salt Marshes south of Hackensack (near English Neighborhood). American victory.	[RevWar75] [Alpha list]	Docs needed.
8/11/1781	Hackensack. Insuff. data.	[RevWar75]	Docs needed.
8/29/1781	Ward's plunderers...came to ...Hackensack, where they collected a number of cattle, which the inhabitants retook, and killed and wounded several of the miscreants. [May be same as 12/8/1780].	unlisted	Winfield, Hudson, 195-196. [8/29/1781] Desmarais NJ,p.23

33 listings

Where: 40.8856549 -74.0440291 Hackensack

Maps: [map notes]

• 40.8856549 -74.0440291 Hackensack
• ACME Mapper
• National Map
• Google

  [Can you more accurately place these locations? ________________________
  Tip: email me and we will work out a way.]

  The location provided is that of the City Hall of Hackensack (a Hackensack website described the original town as having been the present location of municipal buildings). Correction welcome.

  The confidence level of this location for the numberous actions in and near Halifax will run the full gamut from 5 to 0.

  With better and specific location information, a number of these actions would be deserving of their own page (e.g., Salt Marshes and Hackensack Valley).

Sources:

1774
• Ryan, Dennis P., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783, A Chronology, NJ Historical Commission, 1974.

  June 25 [1774] Freeholders and inhabitants of Bergen County meet to form a Committee of Correspondence at the Courthouse in Hackensack.

  1775

• Barber;Howe, Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey, p.80

  At the commencement of the revolutionary war Hackensack contained only about 30 houses.

• Ryan, Dennis P., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783, A Chronology, NJ Historical Commission, 1974.

  March 14 [1775] A number of the inhabitants of Hackensack reaffirm their loyalty to George III and his officers.

  1776

• Ryan, Dennis P., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783, A Chronology, NJ Historical Commission, 1974.

  November 20 [1776] General Nathanael Greene abandons Fort Lee and retreats to Hackensack, leaving behind a large amount of supplies. Washington's army retreats towards the Passaic River.

  November 21 [1776] Retreating from Hackensack, Washington's army burns the bridge over the Passaic River at Acquackanonk and impedes the advance of the pursuing British forces.

  [11/21/1776]

• Force, Peter, American Archives, Vol.3, 1776, p.874

  November 27th, 1776.
  A report prevails that there was an action near Hackensack on Thursday last [November 21, 1776], in which the enemy were worsted, with great loss on both sides.

• Force, Peter, American Archives, Vol.3, 1776, p.1039

  2d December, 1776.
  SIR: By the best information there are not more than a thousand of the enemy at Hackensack...

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• Force, Peter, American Archives, Vol.3, 1776, p.363

  Fishkill, 8th December, 1776.
  General Lee marched the day before yesterday, with about three 'thousand men, in pursuit of the enemy; and there is a flying report that he has had an engagement with them, near Hackensack, in which they suffered greatly.

  [12/17/1776]

• Force, Peter, American Archives, Vol.3, 1776, p.1261

  17th December, 1776.
  The Tories who remained in Hackensack were in the utmost consternation on General Heath's to them unexpected and sudden entry into the town. He took and sent hither about sixty of them, five regulars, and upwards of one hundred small-arms, &c.

  Inventory of Sundries taken at HACKENSACK, in a large chest going to NEW-YORK.
  December 17th, 1776.
  4 French plated candlesticks, with sockets.
  1 very large silver tureen.
  3 large silver cake-dishes.
  3 silver salvers
  . 1 silver beaker, very large.
  1 pair silver cups.
  1 pair do. gilt.
  1 handsome silver branch. 1 large handsome silver tankard.
  1 large silver coffee-pot.
  1 do. do. butter-boat.
  4 silver pickle-stands.
  1 sugar-dish.
  2 small silver salvers.
  1 complete silver standish.
  4 silver labels for wine.
  1 large tureen.
  1 silver trowell.
  6 silver skewers.
  2 silver beer-cups.
  2 do. gilt do.
  4 large soup-spoons.
  4 gravy do.
  8 silver salts.
  8 salt-spoons, and 1 pair sugar-tongs.
  A red case, supposed to contain a silver-plated tea-urn.
  .....
  W. HEATH.

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• Force, Peter, American Archives, Vol.3, 1776, p.1378
  

  GENERAL GEORGE CLINTON TO NEW-YORK CONVENTION.
  Ramapough, December 23, 1776.
  .....
  The state of the enemy's Army on this side is as follows: .... at Hackensack; six companies of Regulars and three of Buskirk's, at the new bridge, arrived there yesterday evening. .....By tomorrow, if I am not mistaken, my number will not be equal to the enemy's at Hackensack and the bridge. .....

  1777

  [1/5/1777]

• Fiske, John, The American Revolution, Vol.1, p.245

  On the 5th [Jan.,1777], George Clinton, coming down from Peekskill, drove the British out of Hackensack and occupied it, while on the same day a detachment of German mercenaries at Springfield was routed by a body of militia. Elizabethtown was then taken by General Maxwell, whereupon the British retired from Newark.

  [4/20/1777]

• Leiby, Adrian, The Revolutionary Wary in the Hackensack Valley, Rutgers Univ. Press, p.118

  On April 20, 1777, Colonel Isaac Beal led an American expedition to Hackensack for intelligence...

  [6/10/1777]

• Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol.7 1853-1855, p.95, "Diary of Joseph Clark"

  10th of June [1777], a strong party of the green coats (210) came up to Hackensack ; we soon got word of it and sent down our light horse, who exchanged a few shots with them and returned. This, we were told afterwards, put the enemy in great consternation. When our light horse returned, the officers met to consult what was best to be done, as we were but weak at this time. It was agreed we should make a feint retreat, about 10 o'clock in the evening, which we did in such a manner that the whole neighborhood thought we were actually retreating. We marched on through a rough, tedious road, a dark night, and rain, thunder and lightning. Sometime after midnight we arrived near the place appointed, and where, by an express, we had appointed Gen'l Heard to meet us with his party from Pompton. Here we took shelter from the rain in a large barn, and waited till daylight. In the morning, as Gen'l Heard did not join us, and as near 100 of our men's times were out, who now refused to march down to meet the enemy, although we had already proceeded some miles towards them, we were obliged, as we were now but a inconsiderable handful, to march back again to our old station, where we arrived about 11 o'clock. 12th of June, we marched with our little body down to Hackensack, thinking some of those green coats might be lurking about not far from that place, waiting for an opportunity to attack us, which we were resolved this day to give them, if they were there. We marched from Hackensack to the new bridge and took quarters this night. .....
  On the 12th [October 1777], set out for Gen'l Woodford's brigade ; found them the 13th, near Paramus. The same day the enemy left Hackensack and went to the English Neighborhood ; next day were crossing the North River to New York. Our light horse pursued their rear, and took some prisoners. While they lay about Hackensack great numbers of deserters came over to us.

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• Wharton, Francis, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Vol.2, 1889, p.336

  Philadelphia, June 13, 1777. Gentlemen: Though the dispatches prepared some time since are not gone, wethinkit best to write you again, and give you an exact account of the situation of our army and military affairs to this time. You were formerly made acquainted that, immediately after the important victory at Princeton, on the 3d of January, General Washington took post at Morristown, which appears to have been a well-chosen situation. From thence, sending out detachmentsof his array, he speedily drove the enemy from Hackensack, Chatham, Springfield, Westfield, and Elizabethtown, all which places we have possessed ever since that time, as well as Millstone and Princeton to the west, and Cranbury to the south; the enemy being confined to a narrow communication on Eariton River, from Brunswick to Amboy, twelve miles. .....

• Van Valen, James M., History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1900, p.60

  What was called Clinton's Raid occurred in 1777, and was planned by Sir Henry Clinton who divided his force into four columns, the general point of rendevous being New Bridge above Hackensack. One column, under General Campbell, entered New Jersey by way of Elizabethtown ; one, under Captain Drummond, by Schuyler's Ferry ; one, under General Vaughn, by way of Fort Lee, and the other, under Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, by way of Tappan. It was on September 12, the expedition set out, Clinton following, going to Schuyler's Landing on the Hackensack, (Dow's Ferry ), and going by the Belleville turnpike to Schuyler's house he found Captain Drummond with two hundred and fifty men. General Campbell arrived with his men during the night bringing the cattle they had collected by the way. The columns met on the 15th, as before arranged. On the 16th General Campbell marched his force over to Staten Island, from the English Neighborhood. From the people of Essex and Bergen Counties they took four hundred cattle, four hundred sheep, and a few horses, but they had eight men killed, eighteen wounded, ten missing and five taken prisoners.

  1778

  Moore, Frank, Diary of the American Revolution from Newspapers, Vol.2, 1860, p.70

  JULY 13 [1778].--GENERAL WASHINGTON'S army is now encamped at Elizabethtown, Newark, Hackensack, &c., in New Jersey;
  .....

  1779

• Ryan, Dennis P., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783, A Chronology, NJ Historical Commission, 1974.

  August 19 [1779] Major Henry Lee launches a surprise predawn attack upon the fort in Paulus Hook. His men capture 150 prisoners in a few minutes. Lee and his men quickly retreat towards Hackensack when the British in New York City are alarmed. Lee receives the unusual tribute of a gold medal from the Continental Congress for this raid.

  [9/22/1778]

• New Jersey Archives, Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of ... NJ, Vol.2, p.454

  TRENTON, SEPTEMBER 30. [1778]
  .....
  Tuesday se'nnight*. about 3000 of the enemy front New- York landed near Hackensack, where they are plundering the country of forage, &c. To facilitate this business, they have sent a number of vessels up Hackinsaek and Passaic Rivers to carry off the plunder; but from the great body of the militia ordered out, and now collecting with all possible dispatch, to reinforce General Maxwell, there is good reason to believe these freebooters will, ere long, be driven to the place from whence they came.

  * archaic: the space of seven nights and days
  "a week before last Tuesday"
  1778 Calendar
  i.e., September 22, 1788
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  [10/1/1778]

• Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol.7 1853-1855, p.109, "Diary of Joseph Clark"

  On Thursday, October 1st, a skirmish happened between a party of the enemy and some of Gen'l Scott's light infantry, in which Gen'l Scott's infantry killed 12 of the enemy and took one. 4th, some days after, they took 14 more.

  1780

  [2/11-12/1780]

• Ryan, Dennis P., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783, A Chronology, NJ Historical Commission, 1974.

  February 11- 12 [1780] Four parties of British troops raid Woodbridge, Spanktown, and Hackensack. They retreat due to the deep snow.

  [3/22/1780]

• Leiby, Adrian, The Revolutionary Wary in the Hackensack Valley, Rutgers Univ. Press, p.239-244

  ...March 22, 1780, three hundred British Regulars under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Duncan MacPherson, of the 42nd Regiment, the celebrated Black Watch, embarked at the Hay Wharf on Manhattan Island for the attack. A little before ten they landed at Weehawken.
  .....
  [MacPherson:] Here I made the disposition for surprising Hackensack, to effectuate which I ordered a subaltern and twenty-five men of the 43rd Regiment to push on briskly until they got to the end of the town, next to New Bridge, there to halt and intercept every person who might make their escape; the remaining part of the detachment of the 43rd Regiment, with the fifty Anspachs, under the command of Captain Thorn of the 43rd, I ordered to follow and attack every house that should be pointed out to them by the guides and refugees, and to apprehend every man they found and bring them to Zabriskie's Mill, there to remain until the detachment returned from Paramus, and I have the pleasure to inform your excellency that the plan had the desired effect, the militia and the inhabitants being catched in their beds.

• Von Eelking, Max, German Allied Troops in the North American War of Independence, 1776-1783, p.190

  On March 22d [1780], another expedition, with Hessian and Bayreuth troops, numbering 400 in all, with Capt. v. Tannenburg, was sent to Hackensack. It crossed the Hudson in boats and moved through the woods to Hackensack, but the garrison having been withdrawn, the town was given over to plunder, the court-house and some of the best private residences burned, when an American force of 500 or 600 men threatened to capture the invaders and their booty, but just at the right moment Col. Emmerich, with his volunteers, 400 strong, appeared and protected the expedition on its retreat, under fire for six hours, to the Hudson.

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  Lowell, Edward, The Hessians and the other German Auxialliaries of Great Britain, 1884, p.256

  Expeditions were undertaken with no other purpose than robbery and destruction. In these, also, the Hessians were employed. On the evening of the 22d of March, 1780, for instance, a body of four hundred men, British and German, was set across the Hudson. About three in the morning they reached Hackensack, then a beautiful and rich village. No resistance was made. Not an American soldier was in the place. There was no one to withstand the barbarities that were committed. The British and Germans broke into the houses and loaded themselves with spoil. They made prisoners of all the male inhabitants they could lay hands on, and having completed their robbery, they set fire to the Town-house and to some of the principal dwellings. At daybreak five or six hundred Americans came to the rescue from Pollingtown, and it might have gone hard with the invaders had not another detachment of about four hundred men, under the partisan Emmerich, advanced to support them. As it was, they were chased back to the Hudson. From the journal of the Anspach musketeer Doehla, Eelking makes the following quotation: "We took considerable booty, both in money, silver watches, silver dishes and spoons, and in household goods, clothes, fine English linen, silk stockings, gloves, and neckerchiefs, with other precious silk goods, satin, and stuffs. My own booty, whichI brought safely back, consisted of two silver watches, three sets of silver buckles, a pair of woman's cotton stockings, a pair of man's mixed summer stockings, two shirts and four chemises of fine English linen, two fine table-cloths, one silver table-spoon and one teaspoon, five Spanish dollars and six York shillings in money. The other part, viz., eleven pieces of fine linen and over two dozen silk handkerchiefs, with six silver plates and a silver drinking-mug, which were tied together in a bundle, I had to throw away on account of our hurried march, and leave them to the enemy that was pursuing us."*

  
  
• Barber;Howe, Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey, p.82

  In the latter part of March, 1780, a party of about 400 British, Hessians, and refugees, passed through Hackensack on their way to attack some Pennsylvania troops at Paramus. It was about 3 o'clock in the night when they entered the lower part of the town.
  ......
  One half of the enemy marched quietly through. When the rear, consisting mostly of Hessians, arrived, they broke open the doors and windows, robbed and plundered, and took prisoners a few peaceable inhabitants,
  ......
  The Hessians burnt 2 dwellings and the courthouse.

• Ryan, Dennis P., New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783, A Chronology, NJ Historical Commission, 1974.

  March 23 [1780] Two parties of British troops raid Bergen County. They burn the Courthouse in Hackensack. An attack upon Paramus is unsuccessful.

• Selig, Robert, The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route in ... Pennsylvania, 1782-1783, footnote, p.118

  William S. Pennington Diary, 4 May 1780-23 March 1781, p. 62. NJHS MG 234. On 10 September 1780, Ezekiel Cornell, one of Rhode Island's representative to Congress, wrote to Rhode Island Governor William Greene, from Philadelphia that letters from friends in Hackensack inform him that the army has not gotten paid or fed. Therefore “The army now live principally by plunder both for meat & forrage. And will if they keep together I fear soon become freebooters. And I think every man must feel for the Inhabitants where the Army marches." RISA Letterbooks Letters to Governor William Greene Vol. 15, 19 June to 10 November 1780. This is part of the background for the mutinies of January 1781. See also an advertisement in the "Freeman's Journal" (Philadelphia) of 18 December 1782 by Caspar Smith, a self-identified "Hessian deserter" who had been "beaten and robbed by some soldiers of gen. Hazen's regiment".

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  [12/8/1780]

• New Jersey Archives, Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of ... NJ, Vol.5, p.137

  TRENTON, December 13 [1780].
  We hear that a few nights ago eight horse-thieves from New York, where the enemy keep a considerable number of that profession in their employment, stealing horses from the inhabitants near the lines, came upto the neighbourhood of Hackinsack and took off with them sixteen liorses. They had engaged boats to meet them at a certain place on the North-River, and carry over their booty, at which place they arrived safe, but no boats appeared. In the meantime twelve or fourteen of the Bergen militia collected, and pursued them' closely. The enemy having no inclination for contest, skulked and hid themselves among sometall, thick weeds, to which the Bergen lads, for sake of expedition, setting fire, the contents came out and very submissively surrendered. They are lodged securely at Morristown. The militia also brought back the horses.

  [8/29/1781]

• Winfield, Charles, History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey, 1874, p.195-196

  Last Wednesday night a party of Ward's plunderers from Bergen Neck, came to the Neighborhood of Hackensack, where they collected a number of cattle, which the inhabitants retook, and killed and wounded several of the miscreants.—N. J. Journal, Sept. 5, 1781.

  1781 calendar

• Valis, Glenn, "The Neutral Ground of New Jersey during the Revolution"

  Listings

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• Rutgers students' project displayed 10 locations related to Hackensack, all from (and same as) the [Munn] list. Plots apppear to be arbitrarily placed and vary from 0.36 miles to 1.13 miles from modern Hackensack.

  [Alpha List]
  

• Desmarais, Norman, The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in Canada and New England: Battles, Raids, and Skirmishes, Busca, Inc., 2009 Facebook
  Appendix 1: Alphabetical List of Battles, Actions, and Skirmishes

  This appendix lists the battles and actions of the war, arranged alphabetically with chronological data. It was compiled from several sources with Francis B. Heitman’s Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army (Washington, D.C.: The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Inc., 1914) serving as the primary source. Heitman’s list is included in The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States (USGPO, 1950) with a few corrections. Peckham (Peckham, Howard H. The Toll of Independence: Engagements & Battle Casualties of the American Revolution. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1974) lists many more engagements that include the forage wars, men on land firing muskets at passing ships, etc. These events are not covered in history books nor are they included in the lists of battles and actions. Peckham provides only the barest description of the action. His main focus is tallying the casualties. Some battles, such as the First Battle of Saratoga (also known as the Battle of Freeman’s Farm) or Bunker Hill (also known as Breed’s Hill), have several names and appear under more than one designation to facilitate retrieval.

  1. 12/14/1776 Hackensack, New Jersey
  2. 2/10/1777 Hackensack, New Jersey
  3. 3/22-24/1777 Hackensack, New Jersey
  4. 4/20/1777 Hackensack Valley NJ
  5. 6/10/1777 Hackensack, New Jersey
  6. 9/11/1777 Hackensack, New Jersey
  7. 9/14/1777 Hackensack, New Jersey, near
  8. 9/30/1777 Hackensack, New Jersey
  9. 9/28/1778 Hackensack, New Jersey
  10. 5/10/1779 Hackensack, New Jersey
  11. end of 3/1780 Hackensack, New Jersey
  12. 5/23/1780 Hackensack, New Jersey
  13. 12/8/1780 Hackensack, New Jersey
  14. 4/1781 Hackensack, salt marshes near English Neighborhood

  Note: Desmarais' The Guide to the American Revoutionary War in New Jersey, Busca, 2011, included 13 of the total listings above, 9 of which are contained in this earlier "alpha" listing.

• Munn, David C., Battles and Skirmishes in New Jersey of the American Revolution, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1976:
  1. 12/14/1776 Hackensack, Gen. William Heath surprises British at Hackensack. Takes 60 prisoners, a few arms and a great quantity of stores. NJ History, 78,164.
  2. 4/20/1777 Hackensack. Col. Isaac Beal (Am.) leads intelligence expedition to Hackensack. Leiby, Hackensack, 118.
  3. 6/10/1777 Hackensack. American light horse and British have skirmish. NJ History, 1st Ser., 7,95.
  4. 9/11/1777 Hackensack, Lt. Col. Aaron Burr rallies militia at Paramus and marches south. Defeats British force at Hackensack. NJ History, 78, 166. NJA 2,II, 42-44 [latter not relevant].
  5. 9/30/1778 Hackensack. Three thousand British in boats come up Hackensack River and plunder large area. NJA 2,II, 454, 462-463,471-472, 484-485.
  6. 11/1/1778 Hackensack. British lose twelve men in skirmish with Gen. Charles Scott's light infantry. NJ History, 1 Ser., 7, 109.
  7. 3/23/1780 Hackensack. Lt. Col. Duncan Macpherson commanding the Black Watch runs into stormy resistance during raid. Spends much time in wanton destruction. NJ History, 78,171.
  8. 4/16/1780 Hackensack. British force under Maj. Johann Christian [DuPuy] Dubay attacks American patrol and captures officer and three men. NJ History, 78, 172.
  9. 12/8/1780 Hackensack. Militia captures five horse thieves at Dow's Ferry near Hackensack. NJA 2, V, 144
  10. 8/29,1781 Hackensack. Thomas Ward's plunderers from Bergen Neck collect forage. Inhabitants retake cattle and scatter the robbers. Winfield, Hudson, 195-196.

  • LEIBY, HACKENSACK Leiby, Adrian Coulter, The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1962.
  • N JA Archives of the State of New Jersey, First Series, vol. xxxi (Somerville, N.J., 1923), Second Series (5 vols., Trenton, 1901- 1917).
  • N.J. HISTORY New Jersey Historical Society. New Jersey History (formerly Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society). vols. (1st Ser. 7,1854; NS, 13,1928; 78,1960; 85,1967).
  • WINFIELD, HUDSON Winfield, Charles Hardenburg, History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey . . . New York: Kennard & Hay Printing Co., 1874.

• [RevWar75]
  1. 2/15/1776 Hackensack. American victory
     
  2. c. 4/20/1777 Hackensack. Draw
     
  3. 5/1/1777 Hackensack. Insuff. data
     
  4. 6/10/1777 Hackensack. Draw.
     
  5. 9/14/1777 near Hackensack. American victory
     
  6. 4/20/1779 Hackensack Valley. Draw
     
  7. 2/10/1780 Hackensack. Insuff. data.
     
  8. 3/23/1780 Hackensack. American victory. "The Neutral Ground of New Jersey during the Revolution"

  9. 4/1781 Salt Marshes south of Hackensack. American victory.
     
  10. 8/11/1781 Hackensack. Insuff. data.

Related locations:
New Bridge,   ________________________,   ____________________,   _________________

Confidence level:: _____________
[Can you provide a level of confidence for these sites? 5 (about as good as we hope to get) down to 1 (somewhere around here). 0 (usually used for "somewhere along this stream".]