Spencer's Additional Continental Regiment

Spencer's Additional Continental Regiment
Active1777–1781
AllegianceUnited States Continental Congress
TypeInfantry
Size8 to 9 companies
Part ofContinental Army
EngagementsBattle of Brandywine (1777)
Battle of Germantown (1777)
Battle of Monmouth (1778)
Sullivan Expedition (1779)
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Colonel Oliver Spencer

Spencer's Additional Continental Regiment, sometimes referred to as the 5th New Jersey Regiment, was an American infantry unit that served for four years in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress authorized sixteen "Additional" Continental Regiments in late 1776 and Colonel Oliver Spencer accepted command of this regiment with rank from January 15, 1777.[1]

Recruiting for Spencer's Regiment took place in numerous New Jersey counties but especially in Essex (now Union), Morris and Sussex Counties and adjacent Orange County in New York. When it assembled at Middlebrook, New Jersey in late May, 1777, nine companies comprised the regiment, including one independent Continental company raised in Pennsylvania.[2] Spencer's Regiment was assigned to Brigadier General Thomas Conway's 3rd Pennsylvania Brigade in late May 1777 [3] and was engaged at the Battle of Short Hills late that June. It was in the thick of the fighting at the Brandywine where it suffered heavy casualties.[4] It sustained further losses during Germantown on October 4, 1777 when Conway's Brigade lead the advance of Wayne's and Sullivan's columns.[5] After Conway was appointed Major General and Inspector General of the Continental Army, Spencer was in acting command of the Brigade throughout much of the brutal winter at Valley Forge.[6] At the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, Spencer's Regiment took part in Brigadier General Anthony Wayne's late afternoon attack on the British 1st Grenadier Battalion and fought at the hedgerow and Parsonage. It was detached from the 3rd Pennsylvania Brigade July 19, 1778 and assigned to the Hudson Highlands.[7] It spent the winter on the New Jersey frontier at Minisink under Brigadier General Edward Hand.

During the spring of 1779, Spencer's Regiment absorbed the two remaining New Jersey companies of Forman's Additional Continental Regiment and those enlisted men credited to New York from Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment when those units were reduced. Spencer's Regiment repaired the military road leading to the Susquehanna in advance of Sullivan's Expedition in the summer of 1779, during which it was assigned to the New Jersey Brigade. It overwintered at Jockey Hollow, between Mendham and Morristown, NJ. It lost a handful of men captured while on command at Paramus, NJ on April 16, 1780.[8] In late May it was assigned to the front lines at Elizabethtown, New Jersey.[9] Spencer's Regiment fought in the Battle of Connecticut Farms on June 6–7, 1780 where it suffered more losses than any other Continental unit engaged, including half the officer casualties in the Jersey Brigade and nearly half the wounded enlisted men.[10]

The unit was transferred to the Highland Department in September 1780, where it garrisoned Stony Point until disbanded on the first of January 1781. At that time, Spencer's Regiment was the very last of the sixteen Additional Regiments still in the field that had never been formally incorporated into the Continental regiments of the various states.[11] Its remaining men from New Jersey who had enlisted for the duration of the war were assigned to Captain John Holmes' company, 2nd New Jersey Regiment, while those from New York and a few who remained from Pennsylvania were transferred respectively to the New York and Pennsylvania Lines. Very few of Spencer's officers received new Continental appointments in 1781, but others returned to commands in various militia units.[12]

  1. ^ Heitman (1914), pg. 511
  2. ^ National Archives and Records Service (NARS) microfilm publications, publication Number M246, Record Group 93, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783; Spencer's Regiment 1777-1780: Roll 127 (161), Roll 128 (162-170), Roll 129 (171-178).
  3. ^ General Orders 26 May 1777 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-09-02-0525
  4. ^ Based on muster rolls, pension records and other contemporary and secondary accounts, it appears that Spencer's Regiment took at least 34 casualties at Brandywine, including 5 men killed in action, 1 officer and 14 men wounded, 1 officer and 6 men taken prisoner (2 of whom were also wounded), 3 men missing in action, and 4 men deserted.
  5. ^ General Orders For Attacking Germantown 3 October 1777 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-11-02-0404
  6. ^ From endorsements on muster rolls signed by Spencer in his capacity as acting commandant of "Late Conway's" Brigade, Colonel Spencer was apparently in charge starting in December, 1777 and at least through the Battle of Monmouth at the end of June, 1778, except for a six-week period when he was on command in February and March, 1778 on a "grand forage".
  7. ^ General Orders 19 July 1778 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-09-02-0525
  8. ^ To George Washington from Captain Jonathan Hallett 16 April 1780 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-25-02-0286
  9. ^ From George Washington to Brigadier General William Maxwell 28 May 1780 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-26-02-0148
  10. ^ Based on muster rolls, pension records and other contemporary and secondary accounts, the casualties in Spencer's Regiment at Connecticut Farms appear to be 1 ensign and 1 corporal killed in action, 1 lieutenant and as many as 13 men wounded, and 1 man deserted.
  11. ^ Webb's Additional Regiment had been officially designated the 9th Connecticut; the three understrength Additional Continental Regiments from Massachusetts had been reorganized as the 16th Massachusetts, and Gist's Additional Continental Regiment had been captured at Charleston, South Carolina on 12 May 1780 and was disbanded on January 1, 1781.
  12. ^ Among those who remained in Continental Service were Lieutenant Colonel William Stephens Smith, who was appointed an aide-de-camp to General Washington 6 July 1781, while Spencer's Adjutant Peter Taulman and Lieutenant David Kirkpatrick both were appointed Captain-Lieutenants in the Corps of Sappers and Miners.