Celebrate Our Revolutionary Legacy – Pulaski in The Defense of Little Egg Harbor

Join Us to Honor American history, and the Polish contribution to the American cause, in commemorating the battle of October Fifteenth 1778

Saturday, October 16, 2021, 1 p.m.
Pulaski Monument, Little Egg Harbor (Site opens early at 10:00 a.m. for Socially-distanced Meet & Greet and Historical background discussion, with elementary/middle school program at 11 a.m. Ceremony at 1 p.m.)

The Ceremony: Solemn commemoration including flag lowering and wreath-laying. Historical narrative is offered of the context of the Battle of October 15, 1778 during the Defense of Little Egg Harbor in the American Revolution. This year’s ceremony will be preceded by an outdoor ‘open-house’ at the monument where historical discussion with the public about the maritime dimension of Gen. Casimir Pulaski’s defense of the Port of Little Egg Harbor starts at 10 A.M.

Directions: From Garden State Parkway, take Exit 58 (Route 539) toward Tuckerton [3.3 miles] to Route 9. In Tuckerton, turn RIGHT onto Route 9; proceed one block to traffic light at Great Bay Blvd. Turn LEFT onto Great Bay Blvd and proceed one-third mile and turn RIGHT onto Radio Road. Proceed 2.25 miles down Radio Road, passing through the intersection of Harbortown Blvd/Mathistown Rd (traffic light). The Pulaski Monument is on the LEFT, just past the fire station.

The History: The Pulaski Monument marks the site where Continental Army General Casimir Pulaski successfully repulsed a brutish attack on October 15 1778 during the Defense of Little Egg Harbor. During the campaign, which began October 5, the British enemy would retreat twice in 9 days in front of the Pulaski Legion’s dragoon cavalry. The British finally gave up their objective, in the week after the Battle of October 15, of reaching Batsto-at-the-Forks on the Mullica River some 18 miles away. Batsto’s warehouses, shipfitting facilities and iron works were the heart of the port of Little Egg Harbor. General Pulaski’s defensive scheme on October 15 during a renewed British assault proved effective even though the enemy clumsily attacked and butchered an infantry outpost of the Legion (site of the Pulaski Monument). The attack betrayed a strategically-envisioned, carefully-laid, but ultimately useless British plan of secret advance by 250 crack infantry, already 8 hours in execution. 17 American infantrymen and 2 foreign-born officers were lost at the outpost. Pulaski’s ‘trap’ was then sprung in a decisive counter-attack unleashed from his 3/4 mile distant headquarters at the Willits Andrews farm. American dragoon cavalry, some 60 horses, and a swarm of infantry, caused another panicked withdrawal of British light infantry back to an island and onto ships. The British lost 3 soldiers killed, some wounded and a dozen missing — scattered by the charging horses. Some enemy prisoners were taken. On October 16, a loyalty oath to the Continental Congress was also administered at the Willits-Andrews farmstead by Legion officers to area residents. The war would go on, but the enemy would never again attempt to show its flag so brazenly in South Jersey. Such were the events of October 1778 in the American Revolution during the Defense of Little Egg Harbor. May their service and sacrifice be remembered!