The Battle of Bull's Ferry on 20 and 21 July 1780 saw two American brigades under Brigadier-General Anthony Wayne attack a party of Loyalists led by Thomas Ward.

The Loyalists successfully defended a blockhouse against an ineffective bombardment by four American artillery pieces and a failed attempt to storm the position by Wayne's troops.

During the action, American light dragoons under Major Henry Lee III drove off a large number of cattle that were kept in the area for the use of the British forces stationed in New York City.

In late July, the French admiral Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing arrived off Sandy Hook with one 90-gun ship of the line, one 80, six 74s, two 64s, and one 50, plus four frigates.

Badly outgunned, Sir Richard Howe prepared to defend the entrance to New York harbor with six 64s, three 50s, six frigates, four galleys, and an armed merchantman.

Meanwhile, British commander Sir Henry Clinton at Sandy Hook needed Howe's ships to transport his army to New York, otherwise he might be trapped.

Leaving Wilhelm von Knyphausen to hold New York with 10,000 soldiers, Clinton embarked for the south with 8,700 troops in the fleet of Mariot Arbuthnot on 26 December 1779.

The subsequent capitulation of Benjamin Lincoln's army in the Siege of Charleston on 12 May 1780 represented the largest American mass surrender of the war.

Washington moved his army to cover his key fort at West Point, New York on the Hudson, leaving Nathanael Greene to shield his base at Morristown, New Jersey.

[8] On 20 July 1780, Washington ordered Wayne to take the 1st and 2nd Pennsylvania Brigades, four artillery pieces, and Stephen Moylan's 4th Continental Light Dragoons to destroy a British blockhouse at Bulls Ferry in Bergen Township, opposite New York City.

The stockaded position was held by 70 Loyalists commanded by Thomas Ward, providing a base for British woodcutting operations and protection against raids by American militia.

[13] The British major credited Irvine, misspelled "Irving", with command of the attack on the blockhouse while Wayne and Lee had the easy work of cattle rustling.

To drive the kine one summer's morn,The tanner took his way;The calf shall rue that is unborn,The jumbling of that day.And now I've clos'd my epic strain,I tremble as I show it,Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne,Should ever catch the poet.