On September 22, 1778, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton ordered Major-General Charles Grey, Major-General Lord Cornwallis and Brigadier-General Edward Mathew to mobilize troops in an effort to provoke Continental Army commander George Washington into a battle,[1] and as a diversion for a raid against a Patriot privateering base in southern New Jersey.

[2] After learning that Colonel George Baylor had secured quarters for his unit, 12 officers and 104 enlisted men of the 3rd Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons,[2] in the barns of several farms on Over Kill Road—from Dutch "across the river", since renamed Rivervale Road—Cornwallis ordered Grey to attack Baylor's troops.

[6] Captain Martin Hunter of the 52nd Regiment of Foot described the attack: "While at New Bridge we heard of their being within twenty-five miles of our camp, and a plan was laid to surprise them.

On October 15, Loyalist troops executed a surprise attack on forces under the command of Casimir Pulaski in which 25 to 30 men were killed in what is known as the affair at Little Egg Harbor.

In 1967, the remains of six of the dead — recognized from artifacts such as buttons and clothing remnants — were found in three abandoned vats from Blauvelt's Tannery.