John Bacon (loyalist)

The group was responsible for the October 1782 Long Beach Island Massacre, which occurred after hostilities between the United States and Great Britain had been put on hold pending treaty negotiations.

Franklin chose Bacon as the military leader of the "Pine Robbers" (which later became known as "The Refugees"), a guerrilla-style fighting unit which financed its operations through war-time plunder.

[3] Bacon readily fulfilled the organization's mission by raiding ground transports, depots, ships, and Patriot homes (including those belonging to members of the Monmouth Militia).

[1] Bacon and his band of marauders were involved in the October 1782 Long Beach Island Massacre, and the following December were in a skirmish at the Cedar Bridge Tavern in New Jersey.

This attack, occurring after formal hostilities between the United States and Great Britain had paused because of peace negotiations, was considered so atrocious that Governor William Livingston put a bounty of fifty pounds on Bacon's head.

[7][8] A gun battle involving Bacon and his men near the Cedar Bridge Tavern, on the Jersey Shore, was the last documented conflict of the American Revolutionary War.

[8] The battle came to be known as "The Affair at Cedar Bridge[9] On March 31, 1783, Bacon was finally tracked down by armed forces of the new republic on Long Beach Island where he was spotted scavenging a shipwreck.