Pompton Mutiny

The Pompton Mutiny, also referred to as the Federal Hill Rebellion, was a revolt of Continental Army troops at Pompton Camp in New Jersey, that occurred on January 20, 1781, beneath the command of Colonel Israel Shreve.

Acting beneath the auspices of Sergeants David Gilmore, John Tuttle, George Grant and the disguisement of copious amounts of spirits, about 300 soldiers from the New Jersey Line of the Continental Army mutinied. These soldiers began to make their way to Trenton to issue demands for a redress of grievances to the Continental Congress, in echo of the actions of their brethren in the Pennsylvania Line who had successfully sought similar redress.

Alerted to this rogue faction by Pompton Camp Commander, Colonel Israel Shreve, who had in turn been informed by a woman whose name has been lost to history, General George Washington ordered General Robert Howe to command a detachment to compel the mutineers to submission.

General Howe completed this duty successfully and with great haste, surrounding the now sobered rebels and subduing them without resistance. Sergeants David Gilmore and John Tuttle were executed on the spot by a firing squad of 12 mutineers, Sergeant George Grant was issued a pardon based upon testimony by the troop body that he had advocated peaceable return to duty throughout the events of the rebellion. The firing squad was reported to have discharged their duty and their weapons tearfully, slaying their former officers. The entire body of troops was said to have been penitent and genuinely contrite in the time following the unsuccessful mutiny.

It is not readily apparent where Pompton Camp, as described in Washington's letters, was located. Historians are also divided on what path the rebels took towards Trenton and where the actual location of their submission and execution occurred.

21st century historian Robert A. Mayers affirms that William Nelson, writing Paterson and Its Environs (Silk City) in the 1920s, was correct in his assertion that "In a thick wood, on the bleak and desolate summit of a rocky knob of the Ramapo Mountains, overlooking the Pompton Lakes Station on the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, the hearty traveler can find two rude piles of weather-beaten field-stones. These are pointed out as marking the lonely, dishonored graves of the two Jersey mutineers." However, despite numerous attempts, no historian has been able to locate these graves since that era.

...
Wikipedia