The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley: The Jersey Dutch and the Neutral Ground, 1775-1783 [Paperback]

Adrian C. Leiby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1980

After November 1776, the Hackensack Valley--located in northeastern New Jersey and Rockland County, New York--lay between the invading British army in New York City and the main Continental defense forces in the Hudson Highlands. Jersey Dutch patriot and Tory troops carried on a five-year war of neighbors between the lines, while the grand armies of Britain and America maneuvered on either side of them for a chance to strike a blow at the other.

Adrian Leiby offers an exciting narrative of the people of Dutch New Jersey and New York during this conflict. Historians will find colorful details about the Revolutionary War, and genealogists will find much previously unpublished material on hundreds of men and women of Dutch New Jersey and New York in the 1700s.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (May 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813508983
• ISBN-13: 978-0813508986
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound data and dramatic narrative, September 20, 1999

By 

"pwromaine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley: The Jersey Dutch and the Neutral Ground, 1775-1783 (Paperback)

Leiby's book draws on a range of primary sources and concentrates on the Hackensack River Valley in New Jersey (extending up to Rockland County, NY). Few modern books go into as much detail for this region as does Leiby. His documentation is sound and he uses it to construct a dramatic narrative of the Revolutionary period. Excellent also for genealogists. However, genealogists may sometimes be a little frustrated that Leiby chose the most archaic form of each surname rather than attempt to arbitrate the most "accurate" spelling.

One serious complaint, from the perspective of an historian, is that Leiby sometimes seems methodologically naive in his nearly uncritical support for the American side. He does not try to understand the Loyalists. Many of them were decent people, as demonstrated by books such as Philip Ranlet's The New York Loyalists. I think Leiby's book would have been much richer for it. Leiby is definitely worth reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, July 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley: The Jersey Dutch and the Neutral Ground, 1775-1783 (Paperback)

This was a great book for learning about the events, the backdrop of religious civil war, and the loyalties of the inhabitants of Bergen County during the American Revolution. The book is well written and fairly thorough. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to know how the Revolution played out in one area for the entire duration of the war. More interesting since it was a hotly contested area where neighbors had a visceral hatred for each other.

The writer is unabashedly pro American, but so what? At least he's not veiling his biases as is the tendency of far too many historians.

I do wish that the maps were a)more readible, b) accompanied by modern maps for comparison -- I still can't find where Liberty Pole is/was.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Untold" Story of 7 Years of Occupation and Civil War, April 15, 2002

By 

Todd Post (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley: The Jersey Dutch and the Neutral Ground, 1775-1783 (Paperback)

Most people with even the most basic understanding of the founding of America and the conflicts this country went through know that Virginia was the main battleground for the American Civil War. The first large-scale engagement was fought in Manassas and Lee surrendered in Appomattox, and Virginia has done an excellent job with it's "Civil War Trails" highlighting this history.

Why then, is New Jersey not given the same attention for its role in the war? This book, a perfect companion to "Washington's Partizan War", gives a wonderful account of what seven years of war in northern New Jersey and southern New York was like.

Besides the British occupying New York City and several blockhouses across the river in New Jersey, this theater of the war was very different. The inhabitants were almost all Dutch, either remnants of New Netherlands or adopted by the culture, but of two very different view points on both religion and politics. A disagreement over governance of the Dutch Reformed Church in the 1760s spilled over into the Revolution, with lines being drawn between Tory and Whig, Loyalist and Rebel. Though the Carolina Backcountry gets most of the attention of the "civil war" aspect of the Revolution, what went on in New Jersey was on a larger scale and longer duration.

This book will not only tell you of the "Retreat Across the Jerseys", the battles of Paramus, Paulus Hook, Hackensack, Bull's Ferry, the Tappan Massacre, etc., but it is wonderfully documented with detailed footnotes, the mark of any good scholarly work. Any student of the area or the war will appreciate the leads this gives for in depth study on this topic.