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Washington moved his forces for a successful attack on a British position at Princeton on January 3.
The British vacated troops from exposed position at Hackensack on January 3 and from most other positions in New Jersey at this time to winter in New York City. The Continentals wintered at Morristown.
Tories struck in Bergen County in the spring - at English Neighborhood (Leonia) on March 20, Closter on April 20, Allendale April 23, and Paramus on May 12.
Washington sent a large contingent of New Jersey militiamen into the territory between Pompton and Hackensack on April 26 to oppose the Tories.
An Essex county militia moved into Bergen County and captured Loyalists in Lyndhurst, Harrington, English Neighborhood and Kinderkamack (Emerson) .
Gen. John Burgoyne in the early summer led a large English force out of Canada and captured Fort Ticonderoga on July 15. He was marching toward Albany.
At the same time Lt. Col. Barry St. Ledger moved with another English and Indian force out of Canada into western New York toward the Mohawk Valley and Albany.
Washington expected Gen. William Howe to move with his English forces in New York City up the Hudson River Valley to meet the other two British forces and cut the new nation in two.
Thus Washington moved his 8,000 Continentals from Morristown northeast through Pompton Plains and camped at The Ponds (Oakland) on July 14.
The next day they marched down Valley Road in Ramapaugh (Mahwah) and Suffern.
General Howe put his troops on ships in New York.
Washington moved into the Clove and up to Galloway (Southfield) - July 15-20.
Howe instead of moving up the Hudson ordered his ships and troops south for a successful occupation of Philadelphia.
Washington then marched the Continentals out of the Clove, camped at Ramapaugh and proceeded south to engage unsuccessfully Howe’s forces in September at Brandywine and Germantown outside Philadelphia.
Also in September Washington put Lt. Col. Aaron Burr in command of Col. William Malcolm’s Regiment stationed in the Clove above Suffern.
On September 12 Gen. Henry Clinton led British troops north out of New York City. They succeeded in capturing, in the Hudson Highlands, the important rebel Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton, and in Bergen County they attacked Hackensack and New Bridge.
Burr moved his regiment from the Clove to Paramus. On September 14 he attacked a British picket at Kinderkamack schoolhouse northwest of Hackensack and brought off prisoners to Paramus.
In mid-September Gen. Alexander McDougal was ordered to march his troops from Peekskill to Tappan, across Bergen County, and then to join Washington outside Philadelphia.
Washington also ordered Burr and his troops to join him in Pennsylvania.
Gen George Clinton sent 200 militia to Ramapaugh under Maj. Thomas Moffatt. They conducted forays against Loyalists around Suffern and in northern Bergen County. When the British learned that Gen. Burgoyne was defeated and forced to surrender his troops at Saratoga in northern New York State in mid-October, Gen. Clinton pulled back his soldiers from the Hudson Highland forts and Bergen County and returned them to New York City.
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Voices of Officers, Soldiers and Citizens - 1777
The British troops left Hackensack and returned to New York in early January 1777. Bergen County Whigs, however were still subject to attacks by Tories. Col. Levi Pawling with rebel troops in the Closter area observed:
The good people of Bergen County lay greatly exposed to both internal and external enemies, and the internal enemies have a free recourse to New York, the center and head of all British activity in America (1GC 677, 701, 702)
It was further reported:
that for male Whigs in the county residing in the midst of enemies, the...Tories on every side...there is no safety for any male person competent to bear arms to stay at home in the night, and they were obliged, when not on actual duty, to collect together for ...common safety or to sleep in the woods or some other place of safety. (Henrietta Blanch, Pension records, W23632)
It also was reported that for an active Whig militiaman, such as Peter Demarest in 1777:
He was unable to attend to his business or even to remain at home except by stealth on account of his exposure to capture by the enemy...they having made repeated attempts to effect his capture from his own house. (Samuel Demarest, Pension Records, S15081)
John I. Blauvelt wrote about his activities as a Whig in this area at this time:
They had to guard along the river to prevent as far as possible the enemy from landing to plunder, burn and destroy, and ascouting through the different parts of the now County of Rockland and the County of Bergen....He was ordered to hold himself in readiness to march at a minute’s warning whenever there was an alarm, which was very often for whenever the enemy came out in large bodies the guard that did first discover them would give the alarm by firing guns, which was repeated by the next and so continued, by which means the intelligence was given many miles in a few minutes and all that were at home had to march to assist in driving them off. They then joined the first company they met with, under different officers at different alarms, and some of their excursions would last for eight and sometimes ten days, before they got home again....We were obliged to take our arms and equipments with us to our daily labor, and to be ready to pursue the enemy immediately. (Affidavit of John I. Blauvelt, Pension Records, S22649)
Theodosia Prevost requested support from members of rebel New Jersey government whom she knew.
British place a young captured patriot physician and officer, Samuel Bradhurst, a distant relative of Theodosia, under house arrest at The Hermitage in 1777.
Lt. Col. Burr, leading a regiment from north of Suffern, attacked British near Hackensack and stopped in Paramus with one of his officers being a nephew of Theodosia - September 1777.
