Personal Facts
- Born: January 17, 1752, in Newmarket, Virginia.
- Parents: John Baylor and Fanny Baylor.
- Spouse: Lucy Page.
- Died: November 9, 1784, in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Biography
Early Life and Service
- George Baylor was from a prominent family in Virginia.
- His father, John Baylor, was close friends with George Washington and owned a large plantation called “Newmarket.”
- As tensions with Great Britain increased, Baylor volunteered as an officer in the local militia company.
- He was elected to the Caroline County Committee of Observation.
American Revolutionary War
- Baylor was appointed as an aide-de-camp to Washington on August 15, 1775, upon the recommendation of Virginia’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress.
- He was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army.
- Baylor served under Washington during the Siege of Boston, the New York Campaign, and the New Jersey Campaign.
Baylor Delivers News of Trenton to Congress
Following the American victory at the Battle of Trenton (December 25, 1776), Washington chose Baylor to deliver the news to Congress in Philadelphia.
- Baylor also carried a captured flag with him, which he delivered to Congress.
- Washington also sent a letter to President John Hancock that commended Baylor.
- Congress thanked Baylor for his service.
- Afterward, Baylor was given a horse and promoted to the rank of Colonel.
Baylor’s Command
- With the promotion, Baylor was given command of the Third Continental Dragoons.
- Afterward, he returned to Virginia, where he recruited men for his company.
- It was a slow process, and it took nearly a year.
Baylor Massacre at the Battle of Herringtown
In the late summer of 1778, Baylor and his Dragoons were in the field. They were following and harassing British forces gathering supplies along the Hudson River. On September 28, 1778, Baylor and approximately 100 men were camped near Herringtown, New Jersey.
- British troops led by General Charles Grey attacked the camp while the Americans were sleeping.
- Grey ordered his men to use bayonets and to give “no quarter,” which essentially means to refuse surrender and “take no prisoners.”
- The British attack was quick and deadly.
- As many as 30 Americans were killed, and the rest were either wounded or taken as prisoners.
- Grey and his men were criticized for the attack.
- Americans refer to it as the “Baylor Massacre” and the “Tappan Massacre.”
Baylor was wounded when a bayonet pierced one of his lungs, and he was captured. Afterward, he was taken to New York City. He was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange (October 31, 1781) and returned to Virginia.
- The site of the Baylor Massacre is in River Vale Township, New Jersey.
- Historians believe local Loyalists told Grey where Baylor and his men were.
- The wounded were taken to the Tappan Dutch Reformed Church, which was nearby but in New York.
- Major Alexander Clough, Baylor’s second-in-command, died there from a bayonet wound.
Return to the Army
- Baylor returned to duty and joined General Nathanael Greene and the Southern Army in the summer of 1782, nearly a year after the British Surrender at Yorktown..
- He took command of the First Continental Dragoons on November 9, 1782.
- The wounds he suffered during the Baylor Massacre prevented him from continuing with the army.
- The Third Continental Dragoons merged with the First Dragoons.
Later Years and Death
- Baylor was given a brevet promotion to Brigadier General on September 30, 1783.
- He died in March 1784 at Bridgetown, Barbados, while trying to recover from his wounds.
Biography
AHC Note — This biography of George Baylor is from the Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. I, edited by Allen Johnson and published by the American Council of Learned Societies in 1945. Minor text corrections have been made.
BAYLOR, GEORGE (Jan. 12, 1752–March 1784), Revolutionary soldier, was born at Newmarket in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the son of Col. John and Fanny (Walker) Baylor. His wife was named Lucy Page.
Early in the Revolutionary War, he became one of the military aides of the commander-in-chief, an appointment possibly due to Washington’s personal acquaintance with Baylor’s father. He served at the Battle of Trenton and directly afterward was sent by Washington to Congress, bearing the news of the victory and carrying also a captured Hessian standard.
In a letter dated Dec. 27, 1776, written by Washington to the president of Congress, Baylor was highly commended. He received the thanks of Congress; John Hancock, its president, wrote to Washington recommending that Baylor be promoted to the rank of colonel and receive the gift of a horse, and these recommendations were promptly carried into effect. When Baylor requested the command of a regiment of cavalry, Washington consented and wrote to him a letter of advice regarding his selection of officers.
The event with which Baylor’s name is chiefly associated occurred in 1778 and is still a matter of debate. After the Battle of Monmouth, there were no general engagements by the northern armies, but there were various isolated affairs on a smaller scale.
One of these was a British attack on the American forces below the Hudson Highlands, which was conducted to cover operations elsewhere.
Part of their force under the Hessian Knyphausen planned to surprise one of the American detachments at New Tappan, but this attempt was detected and failed.
The other force under Gen. Grey — “No Flint Grey” of Paoli notoriety in the previous campaign — was directed against Baylor’s detachment. This regiment of light horse, the so-called “Mrs. George Washington’s Guards,” was cantoned at Old Tappan or Harrington near the Hackensack River, about two and a half miles from the main body.
It has been stated that Baylor encamped at a distance “to be free, as is supposed, from the control of Anthony Wayne” (Washington Irving, Washington, Vol. III). It is also asserted that there were few precautions against a surprise.
Gen. Grey, guided by Tories, on the night of Sept. 27–28, attacked the dragoons who were asleep in barns. The bayonet was freely used. Many were killed or taken prisoners, among the latter being Baylor, who had been bayoneted through the lungs. Out of 104 privates, the loss was sixty-seven (William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the United States, Vol. III, 1788).
Grey was accused of inhumanity as on the previous occasion at Paoli. His epithet “No Flint Grey” was derived from his order to remove the flints from the soldiers’ muskets to preserve silence; the charge was made that his men were commanded to refuse quarter.
Baylor, on Oct. 19, 1778, wrote a letter to Washington in justification of his action, asserting that his patrols had been cut off and his communications thereby severed. It does not appear that he was reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. Four years later, he was in charge of light troops in the South and was referred to in a communication by Laurens as a trustworthy officer. He died at Bridgetown, Barbados.
Appendix
The Baylor Massacre, as Told by Washington Irving
AHC Note — This account of the Baylor Massacre is taken from the Life of George Washington, Vol. III, by the famous American author Washington Irving. Minor text corrections have been made, and names of people have been added for context.
For a great part of the summer, General George Washington had remained encamped at White Plains, watching the movements of the enemy at New York. Early in September, he observed a great stir of preparation; cannon and military stores were embarked, and a fleet of one hundred and forty transports were ready to make sail.
What was their destination?
Washington deplored the facility possessed by the enemy of transporting their troops from point to point by sea. “Their rapid movements,” said he, “enable them to give us solicitude for the safety of remote points, to succour which we should have to make ruinous marches, and after all, perhaps, find ourselves the dupes of a feint.”
There were but two capital objects which they could have in view, besides the defeat and dispersion of his army. One was to get possession of the forts and passes of the Highlands; the other, by a junction of their land and naval forces, to attempt the destruction of the French fleet at Boston and regain possession of that town.
These points were so far asunder that it was difficult to protect the one without leaving the other exposed. To do the best that the nature of the case would admit, Washington strengthened the works and reinforced the garrison in the Highlands, stationing Israel Putnam with two brigades in the neighbourhood of West Point. General Horatio Gates was sent with three brigades to Danbury in Connecticut, where he was joined by two brigades under General Alexander McDougall. At the same time, Washington moved his camp to a rear position at Fredericksburg on the borders of Connecticut and about 30 miles from West Point, so as to be ready for a movement to the eastward or a speedy junction for the defence of the Hudson. To facilitate an eastern movement, he took measures to have all the roads leading to Boston repaired.
Scarce had Washington moved from White Plains when General Henry Clinton threw a detachment of 5,000 men under General Charles Cornwallis into the Jerseys, between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and another of 3,000 under William Knyphausen into Westchester County, between the Hudson and the Bronx. These detachments held communication with each other and, by the aid of flat-bottomed boats, could unite their forces in 24 hours on either side of the Hudson.
Washington considered these mere foraging expeditions — though on a large scale — and detached troops into the Jerseys to work with the militia in checking them; but, as something more might be intended, he ordered General Putnam to cross the river to West Point, for its immediate security: while Washington moved with a division of his army to Fishkill.
General Anthony Wayne, who was with the detachments in the Jerseys, took post with a body of militia and a regiment of light horse in front of the division of General Cornwallis. The militia were quartered at the village of New Tappan, but Lieutenant Colonel George Baylor, who commanded the regiment of light horse, chose to encamp apart, to be free, as is supposed, from the control of General Wayne. Baylor took up his quarters, therefore, in Old Tappan, where his men lay very negligently and unguardedly in barns.
Cornwallis had intelligence of their exposed situation and laid a plan to cut off the whole detachment. A body of troops from Knyphausen’s division was to cross the Hudson in the night and come by surprise upon Wayne’s militia in New Tappan. At the same time, Major General Grey, of marauding renown, was to advance on the left and attack Baylor and his dragoons in their careless quarters in Old Tappan.
Fortunately, Knyphausen’s troops, led by Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, were slow in crossing the river, and the militia were apprised by deserters of their danger in time to escape. Not so with Baylor’s party. General Grey, having cut off an American patrol, advanced in silence and surrounded, with his troops, three barns in which the dragoons were sleeping.
…to prevent noise, he had caused his men to draw the charges and take the flints from their guns and fix their bayonets. The bayonet was his favourite weapon. With this, his men rushed forward and, deaf for a time to all cries for mercy, made a savage slaughter of naked and defenseless men. Eleven were killed on the spot and 25 mangled with repeated thrusts, some receiving 10, 12, and even 16 wounds.
Among the wounded were Colonel Baylor and Major Clough, the last of whom soon died. About 40 were taken prisoners, mostly through the humane interposition of one of Grey’s captains, whose feelings revolted at the orders of his sanguinary commander.”
