“The Baylor Massacre”

Late one night in 1778, a surprise attack by British soldiers in these woods nearly destroyed Baylor’s 3rd Continental Light Dragoons, an American regiment. George Baylor, the regiment’s commander, was born into the Virginia aristocracy as the son of Colonel John Baylor, who raised race horses on his plantation north of Richmond and counted General George Washington among his friends from the French and Indian War. Washington often visited the Baylor plantation, and George Baylor became his protégé. In 1775, at age 23, Baylor received a commission as a captain in the newly formed Continental Army, and Washington appointed him his first aide-de-camp. In that role, Baylor bought supplies, performed secretarial duties, kept track of Washington’s personal effects, and escorted Mrs. Washington. Baylor distinguished himself at the Battle of Trenton by accepting the surrender of a group of Hessian soldiers, and Washington and the Continental Congress soon rewarded him with command of the Third Continental Light Dragoons.

New Jersey · United States