Baylor Massacre

General Charles Grey — 'No Flints Grey' of the Paoli Massacre — struck again at River Vale, New Jersey, with another devastating night bayonet attack. Grey's intelligence identified the camp of the 3rd Continental Dragoons under Colonel George Baylor along the Hackensack River. As at Paoli, Grey ordered his men to remove their flints, ensuring silence and total surprise.

The attack swept through the sleeping dragoons with devastating effect. Baylor himself was captured, having been wounded. A sergeant named Talmadge reportedly hid under a bridge to survive. About eleven dragoons were killed and eighteen wounded, with more captured. The regiment was effectively destroyed as a fighting unit.

The Baylor Massacre added to the growing list of British night attacks that Patriots described as atrocities. Whether considered legitimate military operations or massacres depended on whether one accepted the claim that some resistance had been offered before the fighting ended. Grey's consistent use of the tactic — no prisoners, no warning, pure surprise — was effective militarily but created lasting bitterness among American forces.