April 20, 1775, the day that the "shot heard round the world" was fired in Lexington, MA. That shot reverberated through New Jersey, where the Continental Army spent more time than in any other state.
This area would serve a pivotal role, on the frontier -
"In the spring of 1779 a corps of men called nine months men were stationed at Fort Dewitt, and in the winter and spring of 1778 and 1779 others of these troops were at Fort Gumaer and Fort Depuy, which had been rebuilt, and still others at Fort Decker and perhaps at the other forts. At this time Count Pulaski's troop, under the command of Baron DeFrey, was located in Smithfleld Township, which is now Pike County, Pennsylvania, and there were New Jersey troops, under the command of Colonels Ogden and Spencer, near Fort Shimer, in what is now the township of Montague, In New Jersey. All of these troops were under the command of General Edward Hand, whose headquarters near Fort Shimer were designated Minisings, and whose commands extended from Warwarsing in the North, where Col. Van Cortland with his regiment was in winter quarters, to Fort Penn, now Stroudsburg, in the South, where Major Stroud commanded, and West to Wyoming, where Colonel Zebulon Butler was In command. All of these troops were removed in the spring of 1779 to take part in Sullivan's expedition against the Western Indians and that they might be located whom they could be conveniently used, for such a service may have been at least one of the purposes for which they were here temporarily stationed. At the time of the two Indian incursions into the Neversink Valley, however, there were no troops in this vicinity to defend the inhabltants."
The Historical Record, Volumes 2-3 edited by Frederick Charles Johnson