As if in response to a statement by John Adams that American independence ought to be celebrated with “Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other”, American troops bombarded and set on fire a small British warship that had wandered within range between Staten Island, where the huge British army had just landed, and the New Jersey shore, where the Americans still held their ground. This took place at daybreak of July 4th, 1776, and the ship was still on fire, with the flames and smoke visible from the town of New York, at noon.
Meanwhile, according to one source, a more spectacular fireworks show was taking place in Little Egg Harbor, at the mouth of the Mullica River in southern New Jersey. John Hancock, relying on hearsay, wrote from Philadelphia that an American ship loaded with guns and gunpowder had been run ashore by a British warship:
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