Battle of Red Bank

After the capture of Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, and of the failure of the American surprise attack against the British camp at the Battle of Germantown on October 4, the Americans tried to deny the British use of the city by blockading the Delaware River. To that end, two forts were constructed commanding the river. One was Fort Mercer on the New Jersey side at Red Bank (now National Park, New Jersey). The other was Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, in the Delaware River just south of the confluence of the Schuylkill River, on the Pennsylvania side opposite Fort Mercer. So long as the Americans held both forts, the British army in Philadelphia could not communicate with the outside world or be resupplied. In addition to the forts, the Americans possessed a small flotilla of Continental Navy ships on the Delaware supplemented by the Pennsylvania State Navy, all under the command of Commodore John Hazelwood.

On October 19, General Sir William Howe, the commander of the British army, evacuated his camp at Germantown and pulled his forces inside the city of Philadelphia. He sent a part of his force to capture the two American forts denying him use of the Delaware River. Earlier, Howe had sent a group of men via Webb's Ferry, at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, to marshy Providence Island (actually on the Pennsylvania mainland by Mud Island) to construct artillery batteries to bombard Fort Mifflin. The first bombardment of Fort Mifflin came on October 11. This was merely a desultory attack which convinced the British to expand and improve their batteries.

Meanwhile, 2,000 Hessian troops under the command of Colonel Karl von Donop landed at Cooper's Ferry in Gloucester City, New Jersey, about four miles (6 km) upriver from Fort Mercer, and made preparations to attack the fort, located on the high ground at Red Bank.

Von Donop, who had had three regiments defeated and captured nearly a year earlier at the Battle of Trenton, was eager to avenge what he co...

On October 21, Howe had detached Col. Carl E.K. von Donop from the main British army. The force of von Donop comprised of a 2,000-man brigade The command was made up of 4 companies of the Hessian jager Corps, 3 battalions of Hessian grenadiers, the Regiment von Mirbach, and 2 guns. They decided to camp at Haddonfield until the next morning.
On October 22, at 3:00 A.M., the British moved out of their camp and started their march on Fort Mercer. Seeing the advancing British force, Jonas Cattell, an apprentice blacksmith, alerted Greene that a surprise attack was imminent.

Around noon, the British approached the fort. Around 4:30 P.M., Von Donop sent one of his officers to Greene and demanded the American garrison to surrender. The threat of "no quarter" was also made. Greene declined the surrender offer and prepared his men for an attack.

Around 9:00 P.M., the British began their attack. The Von Lengerke's Battalion and the jagers were assigned to protect von Donop's flank and rear, while von Donop got the rest of the Hessians to attack the fort in 2 columns. One column consisted of 2 grenadier battalions and the ?? Von Mirbach from the north and the second column consisted of Von Donop and the remainder of the Germans coming from the west. The northern column stormed the fort's breastworks while shouting "Vittoria!". Quickly gaining the old northern section of the fort, the Hessians faced another 10 foot wall and abatis of sharpened tree trunks and branches. The disordered Hessians tried to move forward, but the Americans gained the advantage and held the fort. The western column attacked through the abitis and across the ditch. Once there, Von Donop find himself stopped at the berm because his column did not have any scaling ladders to climb assault the parapet. Up to this point, his plan had worked perfectly and the Americans had not even fired a shot.

Greene ordered his men to open fire with both musket fire and cannon fire. They fired on the Germans...