Fort Mercer
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| Fort Mercer | |
|---|---|
| National Park, New Jersey | |
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| Site information | |
| Type | Earthwork |
| Location | |
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| Site history | |
| Built | 1777 |
| Built by |
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| In use | 1777–1781 |
| Materials | earth, logs Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content. |
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| <div class="skin-nightmode-reset-color" style="width:100%; font-size:110%; font-weight:bold;color: var(--color-base); background:Script error: No such module "Designation".; line-height:1.5">Red Bank Battlefield | |
| <div style="width:100%; text-align:center; line-height:1.5;color: var(--color-base); background:Script error: No such module "Designation".;">U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location | 100 Hessian Ave., National Park, NJ 08063 |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000796[1] |
| Script error: No such module "Designation". | 1405[2] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 31, 1972[1] |
| Designated NHL | November 28, 1972[3] |
| Script error: No such module "Designation". | August 16, 1979 |
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| Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
| Garrison information | |
Past commanders | Christopher Greene |
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Fort Mercer was an earthen fort on the eastern shores of the Delaware River in New Jersey that was constructed by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The fort was built in 1777 by Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko under the command of George Washington. Along with Fort Mifflin on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River to its west, Fort Mercer was designed to block the British advance on the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia during the Philadelphia campaign.
Fort Mercer was located in an area called Red Bank in what is now the borough of National Park in Gloucester County, New Jersey. The fort was named in honor of Brigadier General Hugh Mercer who died earlier that year in fighting at the Battle of Princeton.
The fort's site is now part of Red Bank Battlefield Historical Park, which includes a monument and museum. Several cannons attributed to British warships lost supporting the attack on the fort, and others found buried at the fort itself, are in the park.[4]
Background
Fort Mercer was built and Fort Mifflin were rebuilt and garrisoned to protect a line of chevaux de frise obstacles across the Delaware River. Fort Billingsport was built downriver to protect another line of these obstacles. Fort Mercer had earthen walls with a surrounding ditch, topped with a log palisade. The fort was about 320 yards (290 m) long and 50 yards (46 m) wide and mounted 14 cannons, with bastions on the landward corners. A separate outer redoubt was located north of the fort, but this was not garrisoned.
The fort could accommodate a garrison of 1,500 men, but only 600 were available, mostly Rhode Island troops of the Continental Army commanded by Colonel Christopher Greene, also a Rhode Islander. French officer Thomas Duplessis made the fort more defensible by the small garrison by having a wall built inside the river side of the fort.[5]
On October 22, 1777, in the Battle of Red Bank, an attack by 900 Hessian troops under British Major-general William Howe, then occupying Philadelphia, was repelled by Fort Mifflin's defenders with heavy losses on the Hessian side, over 300 casualties including the death of their commander, Colonel Carl von Donop. The defenders suffered only 40 casualties.[4] Row galleys of the Continental Navy and Pennsylvania State Navy under Commodore John Hazelwood provided supporting fire. Six British warships under the command of Admiral Francis Reynolds were also involved, two of which ran aground while avoiding the chevaux de frise.[citation needed]
Fort Mifflin and the Pennsylvanian galleys engaged the stranded ships the next morning, with cannons and fire rafts, respectively. The 64-gun Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:WPSHIPS utilities/data' not found. caught fire and within an hour the fire reached the magazine and the ship exploded, with the loss being attributed to accidental ignition by the British. One account states a British marine accidentally fired his musket into a hammock, with the fire resulting from subsequent smoldering. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:WPSHIPS utilities/data' not found. was scuttled after suffering heavy damage. After the later loss of Fort Mifflin, Fort Mercer was abandoned when Lord Charles Cornwallis landed 2,000 British troops nearby on November 18, 1777.
As British artillery breached the walls, the defenders of Fort Mercer blew up their magazine before abandoning the fort.[6][7][8]
The British abandoned Fort Mercer as they evacuated Philadelphia on June 18, 1778. The Patriots retook the site and rebuilt the fort, manning it until 1781, when the fighting moved to Yorktown, Virginia, culminating in an American victory and leading to the cessation of hostilities.[9][5]
Gallery
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Von Donop Gravesite Battlefield of Red Bank]]
See also
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- Fort Billingsport
- Fort Mifflin
- List of coastal fortifications of the United States
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Gloucester County, New Jersey
- Seacoast defense in the United States
References
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- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Gloucester County" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. April 1, 2010. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Red Bank Battlefield". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. June 23, 2008. Archived from the original on February 25, 2009.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fort Mercer". RevolutionaryWarNewJersey.com.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fort Mercer". FortWiki.com.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings". National Park Service. Retrieved September 24, 2007.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Roberts, Robert B. (1988). Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States. New York: Macmillan. pp. 511–512. ISBN 0-02-926880-X.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The story of the battle of Red Bank". friendsofredbank. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fort Mercer". American Forts Network.
External links
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- "Forts and Fortifications" at PhiladelphiaEncyclopedia.org
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![Von Donop Gravesite Battlefield of Red Bank]]](/index.php?title=Special:Upload&wpDestFile=Von_Donop_Grave.png){kind=link}