Fort Mercer

Hessian map showing campaigns against Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer (Redbank) in 1777.

Fort Mercer was a fort on the Delaware River in New Jersey constructed by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Built by Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko under the command of George Washington, Fort Mercer was built in 1777 to block the approach to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in concert with Fort Mifflin on the Pennsylvania side. Fort Mercer was located in what is now the borough of National Park, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. A park, monument, and museum exist today on the site of the fort. The fort was named in honor of Brigadier General Hugh Mercer who had died earlier that year at the Battle of Princeton.

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 the 600 Continental defenders under Colonel Christopher Greene with heavy losses on the Hessian side, including the death of their commander, Colonel Carl Emil Kurt von Donop. After the later loss of Fort Mifflin, Fort Mercer was abandoned without a fight when Lord Charles Cornwallis landed 2,000 British troops nearby on November 18, 1777.^[1]

Monument in Fort Mercer, 2008

References

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New Jersey in the American Revolution
1776	Turtle Gut Inlet Fort Lee Geary ambush Iron Works Hill George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River First Trenton
1777	Second Trenton Princeton Millstone Forage War Bound Brook Short Hills Red Bank Gloucester Middlebrook encampment
1778	Quinton's Bridge Monmouth Molly Pitcher Baylor Massacre The Affair at Little Egg Harbor Chestnut Neck
1779	Paulus Hook
1780	Connecticut Farms Springfield Bull's Ferry
1781	Pennsylvania Line Mutiny
1783	U.S. Capital at Princeton