Battle of Red Bank

Monument at Fort Mercer

Date	October 22, 1777
Location	Fort Mercer, National Park, New Jersey Coordinates: 39°52′17″N 75°11′22″W / 39.871371°N 75.18941°W / 39.871371; -75.18941
Result	American victory

Belligerents

United States

Hesse-Kassel

Commanders and leaders

Christopher Greene

John Hazelwood

Carl Donop †

Strength

400 Colonials

1,200 Hessian troops

Casualties and losses

14 killed
23 wounded

82 killed
228 wounded
60 captured

The Battle of Red Bank (October 22, 1777) was a battle of the American Revolutionary War in which a Hessian force was sent to take Fort Mercer on the left bank (or New Jersey side) of the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia, but was decisively defeated by a far inferior force of Colonial defenders. Although the British did take Fort Mercer a month later, the victory supplied a sorely-needed morale boost to the American cause, delayed British plans to consolidate gains in Philadelphia, and relieved pressure on General Washington's army to the north of the city.

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 the Red Bank Plantation in what was then part of Deptford Township (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, British navy ships could not reach Philadelphia to resupply the army. 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 18, 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.

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