Six hundred defenders at Fort Mercer turn back 1,200 Hessians
With Philadelphia in British hands and the Delaware River blocked by two American forts, General Howe sent Colonel Carl von Donop to clear Fort Mercer on October 22, 1777. Von Donop landed with 2,000 Hessian troops and split off 1,200 for the assault. Colonel Christopher Greene held the earthen fort with only 600 men, mostly Rhode Islanders, behind a river-side wall rebuilt by French engineer Thomas Duplessis. The Hessians attacked in two columns; Continental and Pennsylvania navy gunboats raked their flanks from the river. Von Donop fell wounded and was left on the field as his force retreated to Haddonfield, ten miles away.
Red Bank proved that hired European regulars could be stopped by a small garrison and a well-placed wall, a welcome result for Washington's army, still reeling from the loss of Philadelphia. The victory bought weeks for the Continental Army to regroup north of the city, and it fed the American argument, made to European observers, that the rebellion could win battles against professional troops.
QHow many men did Fort Mercer actually have to defend it?
The fort was built to hold 1,500 troops, but Colonel Christopher Greene had only 600 available on the day of the attack, most of them Rhode Island Continentals. The Hessian force sent against them numbered 1,200, outnumbering the defenders two to one. A separate outer redoubt north of the main walls was never garrisoned at all, and it was left ungarrisoned.
QWhat were the actual casualty numbers from the battle?
Hessian reports listed 377 killed and wounded with another 20 missing or captured, nearly a third of the 1,200-man assault force. American losses were 14 killed and 27 wounded. The lopsided ratio, roughly one Hessian casualty for every man in the garrison, stood out even among the war's costlier assaults.
QWho gave Fort Mercer the wall that stopped the Hessian advance?
A French officer named Thomas Duplessis had modified Fort Mercer shortly before the attack, building an additional wall along the river side of the works. That alteration changed the fort's actual perimeter from what von Donop's scouts had mapped, so the Hessians advanced expecting one layout and met another. The French officer's uncredited fix played as large a role in breaking the assault as the Rhode Islanders' muskets did.
