18th Century Field Day at Red Bank Battlefield

On October 22, from 10:00 a.m until 4:00 p.m. you can enjoy a glipse of life in the Colonial period and you can re-visit a monumental day in the history of our country. Three hundred years ago on that day, a vastly outnumbered American Revolutionary force faced a fierce and widely experience army of Mercenary soldiers from Hesse Cassel Germany, hired by the British to defeat us and open the Delaware River to their ships.

They needed to re-supply their forces which had captured our capitol city of the time, Philadelphia. The River was defended by a fort on the Philadelphia side, Fort Mifflin, and the fort on the New Jersey side at Red Bank, Fort Mercer.

It was a David and Goliath story. The greatest British warship of the time, the Augusta was in the River and the 2000 strong army of Hessians was marching on the 200 Colonials in a trench fort at Red Bank, the farm of the Quaker Whitall family.

The short of it is we WON and it was a turning point for our morale and for the faith of others in our ability to persevere.

Just recently in an archaeological dig, the bodies of a dozen of the Hessian soldiers who died in the battle were uncovered in a mass grave on the site. This and other fascinating facts and stories will be available on this exciting and colorful day. There will be demonstrations of colonial arts, muster drills, and a grand finale' the re-enactment of the Battle of Red Bank.

And it is all FREE! Red Bank Battlefield is in National Park and there are places to have a great picnic while you are there plus the historic farm house which still stands will be available for tours. There is also a great playground for the little ones.

Happy Trails? for comments you can reach me at wrightj45@yahoo.com