Gloucester City and the Revolution

It breaks my heart how much history we lose: We lost a Revolutionary War farm house by the Department of Transportation which demolished it while protection was working its way throgh the courts. We lost Ben Franklin's House in Philadelphia and The Huggs (Betsy Ross's family) Tavern in Gloucester City as well as Billy Thompson's Mansion. And here is a bit of Gloucester City history you may not have heard. I learned about it when the historian from Battlefield of Monmouth came to speak at our Senior Center a few years back. The Battle of Gloucester.

The Young Marquis and the Skirmish That Echoed Across a Revolution

In the late autumn of 1777, the course of the American Revolution briefly turned toward the winding roads and marshy banks of South Jersey. Here, at a modest skirmish now known as the Battle of Gloucester, a young French aristocrat named Marie‑Joseph‑Paul‑Yves‑Roch‑Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette took his first independent command on American soil, earning respect from General George Washington, the Continental Congress, and future historians alike." (from Visit New Jersey)

In adition to that, when I first went to Gloucester City to work at the Library in the 1970's, parts of the Battleship Augusta from the Battle of REd Bank still stuck up from the mud! Since then, I had the opportunity to visit many of the battle sites of New Jersey Revolutionary History from Alloways Creek and the HaNCOCK TAVERN Massacer to the tea burning at Greenwich on the Cohansey, the historic Tavern in Haddonfield where the New Jersey State assembly met and a violent street skirmish occurred and Chestnut Neck where Count Pulaski fought in the series of battles and skirmishes around THE FORKS a hideout on the Batsto River where American ships docked before and after raiding British ships on the ATlantic. New Jersey is a treasure trove of American Revolutionary War history from Princeton and Trenton to all points North and South. I hope this special year, you check them out!

Happy Trails!

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