Red Bank Battlefield Walking Tours September 2026

Red Bank Battlefield Fall Walking Tours!

Join us for our Fall Walking Tour Program! All tours take place at 10am.

September 12: Red Bank's Monuments and River Fortifications

September 19: The Delaware Valley in 1776

September 26: Red Bank's Inhabitants Before and After the Battle

October 3: Battlefield Tour

November 21: Von Donop and the Delaware Valley Campaign of 1776

All tours are free. Registration is required:

https://secure.rec1.com/NJ/gloucester-county-nj/catalog

For more information contact Jen Janofsky: jjanofsky@co.gloucester.nj.us

Red Bank Battlefield is one of my favorite places in the world. When I was more able bodied, I loved to walk the top level and down to the river level and sometimes even down onto the Delaware River beach. At some low points in my life, I would drive to Red Bank Battlefield in the evening and watch the sunset over the river which was comforting to me.

The Delaware River always had special meaning to me because I was born and raised just on the other side of the river, about where the Walt Whitman bridge ands in Philadelphia, and our maternal family church was right on the river, Gloria Dei, Old Swedes Church. The smell and the sight of the river have been with me all my life, like an old friend, and even more, perhaps like a relative because the river has been with my family in all our generations on my mother's side. In fact her grandfather, Hiram McQuiston owned and ran a haulage business from freight arriving on the river port to the shops in the city. In my years of doing family history, I could trace my maternal side through to the original Irish immigrants at the end of the 1700's (Gallagher, Welsh, McQuiston). As of this year, the only family I have left in Philadelphia are in Gloria Dei cemetery, or on my father's side, New Cathedral Cemetery and Mount Moriah. All my living relatives have moved to the New Jersey side of the river. It is only writing that, that I realized this is true.

Actually, my German side (Sandman, Jung) came to Philadelphia in the early 1800's, German Catholics who lived in South Philadelphia and plied the typical trades, seamstresses, brewers, bakers, and who attended a Catholic church which is no longer there, St. Aloysius Parish, founded for German immigrants around 1890.

Lament: I miss my family. Now that I am 80, they are mostly gone, except for those younger than I am. I am the oldest living relative of either side. I miss the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the cousins. Fortunately I have my siblings. My mother loved being a mother and wanted a big family. I never did and I never saw the value until now when I realize how utterly crucial it is to have brothers and sisters.

The River is an important lifeline through the history of America and it is a beautiful place to visit, so if you are in the mood to have a walk and hear a talk - please enjoy the walking tours in this beautiful month of the year. Happy Trails!

wrightj45@yahoo.com (please use my e-mail for responses as blogs comments section is polluted with spam and I don't make my e-mail a link to avoid having the same spam bots pollute my e-mail- thanks! I do enjoy hearing from you and have had many fascinating e-mail friendships evolve!)

ps: Amendment - How could I forget! I have an older relative still alive, my cousin Patty Gushue in the Villas in New Jersey. She is my cousin, daughter of y father's older brother William Wright. She is about 4 years older than I am. We don't know much about the Wright side of the family which is lost in the hay stack that is such a common name as Wright.