Volunteers will follow British and patriot troop routes through N.J.
By ruth calia stives
Staff Writer
Richard Walling, director of the Friends of Monmouth Battlefield Society, recently recounted details of two weeks in American history when the British marched through Allentown and surrounding areas and ultimately met the Patriot troops on June 28, 1778, at the Battle of Monmouth — one of the pivotal points of the Revolutionary War.
In 2003, the Road to Monmouth Heritage Campaign will commemorate 225 years since that famous battle, celebrating New Jersey’s role during the crucial summer of 1778, when the British Army retreated across the state on its way to New York City.
For two weeks the two armies of the Revolution battled and skirmished from the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean.
Next summer the re-enactment of those two weeks will take historians and volunteers on a journey from Camden and Lambertville on the Delaware, across the state, and the Raritan River and Sandy Hook.
Those portraying the British Army will "fight" their way each day from Haddonfield to Allentown (June 27) and then on to the Monmouth Battlefield.
Other volunteers will trace George Washington’s route, along with his Life Guard and dragoons, through central New Jersey at the same time.
At a recent meeting of the Allentown and Upper Freehold Historical Society, Walling and Historical Society President John Fabiano with the aid of a map showing the routes of the British and patriot troops described the events leading up to the Battle of Monmouth.
Fabiano explained that in the weeks leading up to the Battle of Monmouth there were a series of skirmishes, and until recently, the accounts were either missing or were exaggerated in their description.
Persistent, continuous research is now turning up accurate accounts of what occurred and are greatly aided by discovery of a series of detailed maps made by John Andre, a member of the British troops.
His maps include routes covering an area across Monmouth County, from Allentown to Middletown.
As the British began to flee Philadelphia, with an initial plan to head to New York, they crossed the Delaware and made their way through towns known today as Haddonfield, Evesham/Mount Laurel, Mount Holly, Black Horse (Columbus), Crosswicks and Allentown.
While British troop leader General Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia loyalists, some Hessian troops, and an armaments train to New York, he had a secret plan to head for Sandy Hook, while pretending to go north. According to Walling, the British troops, aided by the Hessians, burned pillaged, tortured and robbed along the way. "What Sherman did to Georgia in the Civil War, the British and Hessians did to New Jersey in the Revolutionary War," he said.
At Crosswicks, on June 23, 1778, a battle took place at a drawbridge, which had been destroyed by the Patriots to prevent the British from crossing.
The British troops responded by ripping down a nearby barn for material to try to rebuild the bridge.
Along the route into Allentown, a member of the Patriots, a Col. Stephenson, was shot at a bridge (portions of which still exist) on what is now called Ellisdale Road, and attempted to make his way into Allentown, where he was fatally wounded by a sniper.
Walling talked about activity by both British and Patriot troops in the areas of Hightstown, and at the Rising Sun Tavern in Clarksburg (present day Millstone Township), as the flanking British Troops traveled along Route 524 in the area of present-day Agress Road, as well as on Backbone Hill Road, and continued along the area of Route 537, through the Adelphia area of Freehold and Howell, and eventually reached the site of the Battle of Monmouth.
Following the Battle of Monmouth, according to Walling, troops continued north to the area of North Brunswick, where they participated in a July 4 celebration of the second anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
As the troops lined up and fired their weapons, each in turn, down the long line and back again, documentation shows that the British troops on Sandy Hook, waiting to embark the following day, heard the thunderous sound carried eastward on the wind.
Walling concluded his talk with information about the commemorative event, which will be described and outlined in a brochure to be published shortly, funded by the American Battlefield Protection Program.
The brochure will include a map devised by the Road to Monmouth Heritage Campaign group.
More detailed information will be available as the event draws near, according to Walling, and all interested parties are invited to witness a re-enactment of one of the most important aspects of American History.
For more information about the Road to Monmouth Heritage Campaign 2003, as well as events which will take place this year honoring the New Jersey National Guard, you can contact the Road to Monmouth Partnership, c/o P.O. Box 122, Tennent 07763, (732) 390-1954, or e-mail MonmouthB@aol.com.