Once again, Washington routs the British

Sunday re-enactment recalls turning point of Revolution

By: David Campbell
   Several hundred spectators braved the cold Sunday to witness a re-enactment of Gen. George Washington’s victory at the Battle of Princeton.
   On the field, musket barrels and bayonets gleamed in the sun as 1,300 re-enactors portraying Continental, Hessian and British soldiers executed the well-choreographed and, by modern standards, unhurried and close-range maneuvers of 18th-century warfare.
   "It has a leisurely feeling to it," said Charles Ufford of Mercer Street, a spectator Sunday.

Staff photo by Phil McAuliffe

Gen. Washington and a member of his staff raise swords to signal attack during the Battle of Princeton re-enactment on Sunday.

   About 80 Revolutionary War units from across the country and abroad, including New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, California and Germany, were represented on the field.
   The battle was last re-enacted 25 years ago during the 1976 Bicentennial.
   The Sunday re-enactment culminated a weekend commemoration of the 225th anniversary of "The Ten Crucial Days" that turned the tide of the American Revolutionary War.
   Beginning noon Sunday, British and Hessian forces marched from the Princeton Theological Seminary along Mercer Street and Mercer Road to meet the Continental forces at Princeton Battlefield State Park, which in 1777 was farmland belonging to Thomas Clarke, whose house is now a museum at the park.
   Continental forces marched from the Institute Woods near Stony Brook and entered the battlefield from the woods behind the Clarke House Museum.
   Police closed Mercer Road and Quaker Road for the Sunday event. A train of school buses ferried spectators to the battle from the Bristol-Myers Squibb campus in Lawrence because parking was not permitted at the event.
   As spectators watched, the Battle of Princeton erupted in claps of musket fire as Gen. Hugh Mercer’s brigade made first contact with a contingent of British troops headed for the Second Battle of Trenton.
   On Christmas night, 1776, Gen. George Washington’s forces crossed the Delaware River to surprise the occupying Hessians at the First Battle of Trenton.
   British forces under Gen. William Cornwallis engaged the American lines at Assunpink Creek in the Second Battle of Trenton on Jan. 2.

   After the British had been repulsed three times and were bedded down for the night, Washington moved his whole army around the British flank to attack Cornwallis’ headquarters at Princeton.
   A small group was left behind at Trenton to keep the camp fires going while Washington made for Princeton under the cover of night.
   On Jan. 3 Gen. Mercer’s brigade engaged the British but was driven back under superior fire power, and the general was mortally wounded.
   But the balance of Washington’s forces arrived to form an overwhelming line of battle and pushed back the British and their Hessian allies.
   While this battle was being fought, American Gen. John Sullivan was taking the town of Princeton. The British put up a short resistance on the college grounds but were forced to surrender.
   On Sunday, a thrill went down the lines of spectators as Washington’s ragtag army emerged from the woods at the back of the field, signaling the sudden change in fortune for the Continentals.
   A battle line running almost the width of the field was formed and a cry went up from the Americans as they advanced on the British.
   Sunlight played off metal as rifles all down the American line were leveled on the enemy. A loud clap and billows of smoke rolled out as the Continental line set off a volley of musket fire, and the crowd of onlookers broke into applause.
   The re-enactment held special meaning in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy, said spectator Bob Dombrowski of East Brunswick.
   "People are a little more patriotic," Mr. Dombrowski said. "They want to learn more about our history."
   A wreath-laying ceremony was held following the re-enactment Sunday.
   Following the ceremony, Continentals, British and Hessians paraded the perimeter of the field, then they broke ranks to get hot coffee, talk with spectators or hop a school bus back to Bristol-Myers Squibb.