Visiting Fort Mercer
The attack on Fort Mercer is described in Fort Mercer–Timeline. The site of Fort Mercer is now part of the Red Bank Battlefield Park in New Jersey. Unlike Fort Mifflin, the site of Fort Mercer was not reused in subsequent years and the outlines of the Fort can still be perceived in shallow ditches where the Fort once stood (though those ditches may have been “enhanced” in a WPA project in the 1930s to try to illustrate more clearly where the fort had been situated).[1]
On the river side of the fort, there is now a pleasant park, complete with many benches from which one can sit and view the river. It is likely, during the Revolution, that park area was swamp ground, and at least partially underwater. One contemporary illustration shows what may have been marshy area below the “red bank” that gave the area its name.[2] Likely there would have been docks somewhere in the area, as there was constant transport of soldiers and supplies back and forth between Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer by boat.
Judging by the remnants of the ditches, the part of the fort that the Americans held was not large and the defenders—estimates range from the 300s to the 500s–must have been crowded together inside it. There are a number of interpretive signs at the Fort, but it is somewhat disappointing that various of what appeared to be artifacts of the time are presented without signage or explanation. A particularly example of this is a shed with a glass face, housing what appear to be objects in use at about the time of the battle. There is no explanation of what they are.
On days when it is open, one can tour the James and Ann Whitall house, a colonial era farmhouse whose Quaker owners were unwilling contributors to the construction of the Fort — they refused to sell the needed land, which was then taken. The house was apparently looted by soldiers and partisans from both sides during the war and, after the battle, was used to house wounded and dying Hessian soldiers. The tours focus more on the lives of the house’s owners than on the battle, but there are some battle artifacts in one room of the house and an interesting diorama of the fort, shown here:
Fort Mercer diorama, https://friendsofredbank.weebly.com/
It is not clear how accurate that is, since maps and records of the fort at the time are somewhat conflicting, but it does give a sense of the scene of the battle.
It is interesting to try to locate the “killing ground” that consisted of the outer works of the Fort, which the Americans quickly abandoned but which became a pen in which Hessian soldiers and officers were shot down by musket and cannon at short range from the part of the fortifications that the Americans held. This representation of the fort, from a diorama at Fort Mercer, reflects one of many conflicting records of how the fort was configured[3]:
Note the area of the abandoned larger fort to the right of the representation. This would be where the Hessians celebrated, thinking that they had captured the fort, before being mowed down by cannon and musket fire from the citadel, shown in darker outline in this picture.
This picture, taken in October of 2021, may depict that area:
The monument in the picture commemorates the battle, but is not the original monument erected there. See Remembrance. For a description of a relatively recent visit to the park by Rand Mirante, see A VISIT TO OLD FORT MERCER ON THE DELAWARE, https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/08/a-visit-to-old-fort-mercer-on-the-delaware/
To visit the park, put “Red Bank Battlefield Park” into your GPS. There is ample parking and no charge to enter and explore the park. The James and Ann Whitall house is open for limited hours during the week. This website may provide useful information about the house: https://www.gloucestercountynj.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/Whitall-House-Museum-15
[1] https://www.gloucestercountynj.gov/DocumentCenter/View/959/Red-Bank-Battlefield-Archeology-Report-PDF?bidId=
[2] Figure 8, page 13, https://www.gloucestercountynj.gov/DocumentCenter/View/959/Red-Bank-Battlefield-Archeology-Report-PDF?bidId=
[3] For a comprehensive discussion of the various representations from maps made at the time of the battle and later, Catts, W.P., Selig, R., et al., “IT IS PAINFUL FOR ME TO LOSE SO MANY GOOD PEOPLE” Report of an Archeological Survey at Red Bank Battlefield Park (Fort Mercer), National Park, Gloucester County, New Jersey, pages 8-19 (2017), https://www.gloucestercountynj.gov/DocumentCenter/View/959/Red-Bank-Battlefield-Archeology-Report-PDF?bidId= . The map at the end of this note, purportedly the work of the French engineer who designed the revised smaller fortifications at the Fort, would seem to have a claim to authenticity, and is reflected to an extent in the diorama. It may be found in the Archeology report cited above and also on this public website: https://www.gloucestercountynj.gov/686/Forts-of-the-American-Revolution—Fort- It is not clear why the diorama at the Fort Mifflin museum has the line of abatis outside the gate, so that anyone breaching the line and entering through the gate would be through to the inner fortress. There is likely an explanation for that choice in the diorama, but what appears on the map seems more likely to represent the reality.
