The Cockpit of the Revolution
Somerset and Middlesex counties became a focal point of the American Revolution beginning in late November 1776 and through the following years. George Washington lost the Battle of New York in late summer of 1776, and had been pursued across New Jersey by British General Cornwallis since October.
The Continental Army rested for several days at New Brunswick, Middesex County, until the British arrived on December 1st. The rebels made their escape to Princeton, leaving behind a small force led by Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox to destroy the Raritan River bridge and slow the British advance.
Washington took his army to Newtown, PA for the next three weeks, then made his historic crossing of the Delaware to capture the Hessian army post at Trenton on December 26th. Eight days later Washington marched north to capture the town of Princeton from the British. He then led his army north to Somerset County Courthouse, where they spent the night. A history of the Dutch church at Neshanic, a few miles west of Hillsborough, adds a bit more to the story: "When Washington’s troops were camped near the Millstone River in January of 1777 on their march from the battlefields of Trenton and Princeton to their winter encampment at Morristown, the patriotic [Reverend] Foering scoured his parsonage for all the food he could find and divided it up among the half starved troops, Foering preached a very patriotic sermon which lead to the formation of a company of soldiers from his congregation."
The Americans and British would skirmish at that location on January 20-23, 1777, when the British began a series of foraging raids against the small towns of New Jersey. During the remainder of the winter Washington kept his small Continental Army at Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey. At the same time, the British Army had 17,000 men stationed at New Brunswick, just a few miles east of Somerset County.
On April 13, 1777 his outpost garrison at Bound Brook in Somerset County was surprised and routed during the Battle of Bound Brook when 4,000 British Redcoats and Hessian mercenaries attacked. Cornwallis followed up by moving his entire army of 17,000 to the Somerset Court House. Washington then marched his army to the Middlebrook encampment (closer to Bound Brook) on May 28. During this time the Continental Army had to defend against British attacks at Somerset Court House on June 14, 17 and 19, 1777; at Millstone on June 17, 1777; at New Brunswick on June 22, 1777, and at Short Hills (nearby in Essex County) on July 26, 1777.
Washington planned to leave Somerset County in late June, after Cornwallis withdrew the British army to the distant town of Perth Amboy. However, Congress had just approved the new American flag. Washington waited for flags to be made and brought up from Philadelphia, and did not leave Middlebrook until July 2, 1777. The Stars and Stripes first flew over the Continental Army in Somerset County. British General Cornwallis, famous for his surrender at Yorktown, had temporary headquarters during 1777 at the Myers house in Bound Brook and at the Van Lieuw house in Franklin.
George Washington brought his Continental Army back to Middlebrook for a winter encampment from December 1778 to June 1779, after having endured the previous winter at Valley Forge. (Of the various locations where he wintered his army, it was said that Morristown was the worst.) He made his headquarters in the newly-built Wallace House on Somerset Street in Somerville.
Hosting the Continental Army for extended periods of encampment — twice in a two year span — must have posed some impositions on the residents of Somerset County. On 2 Jun 1779, George Washington wrote a letter of appreciation to the Dutch church at Raritan. (Click to see it.)
The war had ground to a stalemate when a mounted troop of 80 Queens Rangers from Staten Island raided Somerset County on 25 Oct 1779, burning both the county court house at Millstone and the Dutch Reformed Church at Raritan. The local militia reacted quickly, gave chase and captured several of the British raiders, including their leader, Col. Simcoe. The Story of New Netherland, by William Elliot Griffis, 1909, tells us that, "In the darkest hours, the Father of his Country found his safest asylum among the New Jersey Dutchmen....One of the Dutch parsons whom King George’s redcoats would have hanged, if they could have drawn a rope around his neck, was Domine Jacob Rutsen Hardenberg, brother of Washington’s staff officer. His church was at Raritan, New Jersey. He usually slept with a musket at his side. His public zeal so angered the Tories, that Colonel Simcoe once organized an expedition of the Queen’s Rangers to capture him. When they arrived at his church, and found their bird flown, they burnt the building to the ground.'
After 1779 the Continental Army and New Jersey militias generally succeeded in keeping the British confined to New York City area, although there were continuous small raids mounted by both sides, aimed at gathering prisoners, information and supplies. In August 1781 Washington removed most of his army from this siege duty and marched them, along with a French Army under Rochambeau, southward toward the Continental Army's final victory at Yorktown. During this march the armies camped near Pluckemin (August 22nd) and Millstone (August 23rd).
|
|
