Battle of Springfield ( 1780 ) The Battle of Springfield was fought during the American Revolutionary War on June 23 , 1780 . After the Battle of Connecticut Farms , on June 7 , 1780 , had foiled Lieutenant General Wilhelm , Baron von Knyphausen ’ s expedition to attack General George Washington ’ s army at Morristown , New Jersey , Knyphausen and Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton , British commander - in - chief in North America , decided upon a second attempt . Although the British were initially able to advance , they were ultimately forced to withdraw in the face of newly - arriving colonial forces , resulting in a Continental victory . British plan . A two - pronged assault was planned . Starting from Elizabethtown Point , one column would advance along the Galloping Hill Road , straight through Connecticut Farms and Springfield , while another column would take the Vauxhall Road north of Springfield along the southern edge of Short Hills . Both were heading for the same objective as on June 7 : Hobart Gap , the path through the Watchung Mountains that would allow an advance across eleven miles of flat ground to Washington ’ s main encampment at Morristown . Clinton hoped that Washington would respond to Knyphausen ’ s attack by bringing his main army round the northern tip of the Watchung Mountains west of Newark to hit Knyphausen ’ s right flank . In anticipation of this response , Major General Alexander Leslie was dispatched up the Hudson with 6 , 000 men in order to prevent Washington from retiring back behind the Watchung Mountains . Meanwhile , Major General James Robertson was to remain in reserve in Elizabethtown with five regiments ( 1 , 865 men ) to protect Knyphausen ’ s rear against attack from militia and to reinforce Leslie if necessary . Opposing forces . Knyphausen ’ s corps comprised some 6 , 000 men , comprising the 17th Regiment of Light Dragoons ; a detachment of the Royal Regiment of Artillery ; the British Guards Battalion ( a composite unit comprising detachments from the 1st Guards , Coldstream Guards and Scots Guards ) ; the British 22nd , 37th , 38th , 42nd ( Royal Highland ) , 43rd and 57th Regiments of Foot ; the Hessian Prince ' s own Leib - Regiment ; the Hessian Regiment von Donop ; the Hessian Corps of Jägers and three Loyalist regiments : the Queen ' s Rangers and the 1st and 4th New Jersey Volunteers . At Springfield and Elizabethtown , barring Knyphausen ’ s path to Hobart Gap , Major General Nathanael Greene had 1 , 500 Continental troops and 500 New Jersey Militia . Greene ’ s Continentals comprised Brigadier General William Maxwell ’ s New Jersey Brigade ; Brigadier General John Stark ’ s under - strength brigade ( comprising the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment and a regiment each from Massachusetts and Connecticut ) and the 2nd Partisan Corps , commanded by Major Henry Lee and numbering 400 . British advance . At 5 a . m . on June 23 , Knyphausen ’ s force advanced for Elizabethtown Point , with the Queen ’ s Rangers and the New Jersey Volunteers in the vanguard . They overwhelmed the American outposts at Elizabethtown , capturing several men and three small cannons . Warned by retreating men , General Maxwell sent Colonel Elias Dayton ’ s 3rd New Jersey Regiment to guard the Galloping Hill Road and Henry Lee ’ s 2nd Partisan Corps to the Vauxhall Road . Soon afterwards , the advancing Loyalist troops engaged Maxwell , who fell back toward Connecticut Farms with the rest of his brigade . Meanwhile , General Greene ordered the planking to be destroyed on the Vauxhall and Galloping Hill bridges over the Rahway River . Greene ’ s dispositions . Greene organized his left wing , at the Galloping Hill Road , into four successive lines of defense . Connecticut Farms was to be held by Colonel Dayton ’ s 3rd New Jersey and some militia under Brigadier General Nathaniel Heard . Behind Dayton , Colonel Israel Angell with his 2nd Rhode Island Regiment , reduced by illness and expiring enlistments to only 160 men , was to defend the Galloping Hill Bridge . Behind Angell , at a bridge over the west branch of the Rahway , Greene positioned Colonel Israel Shreve and his 2nd New Jersey Regiment and , behind Shreve , Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson commanded a detachment of New Jersey Militia . On the American right wing , Greene reinforced Major Lee and his 2nd Partisan Corps at the Vauxhall Bridge with Colonel Matthias Ogden and his 1st New Jersey Regiment . In reserve , at Bryan ’ s Tavern up on the high ground of the Short Hills , Greene retained the rest of Maxwell ’ s and Stark ’ s brigades . The Galloping Hill Road . The New Jersey Volunteers under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Barton , now approached Connecticut Farms and engaged Dayton ’ s force , who were well positioned in an orchard and behind a thicket . Outnumbered more than two - to - one by the defenders , Barton ’ s men made little progress . However , Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe with his Queen ’ s Rangers outflanked the Americans on the left and attacked them from the rear . Dayton and Heard ’ s men were quickly swept away and Connecticut Farms was in British hands . Heard and some of his militiamen retired northward and reinforced the defenders of the Vauxhall Bridge . Knyphausen now diverted the Queen ’ s Rangers , the New Jersey Volunteers , the Guards Battalion and most of his other British troops from the Galloping Hill Road northward to the Vauxhall Road , in the hope of outflanking the defenders of the Galloping Hill Bridge . Meanwhile , Knyphausen himself advanced on the bridge with 3 , 000 men , comprising the British 37th and 38th regiments and most of the German troops . At the Galloping Hill Bridge , Knyphausen bombarded Colonel Angell ’ s defenders with six cannon , which the Americans answered with their only available gun . As the American artillery ran low on wadding , James Caldwell , the Continental Army chaplain who had lost his wife during the Battle of Connecticut Farms , brought up a load of hymn books published by English clergyman Isaac Watts to use instead . “ Give ‘ em Watts , boys ! ” , he advised . After heavy exchanges of fire and two unsuccessful attempts to charge the bridge , the British 37th and 38th regiments and the Hessian Jägers forded the Rahway and , in twenty - five minutes of tree - to - tree fighting in the woods , drove the Rhode Islanders back to the bridge over the west branch of the Rahway defended by Shreve and his 2nd New Jersey Regiment . The British quickly followed up the retreat , driving back Shreve and Angell , who only narrowly foiled an attempt to outflank them by the British 38th Regiment and the Jägers . Recognizing the danger of Shreve and Angell being encircled , Greene recalled them to Bryant ’ s Tavern ; abandoning Springfield to the enemy . i The Vauxhall Road . As directed by Knyphausen , Major General Edward Mathew had left the Galloping Hill Road and crossed northward to the Vauxhall Road . Halting on a height above the Vauxhall Bridge , he bombarded its defenders with his artillery until 11 a . m . , when he attacked , with the Queen ’ s Rangers and New Jersey Volunteers fording the Rahway on either side of the bridge . Major Lee and his detachment made a fighting retreat of almost two miles to the upper west branch of the Rahway and positioned his men in echelons , so that they could fire out of the woods onto the road . They were soon joined by the advancing Loyalist troops , who assailed them from front and flank , driving them back again ; this time all the way to the slopes of the Short Hills . Here , they were reinforced by the 400 men of General Stark ’ s two Continental regiments and a cannon . This , and the presence of an increasing number of militia gathering on the slopes of Newark Mountain , persuaded General Mathew to halt his advance . As the militiamen began to engage Colonel Barton ’ s New Jersey Volunteers , Mathew became concerned about the possibility of a counter - attack on his flank by Washington ’ s main army , and he turned his column back southward to the Galloping Hill Road to rejoin Knyphausen . British withdrawal . When Mathew ’ s column reached the Galloping Hill Road , they joined Knyphausen in Springfield . Knyphausen ordered Mathew to capture the Heights of Springfield to the northwest of the town . Mathew sent forward Lieutenant Colonel Edward Thomas with the Guards Battalion , who stormed the heights , routing the militia defenders . This was as far as the British advance was ever to get . Having failed to clear his path to Hobart Gap , Knyphausen was disheartened by the numbers of New Jersey Militia who were gathering on the Short Hills and he decided to call off the attack and return to Elizabethtown Point . Knyphausen ordered the New Jersey Volunteers to burn down Springfield . Four houses belonging to known Loyalists were spared but every other building in the town was razed to the ground . The British withdrew in two columns , one taking the Galloping Hill Road , the other the Vauxhall Road . The column that took the Galloping Hill Road came under constant sniping fire from New Jersey militiamen in the woods and incurred substantial casualties . The Hessian Jägers were detailed for the rear guard but found themselves low on ammunition . They suffered five men killed and another five captured during the withdrawal . They were relieved as rearguard by the 37th Regiment , who had more success in fending off the militia . The column on the Vauxhall Road had their flanks and rear guarded by the Queen ’ s Rangers , who foiled most of the militia ’ s attempts at ambush . At midnight on June 23 , Kyphausen led his division back over a bridge of boats from Elizabethtown Point to Staten Island . Casualties . The British loss for the expedition that included the Battle of Connecticut Farms on June 7 as well as the engagement of June 23 was 25 killed , 234 wounded and 48 missing . 85 of these casualties were Hessian Jaegers . The Continental troops lost thirteen killed , 49 wounded and nine missing on June 23 ; of whom six killed , 31 wounded and three missing were from Angell ’ s Rhode Island Regiment . Thomas Fleming says that the " Pennsylvania Packet " of July 8 , 1780 reported that the militia casualties for the whole period of June 7 – 23 were ten killed , forty wounded and ten prisoners . Including the Continental Army losses on June 7 , which were twelve killed , fifty wounded and thirteen missing , the combined American casualties for June 7 and June 23 were 35 killed , 139 wounded , ten prisoners and 22 missing . Aftermath . This was one of the last major engagements of the Revolutionary War in the north and effectively put an end to British ambitions in New Jersey . Because the decisive battles of the war moved further south , Springfield became known as the " forgotten victory . " Washington praised the role of the New Jersey Militia in the battle , writing , “ They flew to arms universally and acted with a spirit equal to anything I have seen in the course of the war ” . A little less than a month later , the minor Battle of Bull ' s Ferry was fought . The river crossings where American forces put up their defense were near today ' s intersection between Vauxhall Road and Millburn Avenue ; and Morris Avenue near Washington Avenue .