Battle of Red Bank The Battle of Red Bank ( October 22 , 1777 ) was a battle of the American Revolutionary War in which a Hessian force was sent to take Fort Mercer on the left bank ( or New Jersey side ) of the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia , but was decisively defeated by a far inferior force of Colonial defenders . Although the British did take Fort Mercer a month later , the victory supplied a sorely - needed morale boost to the American cause , delayed British plans to consolidate gains in Philadelphia , and relieved pressure on General Washington ' s army to the north of the city . Background . After the capture of Philadelphia on September 26 , 1777 , and of the failure of the American surprise attack against the British camp at the Battle of Germantown on October 4 , the Americans tried to deny the British use of the city by blockading the Delaware River . To that end , two forts were constructed commanding the river . One was Fort Mercer on the New Jersey side at Red Bank ( now National Park , New Jersey ) . The other was Fort Mifflin on Mud Island , in the Delaware River just south of the confluence of the Schuylkill River , on the Pennsylvania side opposite Fort Mercer . So long as the Americans held both forts , British navy ships could not reach Philadelphia to resupply the army . In addition to the forts , the Americans possessed a small flotilla of Continental Navy ships on the Delaware supplemented by the Pennsylvania State Navy , all under the command of Commodore John Hazelwood . On October 18 , General Sir William Howe , the commander of the British army , evacuated his camp at Germantown and pulled his forces inside the city of Philadelphia . He sent a part of his force to capture the two American forts denying him use of the Delaware River . Earlier , Howe had sent a group of men via Webb ' s Ferry , at the mouth of the Schuylkill River , to marshy Providence Island ( actually on the Pennsylvania mainland by Mud Island ) to construct artillery batteries to bombard Fort Mifflin . The first bombardment of Fort Mifflin came on October 11 . This was merely a desultory attack which convinced the British to expand and improve their batteries . Meanwhile , 2 , 000 Hessian troops under the command of Colonel Carl von Donop landed at Cooper ' s Ferry in Gloucester City , New Jersey , about four miles ( 6 km ) upriver from Fort Mercer , and made preparations to attack the fort , located on the high ground at Red Bank . Battle . Von Donop , whose attack had been repulsed at the Second Battle of Trenton , was eager to avenge what he considered to be a humiliation . He declared to his men : " Either the fort will be called Fort Donop , or I shall have fallen . " Von Donop divided his force into two groups totaling 1 , 200 men for a two - pronged attack upon the fort on the morning of October 22 . Von Donop and Hessian grenadier Lieutenant Colonel von Linsing were to attack the southern part of the fort , while Colonel Friedrich Ludwig von Minnigerode ' s grenadiers and Lieutenant Colonel Werner von Mirbach ' s infantry were to attack the northern and eastern approaches . With six British men - of - war in the river to support the attack , von Donop was convinced that the fort would be in his hands by nightfall . After a cannonade by the Hessian artillery , Linsing moved against the nine - foot - high southern parapet , and his men were cut down by devastating cannon and musket fire and were forced to retreat . On the north , Minnigerode ' s grenadiers managed to scale the ramparts of an abandoned section of the fort . But when they moved on they were confronted by a tangled mass of felled trees with pointed branches , a kind of abatis , protecting the main wall of the fort . With little in the way of proper tools , they were soon spotted trying to claw their way through the barricade and were fired upon by the Americans waiting for them on the other side . Suffering heavy casualties , the Hessians began to retreat , falling back to their camp ten miles ( 16 km ) away in the village of Haddonfield which they had taken after landing at nearby Cooper ' s Ferry . Von Donop was wounded in the thigh during the southern attack and was left on the battlefield by his retreating troops . Mortally wounded , von Donop died three days later in the Whitall House , a farmhouse just outside the southern works of the fort between the fort and Woodbury Creek . To make matters worse for the British and Hessians , the six British men - of - war were engaged by smaller American gunboats . During the engagement , two of the ships , the 64 - gun Ship - of - the - Line " Augusta " and the sloop of war " Merlin " ran aground on a shoal trying to avoid a series of underwater obstacles called chevaux - de - frise or stockades , which were rows of large wooden spears weighted down on the bottom of the river by heavy crates filled with rocks , designed to pierce the hulls of intruding British warships . The next morning , unable to drag the " Merlin " off the shoal and not wanting to let the ship fall into American hands , the British set fire to the ship , while the " Augusta " was set on fire by American batteries from Fort Mifflin . The " Augusta " exploded the next day . Aftermath . The Hessian army reported casualties of 377 killed and wounded with 20 missing or captured , while the Americans reported their losses at 14 killed and 27 wounded . Frustrated by the failure to capture Fort Mercer , Howe ordered the Hessian regiments withdrawn from New Jersey while he made plans to attack Fort Mifflin by a massive artillery bombardment . By early November the British artillery batteries on Providence Island were complete , and a number of warships were available in support . On November 10 , 1777 , the British opened a full - scale bombardment of Fort Mifflin which lasted for five days . Six British warships , with two small floating batteries , the " Vigilant " and the " Fury " , also joined the bombardment to rake Fort Mifflin at close range . After five days , on November 15 , the commanding officer of Fort Mifflin , Major Simeon Thayer , with 250 reported casualties among his 400 men and with ammunition running low , abandoned the fort that evening , leaving the American flag flying , and evacuated his men to Fort Mercer . The next morning a small party of British troops landed unopposed at deserted Fort Mifflin , hauled down the American flag , and ran up the British Union Jack atop the ruined fort . The bombardment of Fort Mifflin cost the British only a reported 13 sailors and troops killed with 24 wounded , with some damage done to some of their warships and land batteries . Howe then sent Lord Cornwallis with 5 , 000 men to attack Fort Mercer , landing them by ferry at Billingsport , three miles ( 5 km ) to the south . Rather than let the garrison be captured in an overwhelming British assault , Colonel Christopher Greene decided to abandon the fort on November 20 , leaving the British to occupy it the following day . George Washington ' s scheme of starving the British out of Philadelphia had failed with the loss of the two forts . His only hope now was to lure the British out of Philadelphia into another major land battle at his camp at nearby White Marsh . Although Howe did sortie from the city to launch a feint at the American camp in early December , he felt the American position was too strong and retired to Philadelphia for the rest of the winter . Washington then moved his army to Valley Forge for the winter . Today . Today the site of the Battle of Red Bank is a part of the Gloucester County Parks system called Red Bank Battlefield Park . The park is open to visitors during daylight hours . The Whitall House may be visited during more limited hours . An annual reenactment of the battle takes place on the park grounds in October . In the early 1980s , a lifeguard was on duty and swimming was permitted in the Delaware River . See also . Fort Billingsport