Battle of Cooch ' s Bridge The Battle of Cooch ' s Bridge , also known as the Battle of Iron Hill , was a skirmish fought on September 3 , 1777 , between American militia and primarily German soldiers serving alongside the British Army during the American Revolutionary War . It was the only significant military action during the war in the state of Delaware , and took place about a week before the major Battle of Brandywine . After landing in Maryland on August 25 as part of a campaign to capture Philadelphia , the seat of the Continental Congress , British and German forces under the overall command of General William Howe began to move north . Their advance was monitored by a light infantry corps of Continental Army and militia forces that had based itself at Cooch ' s Bridge , near Newark , Delaware . On September 3 , German troops leading the British advance were met by musket fire from the American light infantry in the woods on either side of the road leading toward Cooch ' s Bridge . Calling up reinforcements , they flushed the Americans out and drove them across the bridge . Background . After having successfully captured New York City in 1776 , British military planners organized two expeditions to divide the Thirteen Colonies and , they hoped , decisively end the rebellion . One expedition was to take control of the Hudson River by a descent from Quebec , while the other was targeted at the colonial capital , Philadelphia . In pursuit of the latter objective , Lieutenant General William Howe embarked an army numbering about 18 , 000 ( plus about 5 , 000 camp followers ) onto transports in late July 1777 , and sailed from New York City to the Chesapeake Bay . The Continental Army of Major General George Washington remained near New York until Howe ' s objective became clear . Howe ' s plan was gauged to the south , intending to move against Philadelphia via the Chesapeake . Washington marched his army , numbering about 16 , 000 , through Philadelphia , and established a camp at Wilmington , Delaware . Riding further south and west to perform reconnaissance on August 26 , Washington learned that the British had landed . On August 25 Howe ' s army disembarked below a small town called Head of Elk ( now known as Elkton , and located at the head of navigation of the Elk River ) in Maryland , about south of Philadelphia . Due to the relatively poor quality of the landing area , his troops moved immediately to the north , reaching Head of Elk itself on August 28 . Advance troops consisting of British light infantry and German jäger s went east across Elk Creek and occupied Gray ' s Hill , about one mile ( 1 . 6 km ) west of Iron Hill , near Cooch ' s Bridge , which was a few miles south of Newark . The bridge was named for Thomas Cooch , a local landowner whose house was near the bridge . Washington would normally have assigned the duties of advance guard to Daniel Morgan and his riflemen , but he had detached these to assist Horatio Gates in the defense of the Hudson River valley against the advance of General John Burgoyne . Since they were unavailable , he organized a light infantry corps consisting of 700 picked men from Continental Army regiments and about 1 , 000 Pennsylvania and Delaware militia , and placed them under the command of Brigadier General William Maxwell . These troops occupied Iron Hill and Cooch ' s Bridge , and Maxwell sent out patrols to monitor British movements . Maxwell ' s men were encamped on either side of the road leading south from Cooch ' s Bridge toward Aiken ' s Tavern ( present - day Glasgow , Delaware ) in a series of small camps designed to facilitate ambushes . On August 28 Washington , atop Iron Hill , and Howe , on Gray ' s Hill , observed each other as they took stock of the enemy ' s position ; one of the Hessian generals wrote , " These gentlemen observed us with their glasses as carefully as we observed them . Those of our officers who know Washington well , maintained that the man in the plain coat was Washington . " On September 2 , Howe ' s right wing , under the command of the Hessian General Wilhelm von Knyphausen , left Cecil County Court House and headed north , hampered by rain and bad roads . Early the next morning , Howe ' s left wing , headed by troops under the command of Charles Cornwallis , left Head of Elk , expecting to join with Knyphausen ' s division at Aiken ' s Tavern , about east of Head of Elk . Cornwallis reached the tavern first , and Howe , traveling with Cornwallis , decided to press on to the north without waiting for Knyphausen . Battle . A small company of Hessian dragoon s led by Captain Johann Ewald headed up the road from the tavern toward Cooch ' s Bridge as Cornwallis ' s advance guard . These were struck by a volley of fire from an American ambush , and many of them fell , either killed or wounded . Ewald did not , and he quickly alerted the Hessian and Ansbach jägers , who rushed forward to meet the Americans . This began a running skirmish that Major John André described as follows : " Here the rebels began to attack us about 9 o ' clock with a continued irregular fire for nearly two miles . " The jägers , about 300 men led by Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig von Wurmb , formed a line and , with the support of some artillery , advanced on the Americans . Von Wurmb sent one detachment to Maxwell ' s left , hoping to flank his position , and supported the move with a bayonet charge against the American center . Maxwell fell back , avoiding the flanking maneuver , and the battle dissolved into a running skirmish as the Americans retreated . The battle lasted for much of the day ; at Cooch ' s Bridge , Maxwell ' s men made a stand until they " had shot themselves out of ammunition " and " the fight was carried on with the sword " and bayonet ( the latter being a weapon Maxwell ' s militia lacked experience in using ) . The Americans eventually retreated across Cooch ' s Bridge , taking up a position on the far side . Von Wurmb and the jägers stopped their pursuit at Cooch ' s Bridge , and occupied Iron Hill . A battalion of British light infantry that had been sent across the Christina River in an attempt to flank Maxwell ' s force became mired in swampy terrain , but emerged in time to help dislodge the Americans from that position . The militia retreated back toward the main Continental Army camp near Wilmington . Casualty reports for the British range from 3 killed and 20 wounded to about 30 each killed and wounded . One British deserter reported that nine wagonloads of wounded were sent toward the fleet . The Americans claimed 20 killed and another 20 wounded , and Washington in a letter to Congress said the losses were " not very considerable " ; however , the British reported burying 41 Americans , and Howe ' s official report claimed " not less than fifty killed and many more wounded . " General Maxwell was criticized for his leadership by a number of Washington ' s subordinates . One foreign officer with service in the army of Prussia commented to Henry Laurens in reference to Maxwell , " Your Soldiers are very good Mans , so good as any brave Mans in the World , but your Officers my Dear Colonel , your Officers . . . " Aftermath . This was the only battle of the revolutionary war that was fought in Delaware . General Cornwallis occupied the house of Thomas Cooch for a time . The British continued their advance toward Philadelphia , and the two armies clashed again in the major Battle of Brandywine on September 11 . The British victory in that battle paved the way for their eventual entry into and occupation of the city of Philadelphia . This success was more than offset by the failure of the expedition to the Hudson , in which General Burgoyne surrendered his army after the Battles of Saratoga , in October 1777 . News of Burgoyne ' s surrender greatly changed the war , because it ( and the Battle of Germantown , fought after the British occupied Philadelphia ) was a major factor in France ' s decision to enter the war as an American ally in 1778 . Legacy . The site of the battle has been preserved as the Cooch ' s Bridge Historic District , and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . In 2003 , the Cooch family sold the state some land as well as development rights for an additional of land in the area of the battlefield . They also established a $ 1 . 5 million fund to restore and maintain the property , and granted the state a right of first refusal to purchase the Thomas Cooch house , which remained with the family . In 2007 , the 230th anniversary of the battle was commemorated by a re - enactment event hosted by members of the recreated 2nd Virginia Regiment .