Fort Mercer

{{short description|Earthen fort on the Delaware River in New Jersey}}

{{distinguish||text=Fort Mercer in the video games Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 or Mercer's Fort in Pennsylvania}}

{{Infobox military installation

| name=Fort Mercer

| location=National Park, New Jersey

| partof=

| image= Red Bank Battle Monument, 1906, National Park, NJ.jpg

| image_size=

| caption=Monument in Fort Mercer, dedicated 1906

| pushpin_map = USA New Jersey Gloucester County#New Jersey#USA

| pushpin_mapsize = 250

| coordinates=

| type=Earthwork

| controlledby=

| built=1777

| builder=*Tadeusz Kościuszko (design)

Thomas Duplessis

| used=1777–1781

| materials=earth, logs

{{Infobox NRHP

| embed = yes

| name = Red Bank Battlefield

| nrhp_type = nhl

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| location = 100 Hessian Ave., National Park, NJ 08063

| coordinates =

| locmapin =

| map_width =

| built =

| architect =

| designated_nrhp_type = November 28, 1972{{Cite web |date=2008-06-23 |title=Red Bank Battlefield |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1238&ResourceType=Site |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225013440/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1238&ResourceType=Site |archive-date=2009-02-25 |website=National Historic Landmark summary listing |publisher=National Park Service}}

| added = October 31, 1972

| refnum = 72000796{{NRISref|version=2010a}}

| designated_other1_name = New Jersey Register of Historic Places

| designated_other1_abbr = NJRHP

| designated_other1_link = New Jersey Register of Historic Places

| designated_other1_date = August 16, 1979

| designated_other1_number = 1405{{Cite web |date=2010-04-01 |title=New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Gloucester County |url=http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/gloucester.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818091829/http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/gloucester.pdf |archive-date=2011-08-18 |access-date=2010-09-28 |publisher=New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office |page=6}}

| designated_other1_num_position = bottom

| designated_other1_color = #ffc94b

}}

| battles=American Revolutionary War

| past_commanders=Christopher Greene

| garrison=

}}

Fort Mercer was an earthen fort on the eastern shores of the Delaware River in New Jersey that was constructed by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The fort was built in 1777 by Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko under the command of George Washington. Along with Fort Mifflin on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River to its west, Fort Mercer was designed to block the British advance on the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia during the Philadelphia campaign.

Fort Mercer was located in an area called Red Bank in what is now the borough of National Park in Gloucester County, New Jersey. The fort was named in honor of Brigadier General Hugh Mercer who died earlier that year in fighting at the Battle of Princeton.

The fort's site is now part of Red Bank Battlefield Historical Park, which includes a monument and museum. Several cannons attributed to British warships lost supporting the attack on the fort, and others found buried at the fort itself, are in the park.{{Cite web |title=Fort Mercer |url=http://www.revolutionarywarnewjersey.com/new_jersey_revolutionary_war_sites/towns/national_park_nj_revolutionary_war_sites.htm |website=RevolutionaryWarNewJersey.com}}

Background

File:Red Banke. LOC gm71002224.tif

File:Fort-mercer-flag.svg]]

Fort Mercer was built and Fort Mifflin were rebuilt and garrisoned to protect a line of chevaux de frise obstacles across the Delaware River. Fort Billingsport was built downriver to protect another line of these obstacles. Fort Mercer had earthen walls with a surrounding ditch, topped with a log palisade. The fort was about {{convert|320|yd}} long and {{convert|50|yd}} wide and mounted 14 cannons, with bastions on the landward corners. A separate outer redoubt was located north of the fort, but this was not garrisoned.

The fort could accommodate a garrison of 1,500 men, but only 600 were available, mostly Rhode Island troops of the Continental Army commanded by Colonel Christopher Greene, also a Rhode Islander. French officer Thomas Duplessis made the fort more defensible by the small garrison by having a wall built inside the river side of the fort.

On October 22, 1777, in the Battle of Red Bank, an attack by 900 Hessian troops under British Major General William Howe, then occupying Philadelphia, was repelled by Fort Mifflin's defenders with heavy losses on the Hessian side, over 500 casualties including the death of their commander, Colonel Carl Emil Kurt von Donop. The defenders suffered only 40 casualties. Galleys of the Continental and Pennsylvania Navies under Commodore John Hazelwood provided supporting fire. Six British warships under the command of Admiral Francis Reynolds were also involved, two of which ran aground while avoiding the chevaux de frise and were soon destroyed by fire during the battle.

Fort Mifflin and the Pennsylvania Navy engaged the stranded ships the next morning, with cannons and fire rafts, respectively. {{HMS|Augusta|1763|6}} of 64 guns caught fire and within an hour the fire reached the magazine and the ship exploded, though the loss was attributed to accidental ignition by the British. One account states a British Marine accidentally fired his musket into a hammock, with the fire resulting from subsequent smoldering. {{HMS|Merlin|1757|6}} was also lost. After the later loss of Fort Mifflin, Fort Mercer was abandoned when Lord Charles Cornwallis landed 2,000 British troops nearby on November 18, 1777.

As British artillery breached the walls, the defenders of Fort Mercer blew up their magazine before abandoning the fort.{{Cite web |title=Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/colonials-patriots/sitee10.htm#2 |access-date=2007-09-24 |website=National Park Service}}{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Robert B. |title=Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States |publisher=Macmillan |year=1988 |isbn=0-02-926880-X |location=New York |pages=511–512}}{{Cite web |title=The story of the battle of Red Bank |url=http://friendsofredbank.weebly.com/the-story-of-the-battle-of-red-bank.html |access-date=2018-12-12 |website=friendsofredbank}}

The British abandoned Fort Mercer as they evacuated Philadelphia on June 18, 1778. The Patriots retook the site and rebuilt the fort, manning it until 1781, when the fighting moved to Yorktown, Virginia, culminating in an American victory and leading to the cessation of hostilities.{{Cite web |title=Fort Mercer |url=https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/njsouth.html#mercer |website=American Forts Network}}{{Cite web |title=Fort Mercer |url=http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Mercer |website=FortWiki.com}}