Battle of Princeton

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Battle of Princeton

The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton
by John Trumbull.

Date	January 3, 1777
Location	Princeton, New Jersey
Result	Tactical American Victory

Combatants

United States

Great Britain

Commanders

George Washington

Charles Cornwallis
Charles Mawhood

Strength

4,600

1,200 (Rearguard of main force)

Casualties

30 dead (including General Mercer and Colonel Haslet)
75 wounded

18 dead
58 wounded
200 captured

New York and New Jersey, 1776–1777
Long Island – Kip's Bay – Harlem Heights – Pell's Point – White Plains – Fort Washington – 1st Trenton – 2nd Trenton – Princeton – Forage War – Bound Brook

The Battle of Princeton was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought near Princeton, New Jersey, on January 3, 1777. The site is administered as a state park operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.

1 Background
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 External links

[edit] Background

In the night after the Second Battle of Trenton, General Washington's army silently slipped away from Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis and his troops. Washington left behind several soldiers to tend to large campfires, to disguise the departure of the American troops.

Throughout the night, the army marched over a back road toward Princeton and reached the Quaker Bridge over Stony Brook, about six miles south of town. The Quaker Bridge was not strong enough to support the army’s cannon and ammunition carts, so another bridge had to be built quickly. While the bridge was being constructed, Washington reformed his army, and then split it into two parts—the smaller left wing under General Nathaniel Greene and the larger right wing under General John Sullivan. Washington had intended to attack Princeton before dawn, but the sun was rising.

Greene’s assignment was to advance to the Princeton-Trenton highway to stop its traffic and destroy its bridge over Stony Brook. Sullivan’s division, the main attack force, moved toward the rear of Princeton College. The British were known to have outposts on the roads to the north, east and west, but an abandoned road went into town from the west, which Sullivan took.

[edit] Battle

Before Greene’s division, about 3,400 strong, reached the highway, the leading brigade, 1,200 men under General Hugh Mercer of Virginia encountered elements of the British 4th brigade, about 800 strong, consisting of the 17th Foot, the 55th Foot, and a troop of the 16th Light Dragoons, as well as 2 light guns, under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood of the 17th. This group was marching from Princeton to Trenton to reinforce General Leslie's 2nd Brigade. The last unit of the 4th Brigade, the 40th Foot, was left to hold Princeton with another 400 men.

Upon seeing the American force, Mawhood formed up his men across the edge of an orchard which Mercer's troops were passing through. A violent firefight developed, and Mawhood launched an assault which largely cleared the orchard of Mercer's troops, who began to retreat in confusion. General Mercer was wounded but refused to surrender. When he tried to attack the enemy with his sword, he was bayoneted until presumed dead; he died nine days later. Colonel John Haslet of Delaware replaced General Mercer and was killed by a shot to the head.

During this confusion, General Washington rode up to rally Mercer's men, while a fresh brigade of 2,100 troops under General John Cadwalader arrived with an artillery battery. With these reinforcements, Mercer's men were rallied, and the now much larger American force was able, by pressure of numbers, to retake most of the orchard, until fire from Mawhood's guns halted the American advance.

A second British assault cleared the orchard, and seemed about to win the day until Sullivan led up another 1,300 troops. Now outnumbered nearly 6 to 1, Mawhood led a final charge to break through American lines. The 17th, part of the 55th, and the Dragoons broke through, continuing down the road to Trenton, pursued by Washington, who broke off his pursuit when some of Leslie's troops came into sight. The remainder of the 55th fell back into Princeton, which, along with the 40th, they defended against Sullivan's force for a while, before retreating to New Brunswick. A number of troops were left behind in Princeton, and they surrendered to Captain Alexander Hamilton.

In Trenton, Cornwallis and his men awoke to the sounds of cannon fire coming from behind their position. Cornwallis and his army began to race to Princeton. However, Washington's rear guard had managed to damage the bridge over the Stony Brook, and American snipers further delayed Cornwallis' Army. The exhausted American Army slipped away, marching to Somerset County Courthouse (now Millstone), where they spent the night. When the main British force finally reached Princeton late in the day, they did not remain but continued in haste toward New Brunswick, New Jersey.

[edit] Aftermath

The Battle of Princeton Monument in Princeton Borough, NJ

After the battle, Cornwallis abandoned many of his posts in New Jersey, and ordered his army to retreat to New Brunswick. The battle at Princeton cost the British some 276 men killed, wounded or captured and greatly boosted the morale of the Continental troops, leading 8,000 new recruits to join the Continental Army.

However, it should also be noted that while the British were driven from the field, they were able to execute a textbook offensive breakout and managed to avoid destruction.

American historians and subsequent hagiographers often consider it a great victory on par with the battle of Trenton, due to the subsequent loss of control of most of New Jersey by the Crown forces as well as the important political implications of the battle across the Atlantic in France and Spain, both of which would expand their military aid to the Continental forces after the battle.

The site of the battlefield is south of Princeton and has become the Princeton Battlefield State Park. The wounded General Mercer reportedly rested under an oak tree on the battlefield. The county containing Princeton is now named for him and picture of the oak tree is on its seal. The old tree finally died in 2000 and a replacement grown from its acorns was planted on the site.

The 3rd Battalion/112th Field Artillery Regiment claims lineage from the Eastern Artillery Company of New Jersey which was assigned to Thomas Procter's 4th Continental Artillery Regiment which took part in battle of Princeton.