during the Battle of Red Bank After the British capture of
Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, and 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. Two forts were constructed to command the Delaware River:
Fort Mercer on the
New Jersey side at
Red Bank in what was then part of
Deptford Township and is now the borough of
National Park. The second was
Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, in the Delaware River just south of the Delaware River's confluence with the
Schuylkill River, on the
Pennsylvania side opposite Fort Mercer. As long as the Continental Army held both forts, British navy ships could not reach Philadelphia to resupply their army. In addition to the forts, the Americans possessed a small flotilla of
Continental Navy ships on the Delaware River supplemented by the
Pennsylvania State Navy. The flotilla consisted of
sloops,
schooners,
galleys, an assortment of floating batteries and fourteen old vessels laden with barrels of tar to be used as a means of defending the river. The fleet was armed with about one hundred cannon total, under the overall command of Commodore
John Hazelwood. The fleet of
Admiral Howe's consisted of eight or nine war vessels and several transports. His vessels were fully manned, with 285 guns on the war vessels alone. On just two of the vessels stranded in the river, Howe commanded more officers and men than Commodore Hazelwood had in his entire fleet. 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. At Cooper's Ferry in
Camden, New Jersey, 2,000 Hessian mercenary troops under the command of Colonel
Carl von Donop landed about from Fort Mercer, and made preparations to attack the fort, located on the high ground at Red Bank. The fort was garrisoned with four hundred men with fourteen pieces of cannon, and were reported to have not been intimidated. At 4 p.m. Donop sent an officer and a drummer with a flag and summons to surrender with the ultimatum, "The King of England orders his rebellious subjects to lay down their arms", and warned that, if they stand the battle, no quarter whatever would be given, to which
Colonel Greene promptly replied, "We ask no quarter, nor will we give any". The garrison at the fort replied that they would defend the fort to the last man. Since it was ascertained that the fort was lightly garrisoned, Donop decided to attack directly, and declared "We'll change the name from Fort Red Bank to Fort Donop." ==Battle==