A small place in a large campaign
The Revolutionary War did not center on the village at Cooper’s Ferry. The key events of the war in this region took place in the Philadelphia campaign of 1777 and 1778, when the British tried to take the largest city in the colonies and the American side tried to hold the Delaware River approaches. The New Jersey shore opposite Philadelphia was caught up in it, as a staging ground, a supply area and a stretch of contested riverbank. It is best understood as part of that bigger picture.
The road to Philadelphia
In 1776 the colonies declared independence in Philadelphia, which was also the seat of the Continental Congress. In the summer of 1777 the British commander, General William Howe, took an army by sea from New York to the head of Chesapeake Bay and marched toward Philadelphia. After defeating the Americans at Brandywine in September, British forces entered Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, and Congress had already left the city.
Holding Philadelphia, however, required control of the river. Supplies for a large army were much easier to bring by water than overland, and the Delaware was the channel. That is why the forts and obstructions on the river became central.
The Delaware forts and Red Bank
The Americans defended the river with fortifications and with underwater barriers of timber and iron-tipped spars known as chevaux-de-frise, which were designed to block or damage ships. Fort Mifflin stood on an island on the Pennsylvania side, and Fort Mercer stood on the New Jersey bank at Red Bank, downriver from Camden in what is now National Park, in Gloucester County.
In October 1777 a force of Hessian troops serving the British attacked Fort Mercer and was repulsed in the Battle of Red Bank, on October 22. Fort Mifflin held out under bombardment for several weeks more but was abandoned in mid-November, and Fort Mercer was given up shortly afterward as the British brought up reinforcements. With the forts gone, the British could open the river to supply ships. The positions were also tied to the larger issue of river navigation, since the strategy depended on tides, channels and the placement of obstructions. Today, the site of the Red Bank action is among the region’s historic landmarks, and readers should check current sources for access and hours.
Life on the Jersey shore
The British occupied Philadelphia through the winter of 1777 and 1778, while the main American army camped at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. Across the Delaware, the New Jersey side saw foraging parties, militia activity and skirmishes as each side sought food, forage and information. Farms like those behind Cooper’s Ferry were vulnerable to requisition and raiding, and civilians suffered losses. The details of individual incidents near Camden are often told in local tradition with varying accuracy, so specific claims should be checked against documents.
Local loyalties were mixed. Some residents supported independence, others stayed loyal to the Crown, and many tried to avoid involvement. Quakers, who were numerous in West Jersey, held pacifist beliefs and often refused to take part in the fighting or to support either army with money or service, which put some of them in difficult positions with neighbors and authorities.
The British departure
In June 1778 the British decided to leave Philadelphia and return to New York. Instead of sailing, the army crossed the Delaware into New Jersey, at a point just downriver from Camden near Gloucester, and marched across the state. The American army followed, and the two forces fought at Monmouth on June 28, 1778. The crossing meant that tens of thousands of people, soldiers and followers, passed through South Jersey in a short period, with the burden falling on the communities along the way.
Afterward
The war continued for years elsewhere, ending with the 1783 peace treaty. For the Delaware shore the main long-term effects were economic and social: damage to farms, disruption of trade, and the transition from colony to state. The ferry business, the farms supplying Philadelphia, and the plans for a village at the landing all resumed. Philadelphia remained the nation’s capital for part of the 1790s, and the connection between the city and the New Jersey shore across the water continued to deepen.
How to explore further
Readers interested in the war in this region can look for sources on the Philadelphia campaign generally, and on the forts at Red Bank and Fort Mifflin in particular. Contemporary newspaper accounts, now in digitized newspaper archives, and soldiers’ letters supply details, though they were often biased. The towns downriver and nearby, covered in the account of neighboring towns, share much of this history. For the wider story of the river itself, see the Delaware River.