In November 1977, the British Army troops and Hessian mercenaries were fully encamped in Gloucester Town along the Delaware River waterfront, complete with cattle, artillery, dragoons and provisions.
Their camp was bounded by current day Market Street, Broadway and the Walt Whitman Bridge during the Philadelphia campaign when the English captured the rebel capital.
On the morning of November 25, 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette gathered a force of 150 Morgan’s Riflemen under Colonel Richard Butler, another 150 or more members of the New Jersey militia and ten Continental Light Dragoons.
They marched from down the King’s Road from Haddonfield toward Gloucester Town to attack a picket post of 350 Hessian riflemen. The first encounter in the Battle of Gloucester occurred near Haddon Lake Park on Kings Highway and the Continental Army pushed the Hessians back through Mount Ephraim and all the way to the current intersection of Route 130 and Market Street near Gloucester City High School.
“Most of the Hessians were green recruits. Attacked by the battle-hardened Continentals, the jager ranks crumbled and they fled back towards the Gloucester Town encampment. Twice the British light infantry reinforced the jagers, but by sunset Lafayette pushed them back over two miles,” wrote Garry Wheeler Stone and Paul W. Schopp in “Living in a War Zone, Camden County, New Jersey, 1777-78.”
A key to the victory were the sharpshooters and frontiersmen from Morgan’s Rifle Corps, formed by General Daniel Morgan. They used the Pennsylvania rifle, which was far superior to muskets in hitting targets at a great distance.
One of the greatest commanders under General George Washington, Morgan’s snipers helped the Continental Army win the Battle of Saratoga. On January 17, 1781, Morgan formulated a great battle plan to defeat the British at the Battle of Cowpens, which is considered the turning point in the Revolutionary War.
Two days after the Battle of Gloucester, Morgan’s Riflemen attacked the British and Hessian forces as they evacuated Gloucester Town on their way through New Jersey to New York City. The Royal Navy responded by bombarding the town while their soldiers were leaving. The story of the Battle of Gloucester will be told at the American Revolution Museum of Southern New Jersey at the Benjamin Cooper Tavern in Camden with a display created by the Camden County Historical Society. The museum is set to open before July 4, 2026 – the 250th anniversary of the United States.
