Background
Nestled at the start of the Watchung Mountains in New Jersey is the colonial town of Middlebrook. During the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies, Middlebrook was a small village northwest of Bound Brook. Although the village of Middlebrook no longer exists, it has been absorbed into the town of Bound Brook. During the American Revolution, this small farming community sat along the route of two armies engaged in more than just a fight for a continent – it was a struggle for ideas. For the Continentals, it was a fight for a new nation and a new concept of government. For the British Army, it was a fight to preserve the old order and the rights of a King.
Good ground
| Gen Washington at Princeton |
General George Washington had marched past Middlebrook after the Battle of Princeton on his way to Morristown in January 1777. Its advantage as a strategic position did not go unnoticed by the former surveyor. Late in the spring of 1777, Washington moved his small army of about 7,000 from their winter encampment at Morristown to Middlebrook Heights.
Why? The ground was good, enabling the Americans to observe the British troops at New Brunswick and Perth Amboy. He moved Anthony Wayne's Brigade onto the forward slopes to defend the approaches to the pass. The Americans fortified the already defensible terrain. From these positions, Washington could keep watch on the British garrisons in New York and New Brunswick. But even better, it gave him a position to flank the British if they attempted to cross New Jersey to Philadelphia.
Battleground
However, the British also recognized the strategic advantages of the positions around Middlebrook for the rebels. So on the night of June 13th, 1777, General Lord Cornwallis moved out of New Brunswick, hoping to lure Washington out of his Middlebrook defenses into the open flat land for battle. With Hessians leading his columns, Cornwallis launched a four-pronged attack on the village. Washington responded, but not in the way the British had hoped.
The commander-in-chief sent the militia, reinforced with some Continentals, to harass the enemy columns. However, most of the Continental Army stayed in their secure positions. By the end of June, a frustrated Cornwallis and his British forces retreated to Staten Island. The British maintained ground near New Brunswick, the Amboys, and at Paulhus Hook (Jersey City), but much of the rest of Jersey was a no man's land where Loyalist and Patriot factions, militias, and criminal elements from both sides fought. Middlebrook was at a critical point in this no man's land.
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| Lord Cornwallis |
Observation point
The attack on Middlebrook, along with other forays and feints, caused General Howe to change his strategy. The British commander-in-chief launched a naval operation toward the Chesapeake to capture the rebel capital at Philadelphia from the south. Most of the British regiments left their fortress in New York for a combined sea-land campaign aimed at driving the rebels from their capital, but they left British General Burgoyne's army to struggle in the wilderness of upstate New York.
Thus, the small engagement at Middlebrook played a crucial role in a chain of events that helped alter the course of the war. Recognizing the need for a new plan for the 1778 summer campaign, the British abandoned Philadelphia and again focused on New York. Washington struck from the rear, and the largest pitched battle of the American Revolution took place at Monmouth. When the British column retreated to its secure zone around New York and nearby areas, Washington once more used the Middlebrook region as a base to observe and threaten the British.
Winter Encampment
In November 1778, George Washington once again moved the army back to the Middlebrook area. It provided a natural defensive position and allowed him to monitor the British foothold in New Jersey. Washington established his headquarters at the Wallace House in what is now Somerville.
The main army, made up of brigades from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, along with the Delaware regiment, the artillery corps, and support units, camped along the base of the Watchung Mountains. There, they benefited from some shelter from the weather, abundant trees for construction and firewood, and support from a mostly patriotic local population and an active militia. Fortunately, the winter was relatively mild. The Continental Army stayed at the second Middlebrook encampment until late June 1779. That winter at Middlebrook would later be known for a symbolic event.
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First Flag
There is an interesting footnote to the story of Middlebrook. On June 14, 1777, Congress adopted the Flag Resolution, establishing the famous Betsy Ross flag as the national flag of the United States. An official flag was brought from Philadelphia to be flown at the Middlebrook encampment before the soldiers took the field for the summer campaign season.
In an act of great symbolism for the young and struggling nation, the first thirteen-star American flag was flown at an American army base. One wonders what the beleaguered but determined soldiers would think if they could see into a future where their descendants would champion the very ideas they fought for in campaigns across the globe. Or a future in which the flag they flew over Middlebrook would be flown as a symbol of liberty at hundreds of army bases across the yet unexplored continent and later on scores of foreign shores.
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| Flag at Middlebrook Encampment |
