Belleville's Mike Perrone shares the story of the Revolutionary War Battle of Second River, which is now Belleville and Nutley, and invites people to remember on the morning of July 4th.
It was the only battle fought in Essex County during the American Revolution. New Jersey was for the most part a loyalist area, especially during the first few years of the war when the British were crushing the American patriots. But Second River, today's Belleville/Nutley was predominantly Dutch and strongly anti-British.
In 1776, during General George Washington's retreat, it was the militia at Second River that fought alongside the Continental Army's rear guard to protect Washington's retreating army from the persuing British General Cornawallis.
And a year later on the morning of Sept. 12, 1777, British General Sir Henry Clinton, commanding the 71st Royal Infantry Regiment, appeared on the Hills of Schuyler, now the Belleville Turnpike in North Arlington, overlooking the village of Second River.
Two British cannon were pointed at the village center and opened fire. The alarm from the Old Dutch Church was sounded, the church bells tolled and a blast was fired from the lookout's mortar.
The local men of the Second Essex Regiment quickly assembled and formed a line of defense in front of the Old Dutch Church and the village cannon was rolled into position.
The 600 British troops marched down Schuyler's Road, now Belleville Turnpike but then a cedar plank road that had been built to serve the busy copper mine there at the time.
By noon the American forces in Second River had been reinforced by militiamen from Union and Morris counties, who brought a second cannon, and then shortly thereafter by General William Winding and the Continental Army with a third cannon.
Unable to cross the river with such opposition, General Clinton dispatched a messenger to British Brigadier General John Campbell who had arrived in Elizabeth that same day to march with due haste to Second River with the 7th, 26th, and 52 Regiments and two companies of grenadiers.
On Sept. 14 the British forces attacked the new American position with orders to capture the three cannons. The day’s fighting was a draw and on the evening of Sept. 14 the vastly outnumbered Americans disappeared with their guns into the western hills.
The British returned to New York and General Clinton's report of the battle to British Commander-in-Chief General Howe was published in London in October 1777. The British casualties were eight men killed, one officer and 18 men wounded, nine men and one drummer boy missing, five men taken prisoner.
Two Americans were killed.
More than 20,000 Americans were killed during the Revolutionary War. When one considers that there were less than two million people living in the country at that time, it becomes one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. Those casualties, one percent of the population, would be equivalent to three million today!
More than 60 Revolutionary War soldiers are buried in the churchyard of the Old Dutch Reformed Church adjacent to the Belleville's Passaic River bridge. The same men who fought the British in front of the church in 1777, Captains Hornblower, Joralemon, Rutgers, Stevens, Van Cortland.
They are not just the names of streets, they were real patriots. The Belleville Historical Society invites the public to join us at 10 a.m. on the morning of the 4th of July for our annual morning ceremony honoring our first Americans.
The 45-minute ceremony includes the Roll Call of the Troops, the Raising of the Colors, the National Anthem and concludes with a 21-gun cannon salute.For more information please call Michael Perrone at (973) 780-7852 or email bell1776patriots@yahoo.com
http://www.bellevillesons.com/bel_amrev.html
Comment by John Dalton:
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph right next to the picture - where the Americans built a fortification - was right behind my house. I lived on Wilson Place which was an entrance to the park. Mill Street above Union Avenue was the view from the our back windows. We were on the hill overlooking the Second River.
For all of these years I thought it was just the cherry blossoms and the many hours of baseball my dad and I played in the park that made it special. Now I have another story of my youth to tell my 4 kids and 11 grandchildren about Belleville.
John Dalton