As a part of his effort to clear the Delaware River forts to allow water-borne supplies to reach his army in Philadelphia, General William Howe ordered 1,500 Hessians, under Colonel Karl Emit Kurt Von Donop, to seize Fort Mercer near Red Bank, New Jersey. Von Donop underestimated the tenacity of the 600 Continentals under Colonel Christopher Greene defending Fort Mercer. The revolutionaries had dug trenches, set up abatis, built parapets, and created a formidable fortress. Recognizing that the initial fortifications were too expansive for the number of men he had available, Greene had also built an inner wall on the northern side of the fort. Expecting to overrun the revolutionaries, Von Donop attacked from three sides. He led the assault on the north face, clamored over the outer wall, only to discover the Continentals defending the inner wall. The space between the two lines of defense became a killing ground for the Hessians as they were mowed down by Greene’s protected troops. Von Donop was mortally wounded and his men soon scrambled back across the outer wall in retreat. The attacks on the other two sides did not fare any better, as the defensive position proved too strong. The Hessians lost 400 men killed and wounded; the revolutionaries had 14 killed and 23 wounded. A month later the Continental army had to abandon Fort Mercer after the British pounded nearby Fort Mifflin into ruins.
Further reading: Stephen R. Taaffe, The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777-1778 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2003).
Red Jacket (Sagoyewatha) (1750?-1830) Iroquois League spokesman and diplomat After the Revolutionary War (1775-83), Red Jacket led the diplomatic struggle to keep the young United States from swallowing all of the Iroquois territory. His arguments for resisting the ever-increasing pressure of the settlers were heard in numerous tribal conferences at the close of the 18th century.
Red Jacket first appeared in historical records as a courier for the British during the Revolutionary War. A British officer took a liking to the young man and gave him a red coat as a gift. Through the years, Sagoyewatha acquired similar coats and made them his trademark. He defended his homeland against the Continental army led by General John Sullivan in 1779. There is little information to distinguish him as a warrior. Red Jacket said that he considered himself an orator and not much of a fighter. He was reputed to be physically weak.
After the war, the state of New York was anxious to exert its authority over the western counties that made up the Iroquois Nation. Massachusetts claimed this same region as its own. Without a strong central government to resolve the disputes, New Yorkers decided the best way to solve the problem was to “extinguish” the property rights of the Native Americans there.
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) was the first of the postwar agreements that whittled down the Iroquois holdings. Many of the Six Nations fled to Canada, where the British gave them land. Red Jacket wanted to stay in his own country and did not want to sell any of it to the whites. He spoke out at Fort Stanwix and later at Buffalo Creek (1788) and Geneseo (1797). At each of these conferences he tried to persuade the Iroquois not to part with any more land. Each time he lost.
Red Jacket thought that the Iroquois should protect their homes by force. He wanted the Six Nations to join the Miami confederacy and defended his views at the multitribal meeting at the Glaize. Cornplanter, another
Red Jacket. Painting by Charles Bird King (Library of Congress)
Iroquois leader, thwarted his efforts. The Miami Confederation suffered a defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794) and soon broke up. Cornplanter and Red Jacket argued at several more council fires over the fate of the Iroquois land. Red Jacket always refused to sell more land. Cornplanter, on the other hand, believed that the Iroquois needed to face what he thought was the inevitable, arguing that the Iroquois had to get the best deal they could while the Iroquois were still strong.
By the War of 1812 (1812-15), the Iroquois held only a tiny reservation in New York State out of what was once a vast empire. Red Jacket, who was too old to fight, decided that it was best to side with the United States and helped to raise Iroquois warriors to fight against the British. Many of these Indians fought for the United States in the Battle of the Chippewa (July 5, 1814). For his efforts, the government made Red Jacket a lieutenant and awarded him a pension.
Further reading: Anthony F. C. Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca (New York: Knopf, 1969).
—George Milne
World History
