By DONNA WEAVER Staff Writer
Re-enactor Tyler Willis, right, of Burlington, leads a retreat Sunday of the 1st New Jersey Volunteers as Pete Fenwerda, back center, of Warren Grove, fends off the Redcoats at a re-enactment of the Cedar Bridge Skirmish.
STAFFORD TOWNSHIP — There may have been only eight re-enactors Sunday afternoon for the Skirmish at Cedar Bridge, but organizers said the largest crowd of spectators turned out for the battle since the event’s inception in 2001. Participants said about 40 soldiers would have fought in the original battle.
“In 2001, we only had four spectators come out,” said Tim Hart, president of the Stafford Township Historical Society.
Click here to see the photo gallery.
Sunday was the 227th anniversary of the skirmish, the last documented land battle of the Revolutionary War, which took place in Ocean County.
The small crowd of re-enactors, part of the First New Jersey Volunteers unit, said there would have been more of them, but a re-enactment of the Battle of Trenton also was held Sunday afternoon. And so the skirmish was made up of one rebel and seven loyalist soldiers from southern New Jersey and as far away as Maryland.
“We’ve evened it out and sent some over to the other side,” one of the loyalist soldiers yelled from the field during the battle.
“There would have been more people here, but it’s because of the weather, the holiday and the mud,” said re-enactor Wendy Lucas, picking up her boots.
Lucas, 48, of Gloucester Township, Camden County, was fighting with the patriots in the First New Jersey Volunteers unit but admitted that in 1783 a woman would not have fought in the ranks. The modern-day unit, however, has included a woman for the past 25 years.
Thomas Farner, in his book, “New Jersey in History: Fighting to Be Heard,” quotes from the Jan. 8, 1783, New Jersey Gazette, which published the only existing public account of the battle.
The Gazette wrote that on Friday, Dec. 27, 1782, patriot Capt. Richard Shreve and Capt. Edward Thomas received information that loyalist Capt. John Bacon, with his band of robbers, was in the neighborhood of Cedar Creek. Thomas and Shreve collected a party of men and pursued Bacon and his robbers and met them at the Cedar Creek Bridge. Then the loyalists and patriots charged.
The Stafford Township Historical Society states that re-enacting the Skirmish at Cedar Bridge allows them to illustrate to the general public the civil-war nature of the war of American independence. New Jersey in general, and what is now Ocean County, did not fall into a clear-cut “us vs. them” situation during the war, according to the society’s Web site. Families, friends, and towns were divided between loyalty to the crown and loyalty to independence. The struggle was personal, vicious and bloody.
Although the participants do not re-enact it, a number of the town’s people were hanged for their part in the skirmish. Bacon is not killed until April 2, 1783, days before news of the armistice reaches the colonies.
The smell of musket smoke filled the air at the site of the re-enactment off of the narrow, partially flooded Old Halfway Road in Warren Grove. Participants swashbuckled and fired at one another in front of the Cedar Bridge Tavern. Paul Hart, curator of the Stafford Township Historical Society, said the snow from last week’s storm melted just in time with the help of the rainfall over the weekend.
“I don’t know how we would’ve done this if the snow wasn’t gone and it hadn’t rained. There was snow here just a day ago, and we wouldn’t have been able to get back here,” Hart said.
Contact Donna Weaver:
609-226-9198
DWeaver@pressofac.com
Re-enactor Tyler Willis, right, of Burlington, leads a retreat Sunday of the 1st New Jersey Volunteers as Pete Fenwerda, back center, of Warren Grove, fends off the Redcoats at a re-enactment of the Cedar Bridge Skirmish.
STAFFORD TOWNSHIP — There may have been only eight re-enactors Sunday afternoon for the Skirmish at Cedar Bridge, but organizers said the largest crowd of spectators turned out for the battle since the event’s inception in 2001. Participants said about 40 soldiers would have fought in the original battle.
“In 2001, we only had four spectators come out,” said Tim Hart, president of the Stafford Township Historical Society.
Click here to see the photo gallery.
Sunday was the 227th anniversary of the skirmish, the last documented land battle of the Revolutionary War, which took place in Ocean County.
The small crowd of re-enactors, part of the First New Jersey Volunteers unit, said there would have been more of them, but a re-enactment of the Battle of Trenton also was held Sunday afternoon. And so the skirmish was made up of one rebel and seven loyalist soldiers from southern New Jersey and as far away as Maryland.
“We’ve evened it out and sent some over to the other side,” one of the loyalist soldiers yelled from the field during the battle.
“There would have been more people here, but it’s because of the weather, the holiday and the mud,” said re-enactor Wendy Lucas, picking up her boots.
Lucas, 48, of Gloucester Township, Camden County, was fighting with the patriots in the First New Jersey Volunteers unit but admitted that in 1783 a woman would not have fought in the ranks. The modern-day unit, however, has included a woman for the past 25 years.
Thomas Farner, in his book, “New Jersey in History: Fighting to Be Heard,” quotes from the Jan. 8, 1783, New Jersey Gazette, which published the only existing public account of the battle.
The Gazette wrote that on Friday, Dec. 27, 1782, patriot Capt. Richard Shreve and Capt. Edward Thomas received information that loyalist Capt. John Bacon, with his band of robbers, was in the neighborhood of Cedar Creek. Thomas and Shreve collected a party of men and pursued Bacon and his robbers and met them at the Cedar Creek Bridge. Then the loyalists and patriots charged.
The Stafford Township Historical Society states that re-enacting the Skirmish at Cedar Bridge allows them to illustrate to the general public the civil-war nature of the war of American independence. New Jersey in general, and what is now Ocean County, did not fall into a clear-cut “us vs. them” situation during the war, according to the society’s Web site. Families, friends, and towns were divided between loyalty to the crown and loyalty to independence. The struggle was personal, vicious and bloody.
Although the participants do not re-enact it, a number of the town’s people were hanged for their part in the skirmish. Bacon is not killed until April 2, 1783, days before news of the armistice reaches the colonies.
The smell of musket smoke filled the air at the site of the re-enactment off of the narrow, partially flooded Old Halfway Road in Warren Grove. Participants swashbuckled and fired at one another in front of the Cedar Bridge Tavern. Paul Hart, curator of the Stafford Township Historical Society, said the snow from last week’s storm melted just in time with the help of the rainfall over the weekend.
“I don’t know how we would’ve done this if the snow wasn’t gone and it hadn’t rained. There was snow here just a day ago, and we wouldn’t have been able to get back here,” Hart said.
Contact Donna Weaver:
609-226-9198
DWeaver@pressofac.com
