In 1777, Red Bank became the site of Fort Mercer, where troops stationed there and at Fort Mifflin on the opposite bank of the Delaware River worked to stop British ships from sailing to Philadelphia. In October of that year, vastly outnumbered American forces decisively defeated Hessian troops fighting for the British, and Whitall House served as an American field hospital. The Red Bank Battlefield, including the Whitall House, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
