The British Rush the Hedgerow

Riding “like a New Market Jockey,” British commander-in-chief Sir Henry Clinton drove his men forward in hopes of crushing the Continental advance force against Spotswood Middle Brook and destroying the Continental Army. The British chased Major General Charles Lee’s Continentals across the fields and up the hill as Clinton rode ahead crying, “Charge, Grenadiers, never heed forming,” hoping to strike before the Continental battalions could cross the bridge. At first the plan appeared to work, as British guardsmen, grenadiers, and dragoons broke through the Continental defenders of a woods and forced the Americans back to the fence. The British infantry then rushed the hedged fence and its 800 Continental defenders, and for three to five minutes the attack stalled in point-blank firing between the two sides. Then the dragoons broke through the fence, the Continentals abandoned the hedgerow and hurried for the bridge, and the grenadiers plunged after them, but the Americans escaped and Clinton’s gamble failed, leaving the ground littered with red-coated bodies.

New Jersey · United States