Colonel Christopher Greene

On October 22, 1777, Colonel Christopher Greene of the First Rhode Island Continentals, with four hundred officers and men of the First and Second Rhode Island regiments, successfully defended Fort Mercer against an assault by two thousand Hessians in British service. The attacking force was disastrously defeated, losing its commander Count von Donop, thirty-six officers, and nearly six hundred men, while the American loss was thirty-seven. Count Carl von Donop of Hesse Cassel, mortally wounded in the assault on Fort Mercer, died on October 28, 1777, as he himself avowed a victim of his own ambition and the avarice of his Prince. Christopher Greene, defender of Fort Mercer and a Continental soldier from the beginning of the Revolution, fought for his principles and died for his country when he was killed in combat with Delancey’s Tory Light Horse near Pines Bridge, Westchester County, New York, May 14, 1781.

National Park, New Jersey · United States