On May 3, 1778, the British establish a post at Cooper’s Ferry, near where Camden is today, to protect wood cutters. The British army in Philadelphia has been ordered to evacuate the city, to focus resources on their strongholds in New York City and the southern U.S. Wealthy loyalists, officers’ families, and others of privilege will travel to New York via British Navy ships. The Army will have to march across much of New Jersey to reach New York, and they know they will almost certainly encounter armed militia, the Continental Army, or both, while en route. Thus begins what will ultimately lead to the Battle of Monmouth, and what will be a critical test for George Washington, and his troops who have spent a harsh winter at Valley Forge, training and preparing to take on the British army. On May 3, 1778, the British establish a post at Cooper’s Ferry, near where Camden is today, to protect wood cutters.
Sources:
Lender, Mark E., & Stone, Garry W. (2016). Fatal Sunday. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Okla., pp. 441-450.
Stone, Garry Wheeler. (2015). Coopers Ferry, New Jersey, during the American Revolution, A Report to the American Battlefield Protection Program, the National Park Service. September 28, 2015.
Annotated map of Coopers Ferry, June 1778. Detail from the eastern margin of Pierre Nicole, Plan of the City of Philadelphia. Library of Congress, Maps of North America, 1750-1789. Public Domain. Available: https://www.ci.camden.nj.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Coopers-Ferry-during-the-American-Revolution-2015.08.17.pdf
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