When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few.

March 21, 1778 – MASSACRE AT HANCOCK’s BRIDGE

In Thomas Fleming’s novel, Liberty Tavern, there is a chapter telling the story of General Howe’s army burning houses as they prepared to leave New Jersey to subdue Philadelphia.  Fleming does a good job discussing the conflicting attitudes and loyalties many people has over whether they should side with the Continental Congress or remain loyal to the Crown and the consequences of making the choice.  A striking example of this occurred a year later near Salem, NJ when in March of 1778, the New Jersey militia (Continental) and several loyalist regiments (provincial Crown Forces) clashed at Quinton’s Bridge and Hancock’s Bridge.

During the winter of 1777 found George Washington and his Army encamped at Valley Forge, and the British occupied Philadelphia. Both armies needed food and supplies and engaged in foraging.  At first attempts were made to pay for the forage but as the armies, which nearly doubled the population of the region, consumed almost all that could be spared, armed foraging parties (under General Anthony Wayne on the Continental side and General Charles Mawhood on the British side) often had to forcibly collect what they needed.  to do the same.

Even though most of Salem County’s population were English Quakers who were opposed to violence and armed conflict, many supported the revolution and actively resisted supporting British foragers.  Mawhood’s foraging parties also met considerable guerrilla resistance from the Salem County militia.  Repulsed at the Battle of Quinton’s Bridge, a key transportation link to the fertile fields of Cumberland and Salem Counties, the British were frustrated and angry with the people of Salem County and accused them of actively supporting of the Continental Army.

On March 18, a battle occurred about three miles from Salem at Quinton’s Bridge.  A force of 1,000 British regulars and Hessians and 500 Tory militiamen were ambushed by 300 Salem militia at the span over Alloway Creek. The militia lost as many as 40 men as they fled, many drowning in the frigid water of the creek.  The commander of the Crown Forces was Colonel Charles Mawhood who in January was outmaneuvered at Princeton by Washington’s Army and was out for revenge.

Mawhood’s troops occupied Salem, where he threatened to burn the town and turn the women and children over to the Tories if the militia did not lay down its arms. Mawhood issued the following orders to his British troops: “Go – spare no one – put all to death – give no quarters.” Calling Mawhood “Attila,” Colonel Asher Holmes, commander of the Salem County militia, warned there would be immediate retaliation on Tory families in the area if anything happened to the wives and children of his men. Mawhood backed down.

Three days later, however, Colonel John Simcoe, unleashed the Queen’s Rangers (provincial Crown Forces), on the sleeping men at Hancock’s Bridge.  In what became known as the Massacre at Hancock’s Bridge, at least 20 members of the Salem militia lost their lives, some after attempting to surrender. The Loyalists reputedly exclaimed, “Spare no one! Give no quarter!” as they stormed the house of Judge William Hancock, a Loyalist whose house the Patriots had commandeered.  Even Judge Hancock and his brother were bayoneted in the melee despite their well-known support of the Crown. A 7-man American patrol was surprised along the creek and all but one of them were killed. Colonel Simcoe’s Rangers then proceeded to plunder the entire neighborhood.    

The aftermath of this massacre was chilling.   The militia withdrew and allowed Mawhood free reign in his foraging in Salem County but groups of battle-hardened men intensified their guerrilla missions throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York shouting “Spare no one! Give no quarter!” A month after the incident, Judge Hancock’s son and a Mr. Sayer, whose father had been killed in the massacre, traveled to Philadelphia by water. They were standing on the wharf talking with two strange men when Sayer fell overboard. One of the strangers jumped in and rescued him. Mr. Sayer asked, ‘To whom am I indebted for saving my life?’ When the man told him he was the son of Colonel Mawhood, Sayer said, ‘I’ll be damned if I’ll be saved by the son of the murderer of my father!’ and jumped in the river again.

Years later Simcoe, now lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, attempted to excuse the butchery in his journals saying a “Events like these are the real miseries of war” and  “The enemy, who were assembled at Cohansey, might easily have been suppressed, but Colonel Mawhood judged, that having completed his forage with such success, his business was to return, which he effected.”  Is it any wonder why Charles Simcoe, who by all accounts was one of the most successful and professional generals in the British Army, was portrayed as a monster in the TV series TURN?  Acts of barbarism are remembered for a long time.

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