In December 1776, the Revolutionary War was looking bleak. After months of defeats, many demoralized soldiers, with contracts expiring at year’s end, intended to resign from General George Washington’s army. However, three victories in Princeton and Trenton helped turn the tide during, some of the Revolution’s darkest hours.
Two of these victories were aided by a capture of British troops in present-day West Windsor. Yet, this property is also endangered by the prospect of extreme development.
In this article, the all-volunteer community nonprofit Historical Society of West Windsor explores this story.
The year 1776 was riddled with defeats for George Washington. Repeated British triumphs over several months had demoralized much of his troops, many of which were set to desert him once their contracts were to expire at year’s-end. Thus, Washington was in desperate need of victories.
The tide finally began to turn on Dec. 26, 1776, when Washington’s army famously crossed the Delaware River and won the Battle of Trenton.
This—the first of the three battles of the “Ten Crucial Days” spanning December 25, 1776 to January 3, 1777 — helped convince many soldiers to renew their contracts.
However, even after the Battle of Trenton, the Americans knew little about the enemy’s troop movements and size in the broader area. Thus, now encamped in Trenton, Washington required intel about his surroundings.
On Dec. 30, 1776, Washington sent a small scouting party, led by Colonel Joseph Reed, out from Trenton to scope the Princeton area.
One of them, Thomas Peters, later recalled the results: “We found that [the British] …were at Princeton, on their way to Trenton. We advanced… near to them to gain information … Observing a foraging party… we waited until they had passed. Some… entered a new stone house to plunder it. We immediately rushed on them …[and]… compelled them to surrender … It gave … Washington considerable satisfaction to obtain the information he wished…”
Colonel Joseph Reed (himself later a Founding Father of the United States) also wrote about the incident: “We met with little success on our way, or in the immediate vicinity of Princeton, to which we had approached within three miles.
“The ravages of the enemy had struck such terror that no rewards would tempt the inhabitants … to [help us out] … But … as we were passing … a British soldier was observed passing from a barn to the dwelling-house without arms … another was seen, and then a third, when orders were given for our whole party to charge … Twelve British soldiers … surrendered to seven horsemen, six of whom had never before seen an enemy.
“The sergeant only escaped and reported … that he had fought his way through fifty horsemen … A Commissary was also taken … from them a very perfect account was obtained, that [British General] Lord [Charles] Cornwallis, with a body of picked troops and well appointed, had the day before reinforced … Princeton, and that they were … to begin their march the next morning to dislodge us from Trenton, their whole force being not less than seven or eight thousand men.”
A variety of other primary sources from the time corroborate this capture and interrogation of those British troops. This intel that these prisoners of war divulged — corroborated by subsequent letters from other sources — revealed much about the size and position of British troops in Princeton.
It also alerted Washington that British General Lord Charles Cornwallis intended to march on Trenton with an army of thousands to recapture the city from Washington. With this new information, the Americans were able to prepare for — and temporarily stave off — the enemy when Cornwallis attacked on Jan. 2, at the Second Battle of Trenton.
However, Cornwallis and his troops still threatened Washington’s army with superior numbers. So, after both armies retreated for the night, Washington’s council of war ordered his army to secretly depart the city.
Soon, soldiers lit fires and a small contingent stayed to fool the British into believing the Americans were still encamped in Trenton. Unbeknownst to him, however, most of the American army was marching north toward Princeton.
The Americans marched for 13 miles, through cold, wind, and the darkness of the night. Their route took them northward along Quakerbridge Road, and for some time, passed through present-day West Windsor.
The sun soon rose — both literally and metaphorically — when the Americans emerged triumphant at the Battle of Princeton on Jan. 3, 1777.
In this third battle of the Ten Crucial Days, the patriots again proved that the Revolution was not lost. The Ten Crucial Days also convinced many more patriotic soldiers to enlist in the spring, positioned Washington to eventually drive the British out of New Jersey, and more broadly galvanized public support for the patriot cause.
However, where was this farmhouse, at which those British troops were captured, on Dec. 30, 1776? In 1847, Colonel Joseph Reed’s grandson, William, published an account that pinpointed the location: “It was at the house occupied by John Flock, about half a mile southeast of [the West Windsor/Lawrence village of] Clarksville … about 300 yards east of the Quaker Road leading from Stony Brook to Crosswicks …”
Based on historic maps, this was about 1,300 feet northeast of the intersection of Clarksville Road and Quakerbridge Road, in present-day West Windsor.
While it’s currently unknown who lived there in late 1776, the Flock family certainly owned the farm at the time of William’s account. John Flock himself served as a private in the Burlington County militia. In 1883,
The Flocks sold the property to Zephaniah Adams, and after him was the Coleman family. Like the Flocks and Adams, the Colemans farmed this land for generations – that is, until they sold the property to a multinational agricultural and industrial chemical conglomerate called “American Cyanamid” in the 1950s.
The old stone farmhouse and barns, in which the British troops had been captured, were subsequently demolished and the property, alongside other adjacent tracts, became an agricultural research & development facility. However, the campus shut down in the early 2000s and demolished in 2022.
Since the early 2000s, the old American Cyanamid property has passed through several owners; most recently Howard Hughes Corp and Atlantic Realty.
And, over the better part of the past two decades, these owners have proposed — and recently sued the Township for — several hotly-debated developments for the 650-acre property.
This includes commercial centers, sprawling housing developments, and, most recently, a gargantuan warehouse complex.
The last two proposals especially have been hotly-debated due to their mammoth implications for our town’s future — too much to adequately describe here.
Still, regardless of what happens in the future, a constant remains: this Revolutionary capture should not forgotten, and instead deserves to be memorialized, in perpetuity, in the years to come.
The Historical Society is an all-volunteer nonprofit; all of our volunteers donate their free time to document and promote our Township’s history. There is a lot to celebrate, but we can’t do it without your support.
Please consider volunteering and/or donating to help us grow and expand our impact. To learn more, visit: westwindsorhistory.com
Paul Ligeti is the president of the Historical Society of West Windsor.
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