12/23/2025
Today marks the 249th Anniversary of the Battle of Iron Works Hill - though this engagement could be divided into several parts. After the success of Petticoat Bridge on December 22, Continental Army adjutant general Colonel Joseph Reed visited Mount Holly in the early evening to discuss operations with Colonel Samuel Griffin. Instead, Reed found Griffin incapacitated and unfit for command. In Griffin's words, his force of 600 was already dissolving and returning to Haddonfield. All he could do was be a diversion, and would not hesitate to retreat if the enemy attacked him. In the early morning of December 23, Griffin fired off a letter to Colonel John Cadwalader at Bristol requesting artillery and reinforcements. He did not want give up Mount Holly if he could be reinforced.
Hessian Colonel Carl von Donop left Black Horse (Columbus) before daybreak on December 23, 1776. American pickets engaged the Jägers at Petticoat Bridge, and again near the Copany Meetinghouse. The first real engagement occurred at the old Quaker meetinghouse along Gaskill's Lane (Woodlane Road and Woodpecker Lane). Here, American militia from Gloucester and Cumberland counties fought Captain Johann Ewald's Jägers and advanced portions of the Hessian column. Driven back to the Mount, overall command was under Colonel Richard Somers. Colonel von Donop sent Ewald and Stirling/42nd along Woodpecker Lane; the Block grenadiers to the left, and the Linsing grenadiers up the center to envelope the hill. Donop concentrated his artillery on the Mount as well. The Americans fell back before being surrounded. What followed was a running fight down High Street into the center of town. Donop placed his artillery on top the Mount while another was brought down High Street (a third may have been brought to modern day Top-E-Toy Hill). The field piece on High Street began shelling houses along Church Street where militia had temporarily sought cover. They soon abandoned them and crossed the creek (on Pine Street) and fell in with the remaining militia dug in on Iron Works Hill at St. Andrew's Cemetery. Here were the 2 Virginia artillery companies, armed each with a 3-pounder. Donop had Iron Works Hill heavily shelled. By 4:40pm, the Americans were in full retreat from Mount Holly, escaping along the creek and heading for Long Bridge (Hainesport). Casualty estimates vary widely, but we know several were killed on both sides; an American reinforcement from Haddonfield may have been captured, and both Virginia field pieces left that evening. Donop had suffered a head wound (possibly thrown from his horse) while the Block grenadiers helped themselves to a cache of wine looted from town. The above sketch's vantage point is from Iron Works Hill with the original church in the foreground, and Mount Holly rising on the horizon beyond the town.
