A Revolutionary Capture​

Former Flock farm, 1950s (then owned by the Colemans). Courtesy of Richard Coleman.

In December 1776, the American Revolution was looking bleak. After months of defeats, many soldiers, with contracts expiring at year's end, were set to resign - and thus likely cost General George Washington the war. However, three victories in Princeton and Trenton helped turn the tide. This would likely not have happened without a capture of British troops in present-day West Windsor. 

Historical Overview

On December 26, 1776, George Washington's army triumphed over Hessian auxiliaries at the Battle of Trenton - a much-needed victory after months of defeats, which had significantly demoralized his troops to the point of imminent desertion.[1] However, now encamped in the city, Washington knew little about the enemy's size or movements, which put his entire army at risk. On December 30, he dispatched a small party, led by Colonel Joseph Reed, to scope out the approach to Princeton.[2] In 1818, one of the scouts, Thomas Peters, recalled:

​"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 Gen. Washington considerable satisfaction to obtain the information he wished..."​[3]

From Dec. 31, 1776 Pennsylvania Evening Post.

In an 1816 memoir, Brigadier General James Wilkinson (later the Senior Officer of the U.S. Army) recounted the same capture:

Colonel Joseph Reed, with a reconnoitering party of twelve dragoons, was sent out to inquire for the enemy ... he surprised a commissary and foraging party ... whom he charged and made prisoners without the loss of a man, and ... returned with every trooper his prisoner ... This little act of decisive gallantry ..., [boosted] the confidence of the troops and certainly reflected high [honor] on the small detachment* ... The information received from the prisoners ... left no doubt of the enemy's superiority, and his intention to advance upon us, which would put General Washington in a critical situation.

*The detachment included 2nd Lieut. James Budden, Cornet John Dunlap, Thomas Leiper, 1st Sergt., Samuel Howell, Jun. 1st Corporal, James Hunter, 2d corporal, George Campbell, John Donnaldson, Thomas Peters, "William Pollard, Samuel Caldwell, Benjamin Randolph, John Lardner."[4]

From Dec. 31, 1776 Pennsylvania Evening Post.

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 go into Princeton on this errand ... But ... as we were passing ... almost within view of the town, a British soldier was observed passing from a barn to the dwelling-house without arms ... Two of our party were sent to bring him in, but ... another was seen, and then a third, when orders were given for our whole party to charge ... Twelve British soldiers, equipped as dragoons, and well-armed, their pieces loaded, and having the advantage of the house, 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 Lord Cornwallis, with a body of picked troops and well appointed, had the day before reinforced General Grant at 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."[5]

This intel - soon corroborated by a spy sent from Colonel John Cadwalader[6] - informed Washington about British troop size and position in Princeton and also alerted him that in a few days he was to be met with overwhelming force. He repelled the enemy at the Second Battle of Trenton on January 2, but knowing he would likely lose a protracted battle, ordered his men to secretly depart the next morning toward victory at the Battle of Princeton. These two triumphs, and the first Battle of Trenton, reinvigorated his troops in their darkest hours, persuaded many of them to renew their contracts (they would have otherwise left at year's-end), convinced many more to enlist, and showed observers (including eventual French backers) that the Revolution was not a lost cause.[7]

In 1847, Joseph's grandson, William, published an account of Joseph's service and pinpointed the farmhouse's location:

On the 3rd June 1843, the author was enabled to ascertain with great precision the place where this affair occurred. It was at the house occupied by John Flock, about half a mile southeast of [the West Windsor/Lawrence village of] Clarksville, between four and five miles from Princeton, about 300 yards east of the Quaker Road leading from Stony Brook to Crosswicks.[8]

Crop of the J.W. Otley & J. Keily map of Mercer County, NJ, published in 1849. Notice "J. Flock" (John Flock) in the center.

While it's currently unknown who lived there in late 1776, the Flock family certainly owned the property from 1799[9] to 1883.[10] John Flock himself served as a private in the Burlington County militia.[11] See the adjacent maps from 1849 and 1959 showing his farm's exact location.[12],[13] After the Flocks was Zephaniah Adams (from 1883-1898)[14],[15] then the Coleman family starting in 1898.[16] Like the Flocks and Adams, they farmed this land until they sold it to a multinational agricultural and industrial chemical conglomerate called "American Cyanamid" in the 1950s.[17] The old stone farmhouse[18] and barns were subsequently demolished and the property, alongside other adjacent tracts, became an agricultural research & development facility.[19],[20],[21] At the time of this writing (2023), the facility has been abandoned for years and may become a sprawling warehouse complex.[22]

Regardless of the site's future, the fact remains that it was the location of a small, yet nationally-influential incident that may have saved the American Revolution.

Aerial photography of the Coleman farm, 1959.

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Bibliography

1. Kidder, William Larry. Ten Crucial Days: Washington’s Vision for Victory Unfolds. Brentwood, Tennessee: Knox Press, 2020
2. Wilkinson, James. Memoirs of my own times. Vol. 1. 3 vols. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Printed by Abraham Small, 1816. 
3. Peters, Thomas. “A Scrap of ‘Troop’ History.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 15, no. 2, 1891. Contains transcription of notes written by Thomas Peters, Revolutionary War soldier, written in 1818, in his copy of the "By-Laws of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry," itself printed in 1815. These notes were donated to the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography by a "Mrs. Roberdeau Buchanan," Peters' granddaughter.
4. Wilkinson, James. Memoirs of my own times. Vol. 1. 3 vols. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Printed by Abraham Small, 1816. 
5. Reed, William B. Life and correspondence of Joseph Reed. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847. 
6. Ibid.
7. Kidder, William Larry. Ten Crucial Days: Washington’s Vision for Victory Unfolds. Brentwood, Tennessee: Knox Press, 2020
8. ​Reed, William B. Life and correspondence of Joseph Reed. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847.
9. Flock, John, Woolley, James. “Indenture.” Windsor, 1799. Located in the New Jersey state Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 6 Page 250.
10. Adams, Zephaniah S., Flock, John T, Flock, Margaret R. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1883. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 136 Page 89.
11. “Application for Membership - The New Jersey Society of the National Society Sons of the American Revolution.” Hamilton Township, New Jersey, July 13, 1965. Mervin Tindall Flock's application for membership. Application mentions that Flock served with Burlington Co. militia. Application was approved and registered by Registrar General on July 13, 1965. Application references the Flock family bible, Hamilton Square Graveyard, and the Service of E. Farnsworth.
12. Otley, J W, and James Keily. “Map of Mercer County, New Jersey.” Map. Camden, New Jersey: L. Van der Veer, 1849.
13. “West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 1959.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 1959.
14. Adams, Zephaniah S., Flock, John T, Flock, Margaret R. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1883. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 136 Page 89.
15. Adams, Rebecca S., Adams, Zephaniah S., Coleman, Herbert J. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1898. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 219 Page 525.
16. Ibid.
17. "Chemical Plant, Experimental Farm on 1,000-Acre W. Windsor Tract." Trenton Evening Times. March 22, 1957.
18. Coleman, Richard. Letter to Trevor LePrevost. Farming in West Windsor, NJ ?Sent Before ?, August 16, 2020. Memoirs of life on the Coleman farm. Trevor LePrevost was Vice President of the Historical Society of West Windsor in 2020. The purpose of this citation is to corroborate the fact that the house that stood on December 30, 1776 at which British troops were captured by Colonel Joseph Reed and his scouting party also stood until the 1950s/60s when it was demolished by American Cyanamid.
19. “West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 1965.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 1965.
20. "Topics of the Town - Agriculture Center Set." Town Topics. January 10, 1960.
21. “West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 2002.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 2002.​
22. ​"West Windsor mayor talks Bridge Point 8 Warehouse Complex Approval." West Windsor and Plainsboro News. March 1, 2023.