Battlefield Visits, Revolutionary War Edition: The Ten Crucial Days (and more!)

From my travels, November 27, 2019.

Back in 2019, I was invited by my brother to spend Thanksgiving with his family in New York. Since I had the Wednesday before off of work, I thought I’d make a day of it and hit a few interesting historical sites along the way. I left the house around 8:30am and started north.

Battle of Paoli

I titled this post as being about the Ten Crucial Days, and Paoli is not part of that campaign, but it was along my route and I had wanted to visit for a while. A few months before, I had learned about how “Mad” Anthony Wayne had been inspired by the sneak attack tactics that the British had used against him at Paoli and repeated those at Stony Point.

Despite the fact that there are baseball diamonds and tennis courts on part of the property, the field of the Battle of Paoli is well preserved by a small park. There are numerous monuments to the action that took place here, as well as a good number of waysides that help the visitor to understand. There is even a re-creation of the fence line and disabled artillery piece that factored so heavily here. This is a place that deserves to be visited.

Old Barracks Museum / Trenton, NJ

Modern Trenton looks nothing like it did in the winter of 1776-1777. Only a few small pieces of that time remain. One of those is the Old Barracks Museum. Dating from 1758, this structure was built by the British to house troops during the French and Indian War. It is the only one that is left of five similar structures that were built across the colonies.

I took a tour – I was the only member of my “group” that day – and it was very informative. The tour guides dress in period clothing and even adopt something of a character. In addition to showing you through the different rooms of the structure, they emphasize its use as a hospital, and highlight the successful smallpox inoculation program that was carried out. There is also a good museum here with some exhibits about the Battle of Trenton.

The main part of the fighting in Trenton happened in two parts – both areas are not far from the barracks. There is a large monument at the top of the hill where the American artillery was placed, but that neighborhood is a little rough and run down. I feel like the monument has seen better days, sadly.

The second battle that took place here – the Battle of Assunpink Creek – took place toward the bottom of the hill. There’s a small park there, but it’s hard to get a sense of the action because of all the modern construction.

Battle of Princeton

A short distance north of Trenton is the town of Princeton. The Battle of Princeton was arguably the climax of the Ten Crucial Days.

The field itself is small, and there are a few waysides, but they barely mention the battle action. The museum was closed during my visit – perhaps that would have helped. The monuments here are mainly to Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer who was mortally-wounded here. I also took the opportunity to go up into town, where the impressive Princeton Battle Monument dominates the town square.

It was here in Princeton that my trip took a turn from “history nerd” to “regular nerd”. There was plenty of history still left to see on my journey north, but it would take a decidedly more modern and technological character from here on out. And that’s a story for the next post.