Embedded Files
25 & 27 November 1777
Firsthand account of the Morgan’s Riflemen attack the British & Hessians at Gloucester Town.
Colonel Richard Butler was in command of a unit of the famous Morgan's Rifles which was made up of 170 men. Colonel Butler had just been informed he was to command the 9th Pennsylvania but Daniel Morgan asked him to take a detachment of the Morgan Rifles to New Jersey.
He would be in command of the Rifles as they attacked the Hessian Jȁgers unit on November 25, 1777.
Butler would lead the Morgan’s Rifles in an attack the British and Hessian forces in Gloucester Town on 27th of November as the last of the British forces where in boats crossing into the Pennsylvania.
The Royal Navy responded by bombarding Gloucester Town.
On the 29th of Nov. 1777, as George Washington wants to make use of the attack at Gloucester to enhance Lafayette's resume. Washington had Lafayette write a letter of thanks to Colonel Butler and in the letter he asked Colonel Butler to extend that thanks to Morgan at the end of the letter when he writes "My compliments if you please to Colonel Morgan and Major Moriss".
Some historians have claimed that these Rifles where not the "Morgan Rifles", but Lafayette's letter would indicated otherwise.
Butler writes about the action at Gloucester Town, two months later on January 22, 1778, while at Valley Forge.
[ Historical Society of Pennsylvania - Simon Gratz autograph collection (#0250B) ]
https://digitallibrary.hsp.org/index.php/Detail/objects/12694
Colonel Morgan's Rifle Corp was there, Morgan was not.
In late November of 1777, Gloucester Town was occupied by a large British and Hessian force under the command of British General Lord Cornwallis.
American General Nathanael Greene was sent into New Jersey, to possibly engage Cornwallis in battle. Greene's forces were assembling in Mt. Holly as the British and Hessian were in Gloucester Town.
General Greene prepared a plan Order of Battle for the possible engagement, but the full scale battle would not occur as Cornwallis crossed the Delaware back into Pennsylvania.
Had the battle taken place, Gloucester Town's Colonel Ellis would have led the N.J. Militia, along with Colonel Butler with Morgan's Rifle Corp covering the left flank of the American formation.
Colonel Morgan was not in New Jersey at this time, but these were the Morgan Rifles under the command of Colonel Butler.
As it turns out, Colonel Ellis' troops and the Morgans Rifle Corp would fight the British at Gloucester Town on November 27th.
Text is from:
[ Orderly Book of Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, March 26-December 20, 1777 ]
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20085544?seq=32
Map is from:
[ George Weedon Orderly Book, 1777-1778 ]
https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/apsrevcity%3A1472
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