American militia companies, sometimes with Continental Army…
April 1777 CE
American militia companies, sometimes with Continental Army support, have continued to harass British and German outposts and ambush their foraging and raiding expeditions.
One of the forward bases used for the operations is at Bound Brook, located on the Raritan River upriver from New Brunswick, the major British camp in New Jersey.
The post is responsible for patrolling three bridges across the Raritan likely to be used by the British in moves against the main camp at Morristown.
In February 1777, the Bound Brook outpost had consisted of one thousand men under the command of Major General Benjamin Lincoln, but this had been reduced by expiring militia enlistments to five hundred in mid-March.
The troops that remain are from the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment, a company from the 4th Continental Artillery, and two independent companies from the Wyoming Valley in what is now northeastern Pennsylvania, but is at this time also claimed by Connecticut as Westmoreland County.
Lincoln expresses concern over his exposed position to General Washington, noting that many units are not in a position to "render the least assistance to this post in case it is attacked", and that he is keeping wagons ready in case a precipitate departure was needed.
Lieutenant General Lord Charles Cornwallis, in command of the British forces in New Jersey, has had enough of the ongoing petite guerre, and organizes a reprisal action against the Bound Brook outpost.
According to the Hessian jäger Captain Johann Ewald, Cornwallis had asked him to draft a plan of attack in February, but the plan cannot be executed until springtime because it necessitates fording the Raritan.
On the night of April 12, the plan is put into action.