Guest blogger George Weghorst shares a deceptively familiar story from the earliest days of the American Revolution.
Kate shares an account of a stop on The Liberty Trail in New Jersey, centered around the dramatic capture of the British supply ship HMS Blue Mountain Valley during the American Revolution. After a grueling 13-week voyage, the ship limped into Sandy Hook, where Patriots seized its first mate and launched a surprise boarding operation. Expecting military supplies, they instead found a cargo of coal, porter, beans, potatoes, sauerkraut, and hogs—more fit for a feast than a fight.
Learn more about how The Liberty Trail is blazing paths across the east coast.
Visiting historical sites provides unrivaled experiences and education opportunities.
Uncovering History
We invite you to visit the preserved locations along the Liberty Trail and to immerse
yourself in the extraordinary events that determined the fate of a nation.
Also known as the Battle of Fort Mercer, Hessian forces under Colonel Von Donop unsuccessfully stormed this fort on the 22 of October, 1777. Halted by combined arms of infantry and ships on the Delaware River, the Hessians suffered significant losses.
Built in 1716 for Paul de St. Julien in Berkeley County. The house was later dismantled and moved to Clemson University and functions as a house museum.
Patriot Leader Nathanael Greene Is repulsed but not defeated in his campaign to chase the British from the South Carolina backcountry
At this bridge, American forces under Colonel Samuel Griffin and foraging parties under Hessian Colonel Carl Ulrich von Donop clashed several times throughout December of 1776.
One of the last Virginia land battles of the Revolution prior to Yorktown, Green Spring saw Anthony Wayne and the Marquis de Lafayette successfully lead their troops to victory against an ambush laid by Charles Cornwallis.
The site of the famous "Shot Heard Around the World," the Old North Bridge served as the flashpoint of the American Revolution. To this day, historians debate who fired the first shot, here, which led to the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
Waiting on British troops to arrive on the morning of April 19, militia members used this tavern to wait for their arrival before assembling on the field of battle and sparking the American Revolution
In 1780, after the British occupied Charleston during the American Revolutionary War, the Brewton house was used as the British headquarters for Henry Clinton.
Located just south of the Chesapeake Bay, this "uninhabitable" Great Dismal Swamp was home to thousands of Native Americans and Maroons--self-emancipated slaves--throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
Jockey Hollow, the site of General Washington’s winter encampment in 1779-1780, played a key role in forging the Continental Army's strength and unity. The nearby Wick House, once home to Major General Arthur St. Clair, now stands as a historic landmark, offering a glimpse into the hardships and strategies of that fateful winter.
The Francis Marion is a forest literally steeped in history. Marion, dubbed the “Swamp Fox” by the British troops whose supply lines he disrupted with surprise attacks from the swamps.