The Battle of Red Bank, also known as the Battle of Fort Mercer, was fought on October 22, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War. A British and Hessian force was sent to take Fort Mercer on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia, but was defeated by a smaller force of Continental Army troops. In the fall of 1777, Colonel Christopher Greene, the commander of the American forces in Mercer set up headquarters in the Whitall House. He decided that the family’s apple orchard was the ideal location for a defensive fort, so the orchard was razed, and Fort Mercer was built. Fort Mercer was part of the system of the Delaware River forts. A triple row of chevaux de frise extended between Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania and Fort Mercer. the fort was a large earthwork that had 14 cannon mounted in it. The fort was protected on the land side by a ditch and abatis. Trenches were dug around the perimeter of the fort. Greene, the fort commander, had a garrison of 400 Rhode Island troops. After the capture of Philadelphia and of the failure of the American surprise attack against the British at the Battle of Germantown, the Americans tried to deny the British use of the city by blockading the Delaware River. To that end, two forts were constructed commanding the river. One was Fort Mercer on the New Jersey side at Red Bank. The other was Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, in the Delaware River just south of the confluence of the Schuylkill River, on the Pennsylvania side opposite Fort Mercer.

Von Donop, whose attack had been repulsed at the Second Battle of Trenton, was eager to avenge what he considered to be a humiliation. Donop soon realized the arduous task that was entrusted to him and asked Howe in vain for more artillery, but Howe ordered him to wait for the British fleet to come up river to assist him, and that if Donop could not capture the fort the British would, an order that apparently belittled Donop. On October 20, 1777, five British warships under the command of Captain Hamond, made their way through the lower chevaux-de-frise and sailed up the river. Among these vessels were HMS Augusta, outfitted with 64 guns and commanded by Captain Francis Reynolds. Von Donop divided his force into two groups totaling 1,200 men for a two-pronged attack upon the fort on the morning of October 22. Von Donop and Hessian grenadier Lieutenant Colonel von Linsing were to attack the southern part of the fort, while Colonel Friedrich Ludwig von Minnigerode's grenadiers and Lieutenant Colonel Werner von Mirbach's infantry were to attack the northern and eastern approaches. Frustrated by the failure to capture Fort Mercer, Howe ordered the Hessian regiments withdrawn from New Jersey while he made plans to attack Fort Mifflin by a massive artillery bombardment. By early November, the British artillery batteries on Providence Island were complete, and a number of warships were available in support. On November 10, the British opened a full-scale bombardment of Fort Mifflin which lasted for five days. Six British warships, with two small floating batteries, the Vigilant and the Fury, also joined the bombardment to rake Fort Mifflin at close range for five days.