Sonya's Blog - Day 138 - Gloucester County, New Jersey

Sonya’s Blog - Day 138 - November 7th - Gloucester County, New Jersey

We caught up on some more blogs this morning. Isaac and I are completely up to date and we are pretty proudy pants of ourselves. Natasha still has some work to do, but she is close to being caught up as well. Blake has written some blogs, but he doesn’t post them. We spent the morning getting reorganized in our RV, the kids did some school work, the boys played some video games, I did some reading, etc. We decided not to go into Philadelphia today, but we wanted to do something.

I looked at the pamphlet we received at check-in that was on things to do in New Jersey. We are in Clarksboro, which is in the county of Gloucester. There is a National Park close by that was the site where Fort Mercer stood during the Revolutionary War. It has great significance in America’s fight for independence so we decided to go there after lunch. We thought it would be a great place to walk around with Kizmet and learn some more American history.

This is the Delaware River behind us and Philadelphia in the background:

We hopped in the truck after lunch and headed ver to Red Bank Battlefield. When we got there we discovered that poor Kizmet would not be walking around with us because she was not allowed in the park. Oh Kizzy, left in the truck. We were not the only ones that thought this would be a good place to walk a dog, there was another dog in a car as well who looked just as forlorn as Kizmet. Luckily, it had cooled down and we could leave her in the truck while we went and checked out the battle scene. Here is the story. In 1777 Hessian troops planned an attack on Fort Mercer. A hunter heard them planning the attack and ran to the Colonial (American) troops and warned them. There were only about 400 soldiers defending Fort Mercer, but they got busy fortifying and getting prepared. Sure enough, the 2000 Hessians attacked and the Americans were severely outnumbered. The Americans were so well prepared, however, and they put up a great fight. In the end the Americans won, with only 40 - 60 losses and the Hessians had about 600 losses. The Hessians were conscripted by the British Army to fight in the war (they were from Germany) because the Brits did not have enough men to fill their ranks. There was a house on the property, near where Fort Mercer was located. The Americans wanted this house and property for their fight, but the Whitehall’s who owned the house declined their offer. They were Quakers and due to their religious beliefs could not take sides in the war. The American’s did not let this deter them, they just took over the house and farm by force. They turned the house into a hospital to treat the wounded men. It is said that Mrs. Whitehall refused to leave and that she helped nurse the men, while scolding them all about their warlike ways. Mr. Whitehall left and demanded restitution for the rest of his life, but never received it. The other interesting thing about this battle was the troops that were fighting for the Americans. Captain Green was in charge of the troops at Fort Mercer and is credited with their success in the battle. The Rhode Island Regiment is often called the “Black Regiment”. The whole Regiment was not Black, so this is a bit of a misnomer. Green also enlisted Native Americans, the French and whomever would fight in his Regiment. It worked for him and he won this battle.

We learned a lot and had a lovely walk around. We drove back to the RV. The kids and Blake played with the football outside and I started on supper. I am making a huge pot of chili tonight so that we can freeze some for quick meals when needed. The chili was fantastic and warmed up our bellies. It is cooling off outside and will be a bit cooler for the next few days (only a high of 14 to 16), so it was nice to have warm chili.

We are playing Apples to Apples after supper. The game Apples to Apples is pretty simple. Each player gets 5 red cards that have something written on them. There is then a pile of green cards and these have the subjects on them, one of these is flipped over. The players with the red cards have to choose a card that best matches the subject. Each player that submitted a red card, then collects a new red card to replace the one they have put down. The player that is “it” looks through the chosen cards and he or she chooses the one that best matches the subject. The player whose card is chosen, takes the green card as his point and is the next person that is it. The first person to collect 5 green cards wins. Blake won this time.

Isaac wanted to watch an episode of Corner Gas. He got that set up and we had a few chuckles while we watched the show. After the show I read some more of my book. I am reading “Who Do You Think You Are” by Alice Munro. This is an earlier work by her, published in 1974 I think. It has also been published under “The Beggar’s Maid” and the only reason I know this is because I had to look up something in the book. At one point the dressmaker says to the main character, Rose, that she wouldn’t want her b.t.m. showing. I had no idea what b.t.m. meant and did a quick google search. Sure enough somebody has asked that exact same question, about the exact same line in the same book. It means bottom (BoTtoM). There you have it. The book is good so far, I am about 2/3rds of the way through. I am finding it similar to Lives of Girls and Women in the way it is written, but it is a little darker.

We are going to explore the Philadelphia Historic District tomorrow. See Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Should be good.

Sonya