The 63rd annual Col. Edward Hand Historic March re-enactment – complete with musket firing and a two-mile walk to the Shabakunk Creek at Notre Dame High School – will kick off at 10 a.m. at the Lawrence Township Municipal Building at 2207 Lawrence Road.
Before the marchers set off on their trek, Mercer County Executive Dan Benson will talk about the county’s preparations to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Although Mercer County did not exist during the American Revolutionary War, the three battles that make up the 10 Crucial Days campaign in December 1776 and January 1777 were key in turning the tide in favor of the American patriots, said historic reenactor William Agress. He portrays Col. Hand.
“The campaign changed the course of the American Revolution,” said Agress, who lives in Lawrence Township. “The campaign took place in various parts of today’s Mercer County – Hopewell Township, Ewing Township, Hamilton Township, Lawrence Township, the City of Trenton and Princeton.”
Mercer County was created in 1838 from parts of Burlington, Hunterdon, Middlesex and Somerset counties. It was named for Gen. Hugh Mercer, who died after being bayonetted by British and Hessian troops during the Battle of Princeton on Jan. 3, 1777.
Meanwhile, the Col. Edward Hand Historic March event was created by the late Robert Immordino, who was the official Lawrence Township historian. It is an official post whose occupant is appointed by the Lawrence Township Council.
Hand and his band of Pennsylvania riflemen delayed the advance of British and Hessian troops on their way from Princeton to re-take Trenton from the Americans during the afternoon of Jan. 2, 1777 in what would become known as the Second Battle of Trenton – a few days after the First Battle of Trenton on Dec. 25, 1776.
The series of events that led to the Second Battle of Trenton and Hand’s delaying tactics can be traced to the series of defeats suffered by Gen. George Washington and his troops between August and November 1776. The American rebels retreated to Pennsylvania.
On Christmas Day 1776, Washington and 2,400 soldiers crossed the Delaware River from Pennsylvania and marched to Trenton, where they routed the Hessian troops in the First Battle of Trenton. They crossed the Delaware River back to Pennsylvania after the battle.
Several days after the famous battle, Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River again and stopped in Trenton. The British and Hessian troops were sent to Trenton to take back the small town from the Americans on Jan. 2, 1777.
Hand and the 1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment were dispatched to slow down the British and Hessian troops as they marched from Princeton to Trenton.
The Americans engaged the British in several small skirmishes as they passed through Maidenhead, as Lawrence Township was originally known.
Despite the delaying tactics of Hand and his soldiers, the British and Hessian troops reached Trenton at dusk on Jan. 2, 1777. They engaged Washington and his soldiers in the Second Battle of Trenton.
During the battle, the Americans retreated across a bridge over the Assunpink Creek. Their British and Hessian pursuers tried three times to cross the bridge, but they were turned back each time.
The British were going to continue the fight the next day. But during the night and into the morning of Jan. 3, 1777, Washington led his troops around the British and Hessian encampment and followed a back road to Princeton.
The American troops surprised the British troops stationed there in what became know as the Battle of Princeton – and a turning point in the American Revolutionary War.
Following the march, there will be light refreshments served at the Anne Demarais Nature Center at 481 Drexel Ave. Rides will be provided back to the municipal building.
