1,200 men, commanded by Col. Count Donop, crossed the Delaware at
Philadelphia with orders to storm Fort Mercer, at Red Bank. The
fortifications consisted of extensive outer works, within which was an
entrenchment eight or nine feet high, boarded and fraized. Late in the
evening of the 22d Count Donop appeared before the fort and attacked it
with great intrepidity. It was defended with equal resolution by the
brave garrison of Rhode Island Continentals, under command of Col.
Christopher Greene. The outer works being too extensive to be manned by
the troops in the fort, were used only to gall the assailants while
advancing. On their near approach the garrison retired within the inner
entrenchment, whence they poured upon the Hessians a heavy and
destructive fire. Colonel Donop received a mortal wound, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Mengerode, the second in command, fell about the
same time. [2]

Lieutenant-Colonel Linsing, the oldest remaining officer, drew off his
troops and returned next day to Philadelphia. The loss of the
assailants was estimated by the Americans at 400 men. The garrison was
reinforced from Fort Mifflin, and aided by the galleys which flanked
the Hessians in their advance and retreat. The American loss, in killed
and wounded, amounted to only thirty-two men.

The ships having been ordered to cooperate with Count Donop, the
Augusta, with four smaller vessels, passed the lower line of
_chevaux-de-frise_, opposite to Billingsport, and lay above it, waiting
until the assault should be made on the fort. The flood tide setting in
about the time the attack commenced they moved with it up the river.
The obstructions sunk in the Delaware had in some degree changed its
channel, in consequence of which the Augusta and the Merlin grounded a
considerable distance below the second line of _chevaux-de-frise_, and