New Jersey author tells the forgotten stories of local Revolutionary War sites

Wachung historian and author Bob Mayers knows the Revolutionary War. He's now written books on the topic and given speeches at West Point, and the Pentagon on the topic. His latest book, “The Forgotten Revolution — When History Forgets: Revisiting Critical Places of the American Revolution That Have Been Neglected by History” is a wonderfully researched book that covers important places in New Jersey that played parts in the Revolution many have long since forgotten:

“The Forgotten Revolution” covers 12 sites. He’s visited them, spoken to local residents — Mayers calls them “witnesses,” — many of whom have ancestors who lived in the area during the war for independence or who served in the army and wrote about their experiences in diaries or letters. Others are specialized historians, such as re-enactors, who have studied specific regiments and their battles, or members of local historical societies who have acquired and studied original documents involving the area.

Some of Mayers' research has turned up gems of strategy on the fly during the war:

Early on, in 1777, the British came from the Amboys and tried to draw Washington out of Bridgewater. They wanted him on the plains of New Jersey to fight a “European-style battle on the plains, with two armies facing each other and firing into each other,” he said.

Washington, who was at Washington Rock in Watchung, could see the lines of British coming. They came through Edison and Metuchen, and Washington sent Lord Stirling with a detachment of about 1,000 soldiers to Plainfield, telling him to “Guard my flank … hold these people off ‘til I get to safety,” Mayers said.

If you love American history or just enjoy the history of the Garden State along comes a very interesting late-summer read.