January 27th

On 27 January 1777, the British and Hessians, under General Alexander Leslie and Colonel Carl Emilius von Donop ventured into New Jersey on a foraging expedition. The force, numbering two hundred men of the light infantry, four hundred men of the English regiments, the Grenadier Battalion Linsing, fifty horse and Capt. Johann Ewald with fifty Jaegers, marched toward Samptown (present-day South Plainfield). Near Quibbletown (present-day Piscataway), the Americans attacked the party several times, but could not prevent the enemy from foraging. Captain Ewald claimed "a few men were killed and wounded on both sides." (1)

(1) Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal. Capt. Johann Ewald, Trans. & ed. Joseph P. Trustin, New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1979, p. 52.