Somerset's Revolutionary Roots to be Celebrated at Camp Middlebrook

By Mike Deak

For more than a century, the Fourth of July has been marked in a ceremony at a landmark in Bridgewater that not many residents know but played a pivotal role in the nation’s history.

At 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the Washington Campground Association will hold its annual Independence Day ceremony at Camp Middlebrook at 1761 Middlebrook Road, about a half mile west of Vosseller Avenue and a mile north of Route 22.

About 100 people are expected to attend the ceremony, which dates back to the 1880s, said Bob Fazen, president of the Washington Campground Association, a retired Army colonel who will be master of ceremonies.

“It’s really important to remember what we had to do to win our independence,” he said. 

The ceremonies will begin on the west side of the 20-acre park where a flag will be raised.

One of the primary reasons why Camp Middlebrook occupies a special place in American history is because it is the place where the first American  flag, designed by Betsy Ross and officially adopted by the Continental Congress, was first hoisted over the Army.

The ceremony then moves to the gathering area on the east side of the park. State Sen. Michael Doherty, R-23, will deliver the keynote address, and former Bound Brook Councilman Brad Higginbottom will read the Declaration of Independence.

Higginbottom’s mother read the Declaration of Independence during a ceremony at the campground in the 1940s, Fazen said.

Six sixth-graders from schools in Bridgewater, Bound Brook and South Bound Brook will receive American Citizenship Awards during the ceremony, Fazen said.

In the past, shuttle buses brought spectators to the campground. But this year, spectators will be allowed to park at the campground and along the roads, Fazen said.

Revolutionary History
The area in eastern Bridgewater between the two ridges of the Watchungs along the Middle Brook was the site of two encampments by Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

The fledging American Army was camped there from May 28 to July 2, 1777 and again from December 1778 to June 1779.

After the successful battles in Trenton and Princeton, Washington’s army wintered in Morristown in 1777. Then, in May 1777, Washington moved his army of 6,000 to 8,000 men south to the Watchungs where he could observe from the heights of the Raritan River valley where 16,000 to 18,000 British troops were stationed at New Brunswick and Perth Amboy.

That proved vital in the outcome of the Revolution, Fazen said, because that prevented the British from marching across New Jersey toward Philadelphia. That prompted British Gen. William Howe to move his army by sea, causing a delay which prevented Howe from joining Burgoyne, which led to the defeat of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga in October, the turning point of the Revolutionary War.

That is why, Fazen said historians have called the first Middlebrook encampment "The Beginning of the Winning of the War."

In November 1778, Washington marched his army back to Middlebrook, where they had shelter from the harsh winter weather and enjoyed the support of the area residents. Washington had his headquarters at the Wallace House in Somerville.

The 20-acre park was donated by the LaMonte family in the 1880s on the condition that the Declaration of Independence be read every Fourth of July.