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Local historian lays out Short Hills campaign, June 1777, as major regional engagement
Summary
At a library program, historian Walt Schochal argued the Battle of the Short Hills (June 26, 1777) was the largest engagement in the Edison/Woodbridge area during the 1776–77 campaign, describing troop movements, skirmishes and the campaign corridor between Perth Amboy and New Brunswick.
Walt Schochal told attendees that the campaign culminating in the Battle of the Short Hills was a central episode of regional fighting in 1777 and described how British columns advanced from Perth Amboy toward the Short Hills while American forces used high ground and local militia to harass foraging and supply lines.
"The largest battle that was fought in Addison is the the Battle of the Shore Hills on 06/26/1777," Schochal said, describing British columns, skirmishes along Oak Tree Road and movements that forced Washington's army into the Watchung (Washington) Mountains. He placed the action within a months‑long pattern of occupation, raids and retreats that shaped local wartime experience.
