Found another reference where the British bayonets routed the American Riflemen. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I read of it back in the early 1970's.
At the Battle of Princeton (3 January, 1777), which was another American victory shortly after Trenton and was the final battle that forced the British to retreat from New Jersey..............
The action in the battle where the American Riflemen fled from a British Bayonet Charge was when American General Mercer's men and British Lt. Col Mahwood's 40th Foot came into contact. This action should go down in the record books as having more ways to describe how the battle was joined than most other actions of the war. Some of this is normal with accounts of any action, but the plethora of differing reports probably were also as a result that American General Mercer was killed during this action and he was held in high esteem at the time. His loss was a heavy blow to American morale.
Where the accounts agree, it is that both opposing elements were sent out as "forced reconnaissance" to find where the opposing forces were at and give battle. Some accounts suggest the Americans surprised the British, some accounts suggest the Americans were already at the Orchard when the British started to come up, some accounts suggest it was a race between both forces to gain the orchard that was of tactical importance, British accounts admit Col. Mahwood at first thought the Americans were Hessian forces as his forces, the 40th Foot, were coming up.
The following is a fairly accurate account of what happened next, though:
"Mawhood ordered his light troops to delay Mercer, while he brought up the other detachments.[21] Mercer was walking through William Clark's orchard when the British light troops appeared.
The British light troops' volley went high which gave time for Mercer to wheel his troops around into battle line. (I.E., the British Light troops had fired a volley and when they jerked the triggers to fire a "neat" volley, shooting high and hitting no one was often the result when not shooting at large, linear formations.) Mercer's troops advanced, pushing back the British light troops.[22] The Americans took up a position behind a fence at the upper end of the orchard. However, Mawhood had brought up his troops and his artillery.[22] The American gunners opened fire first and for about ten minutes, the outnumbered American infantry exchanged fire with the British. However, many of the Americans had rifles which took longer to load than muskets.[23] Mawhood ordered a bayonet charge and because many of the Americans had rifles, which could not be equipped with bayonets, they were overrun.[24] Both of the Americans cannon were captured, and the British turned them on the fleeing troops.[23] Mercer was surrounded by British soldiers and they shouted at him "Surrender you @!*% rebel!". The British, thinking they had caught Washington, bayoneted him, smashed his head with a musket, and then left him for dead.[23] Mercer's second in command, Colonel John Haslet, was shot through the head and killed.[25]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_PrincetonWhat is interesting about the accounts is that we get an even better picture of this action from the British reports. They report this action was primarily at about 50 yards between forces and they mention that only about 20 of the Americans had muskets with bayonets.
Now, 50 yards between forces was not how the American riflemen hoped to fight any battle as that was a distance where the musket and bayonet were more deadly. What this does show, is that battles often happened at closer ranges when opposing forces "sort of bumped into each other" where the British could quickly close with the bayonet. It was actions like this, where the British Infantry learned not to be any more scared of American Riflemen than other elements in a battle.
What VERY few people know and even most Marines don't know is that a full Battalion of American Marines fought in this battle. There were only two Battalions of Marines authorized by Congress to be raised on 10 November 1775, so this was a major portion of the Continental Marines' strength at this time. The Battalion of Marines had been ordered to reinforce Washington too late to arrive and fight at Trenton, but they arrived in time to fight in this battle. After this battle, Washington never "gave the Marines back to the Navy" and used them both as Infantry and especially in the Artillery. They were never again mentioned as being "Marines," so we know almost nothing about what they did in the land battles afterwards. This because we can't separate them from the forces they were attached to. They never again fought as a separate combat unit known as "Continental Marines."
