# "Give 'em Watts, Boys!"



## Plimoth Thom (Jun 21, 2005)

> On June 23rd, 1780, the climactic battle of the final invasion of NJ was fought in Springfield. Approx. 6,000 Crown forces under Gen. Knyphausen attacked from Staten Island, NY, via Elizabethtown, NJ, attempting to seize the Hobart Gap in the Watchung Mts. and then Morristown. He was stopped by Gen. Greene with a force of approx. 2,000 Continentals and NJ Militia. Springfield's defense was bolstered by the heroic actions of Rev. James Caldwell, whose wife, Hannah, was killed on June 7th at Conn. Farms (now Union, NJ), becoming NJ's "Jenny McCrea".
> 
> When James Caldwell joined the battle in Springfield, the Americans were giving the British a sound beating, when suddenly one of the patriot companies ran out of paper wadding. Now wadding was just as important as powder and musket balls to the soldier. Instantly, James called for the company to retreat back to the local Presbyterian Church where he ran in and grabbed all the Isaac Watts hymnals. He rushed back outside and began slinging them to the soldiers with the admonition to "fill the British with doctrine from the hymnals" and, "Give 'em Watts, Boys!" "Put Watts Into 'em, Boys!"


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## Plimoth Thom (Jun 21, 2005)




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## JonathanHunt (Jun 22, 2005)

Typical heathen colonists.

What way is that to treat an Isaac Watts hymnbook?

JH


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## Plimoth Thom (Jun 22, 2005)

Just doing their part to spread the gospel.


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## JonathanHunt (Jun 22, 2005)

They were probably exclusive psalmodists


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