

# Event Details

- **Event Name**: “Give Them As Much Trouble as You Possibly Can”: The Battle of Cooch’s Bridge
- **Event Start and End Date**: Tue, 17 Mar, 2026 at 05:15 pm – Tue, 17 Mar, 2026 at 08:45 pm
- **Event Description**: WE ARE SOLD OUT FOR THIS LECTURE!!

Join us on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, as we are honored to welcome back historian and archaeologist Wade Catts where he will talk about The Battle of Cooch’s Bridge (3 September 1777) – The Opening Engagement of The Philadelphia Campaign and the Invasion of the Upper Delmarva Peninsula.

Located in New Castle County near the Delaware-Maryland state line, Cooch’s Bridge was a crossing point on the King’s Highway over the Christiana Creek. The opening engagement in the fall of 1777 for the Crown Forces bid to capture Philadelphia, The Battle of Cooch’s Bridge (or Iron Hill) was a short but spirited fight between the vanguard of the British army and the American Light Infantry Corps. The battle ended with the Americans retreating, while the British remained masters of the field, buried the dead, and encamped in the area for a brief time. The battle and the British sojourn have shaped the history and local traditions of the area for nearly 250 years. Eight generations of Coochs have resided at the bridge. Family and local traditions are rife with stories of earthworks, British graves, cannon balls, and of, course, the Betsy Ross flag.

The presentation integrates historical, topographical, and archaeological studies into a discussion of the battle and its context, using contemporary British, Hessian, and American accounts to reconstruct the course of the engagement, the landscape the battle was fought over, the battle’s outcome, historical legacy and commemoration.

About Wade P. Catts – Wade P. Catts is a Consulting Historian to the Friends of Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site, and the President of South River Heritage Consulting (Newark, Delaware). He also is an adjunct professor with the history department at Rowan University. He is the co-director of the award-winning Red Bank Battlefield Archaeology Project. Catts earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in American History from the University of Delaware. A Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA), Catts has more than 40 years of experience as an historical archaeologist specializing in history, archaeology, and historic preservation. He is a nationally and internationally recognized historian and historical archaeologist with research interests in the history of farmsteads and agricultural landscapes, military history and archaeology, environmental history, African-American studies, and Middle Atlantic regional history and historic preservation.

In addition to serving a Consulting Historian to the Friends of Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site, he serves on several local nonprofit boards including the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust, the Old Swedes Foundation in Wilmington, and Preservation Delaware, and the Advisory Board for Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Masters in Applied Archaeology Program. He is a past president of the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA), the national trade association representing the cultural resources management industry. He received the Archibald Crozier Award for Distinguished Achievement in and Contributions to Archaeology from the Archaeological Society of Delaware in 2016 and the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution History Award Medal in 2021. Along with a multidisciplinary team, his work in the discovery, search and interpretation of the African Burial Ground at Delaware’s John Dickinson Plantation was recognized in 2022 with an Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).

His Revolutionary War experience includes multiple projects throughout the eastern U.S., including work in New Jersey (Raritan Landing, Beverwyck, Short Hills, Princeton, Fort Mercer/Red Bank), Pennsylvania (Brandywine, Paoli, Valley Forge National Park, Camp Security, French Creek Powder Works), Delaware (Cooch’s Bridge), New York (Schuylerville, Bennington, Stone Arabia/Klock’s Field), Vermont (Hubbardton), and Virginia (Battle of the Hook). His battlefield experience also includes NPS-funded studies at the first five military parks – Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga/Chattanooga.

He authored a chapter about the battle of Cooch’s Bridge in Partisans, Guerillas, and Irregulars: Historical Archaeology of Asymmetric Warfare, published in 2019 (The University of Alabama Press) and also in 2019 he co-authored a chapter detailing the archaeology of a target range discovered at the Valley Forge Encampment for Historical Archaeology of the Revolutionary War Encampments of Washington’s Army (University of Florida Press). He recently had two chapters published in the edited volume, The Archaeology of the American Revolution, by University Press of Florida, one dealing with sham battles and commemoration at Red Bank Battlefield and the second examining documentary and archaeological records detailing land damages and depredations during the War.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/valley-forge/give-them-as-much-trouble-as-you-possibly-can-the-battle-of-cooch’s-bridge/200029705489454
- **Event Categories**: workshops, nonprofit
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 60

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket URL**: https://pbpfinc.org/black-powder-tavern-lecture-series/?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=valley+forge-events

## Event venue details

- **city**: Valley Forge
- **state**: PA
- **country**: United States
- **location**: Black Powder Tavern
- **lat**: 40.072612255923
- **long**: -75.438211803959
- **full address**: Black Powder Tavern, 1164 Valley Forge Rd, Wayne, PA 19087-1202, United States, Valley Forge

## Event Organizer details

- **affiliate_id**: 2
- **organizer**: Paoli Battlefield Historical Park (https://allevents.in/org/paoli-battlefield-historical-park/21849282)

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: banner
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/9b2a79f0f655ed169b95865966b967dbb7bf3ea69c3d08e4663a0f1fbc84b52b-rimg-w760-h385-dc606060-gmir?v=1771656414
- **Alt text**: thumbnail
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/2e8693ba65ea4d6b05be3226c0e29a9251209962b55c20187b858584b1aa43b0-rimg-w300-h300-dc606060-gmir?v=1773357581

## FAQs

- **Q**: When is the event happening?
  - **A:** Tue, 17 Mar, 2026 at 05:15 pm
- **Q**: Where is the event happening?
  - **A:** Black Powder Tavern, 1164 Valley Forge Rd, Wayne, PA 19087-1202, United States, Valley Forge
- **Q**: Who is organizing the event?
  - **A:** Paoli Battlefield Historical Park
- **Q**: What type of event is this?
  - **A:** workshops, nonprofit
- **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about “Give Them As Much Trouble as You Possibly Can”: The Battle of Cooch’s Bridge ?
  - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents.

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