The mountains of northern New Jersey provided safe retreats behind natural barriers that the British troops and their conscripted Hessian auxiliaries to Great Britain were never ordered to scale after they had fared badly while attempting to negotiate the few passes, such as Hobart Gap. The movements of the British and their troops between New York and Philadelphia skirted along the coastal and narrow piedmont regions of the state until passing the southern boundary of the mountain ranges, readily visible to the scouts stationed atop the mountains to monitor their movement.