1776 was a momentous year. On March 17th, the colonial army forced the British to evacuate Boston.
On July 4th was the American Declaration of Independence.
But on August 29th, General George Washington, partly by daring deception, barely managed to extricate the fledgling and now badly demoralized American Army from Manhattan.
The war for independence could have been all over right then and there if the British under General Howe had simply followed up on his success.
Now in mid December, Washington's Army was shrinking -- And it was about to shrink even more.
Standard practice at this time was for volunteers to enlist for only one year of service, and the enlistment period for a major portion of the army was due to expire after December 31st.
After the debacle at New York, Washington had also lost contact with two wings of his army.
General Horatio Gates was still in the Hudson River Valley, and General Charles Lee (who was not a fan of Washington's) was in western New Jersey with 2,000 men.
Washington himself, with a force somewhere between 4,000-6,000 men had crossed the Delaware River and was encamped near McKonkey's Ferry. Nearly 1,700 of the men were unfit for duty. Many men did not even have shoes. It was said that one could follow the march of the army by the trail of blood left in the snow.
The British army, with winter closing fast, had gone into winter quarters. Under General Lord Cornwallis they set up a series of outposts in New Jersey, including one in the town of Trenton, manned by a largely mercenary Hessian (German) force of around 1,500 men and 6 pieces of artillery.
The morale of the Americans was given a boost from two events.
On December 19th, Thomas Paine's newly published "The American Crisis" was read to the troops.
These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Even better for the Continental Army, Lee's force of 2,000 men arrived in camp the next day -- minus Lee, who was captured by the British. Gate's division also showed up along with 1,000 other militia.
But Washington still faced a manpower crisis because of the enlistment issue -- and his men were also deserting at an alarming rate.
And the newly received morale boost would not last long.
What was needed was some kind of victory to not only boost the moral of his army to the point that some of the men who's enlistments were up would stay, but for the Continental Congress who were beginning to evacuate Philadelphia.
Washington considered his options and came up with a daring plan.
When his army retreated across the Delaware after his defeat in New York, they gathered up all of the "Durham boats" in the area to prevent the British from using them.
Washington would now use these boats, along with some large ferry vessels to cross the Delaware at McKonkey's Ferry, make a wide swing to the east and execute a surprise attack on the Hessians south in Trenton.
The crossing was set for the night of December 25th, with the attack itself at dawn on December 26th.
Right from the start things did not go smoothly.
The plan was to cross as soon as it was dark enough to conceal their movements, but most of the troops did not reach the crossing point until after 6:00pm -- 90 minutes after sunset.
And the weather steadily worsened. It started off with drizzle, then went to rain, to sleet, and finally to snow. The wind blew like a hurricane.
Worse, two additional crossings closer to Trenton had to be scrapped because of ice jams on the river.
Washington began his crossing later than he wanted to -- slipping between the ice flows around 11:00pm and was one of the first across. The larger ferry boats were used to tow some 18 pieces of artillery across the river.
They then began their circuitous march towards Trenton.
On the approach, Washington split his force of around 2,400 men into two columns. On was under the command of himself and General Greene, the second was under General Sullivan.
About 2 miles outside of town, these columns reunited.
The attack began around 8:00am.
The Hessians were caught completely by surprise. After having had a Christmas feast, they fell asleep. Colonel Johann Rall, the Hessian commander, did not even bother to post morning sentries.
The Americans were amongst them almost before they had a chance to sound an alarm.
There were some instances where some Hessian units were able to form up and fire a few volleys and even to counterattack, but the outcome was never seriously in doubt.
During one of these Hessian counterattacks, Colonel Rall fell mortally wounded.
Most of the Hessians surrendered.
The Americans had only two fatalities, and five either wounded, or injured from frostbite. The Hessians suffered 22 killed, 83 wounded and close to 1,000 captured.
The Americans also were able to haul away a substantial booty in muskets, ammunition, and artillery.
Washington then retreated back across the Delaware, but recrossed it again to defeat the British in the battle of Princeton om January 3rd, 1777.
The Continental Army then entered into winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey.
