18. Washington’s Christmas Victory

It was the winter of the year in which the Declaration of Independence was signed, 1776, when Washington, with his little army of three thousand patriots, beaten, and driven out of Brooklyn, out of New York, out of New Jersey, finally crossed the Delaware River, at the same hour that General Cornwallis, the most skilful of all the British leaders, with a much larger army, reached Trenton. The cold was intense. The patriots were in rags; many were barefooted, and the route was marked by their footprints of blood. Congress was fleeing in panic from Philadelphia to Baltimore. Terror spread everywhere, and many Americans hastened to put themselves under British protection. But amid all, Washington never lost his courage. Having seized all the boats along the Delaware, for many miles up and down the river, he intended to surprise the Hessian soldiers (whom the English had hired) at Trenton on Christmas night when he knew they would be sure to be spending their time in feasting and merriment. Amid a storm of sleet and snow, bitterly cold, on Christmas evening, Washington and twenty-five hundred picked men pushed their flatboats through the grinding blocks of ice, and during the night the entire force landed on the other side of the Delaware, and before the bleak, wintry morning dawned, they had surrounded Trenton. The garrison of one thousand Hessian soldiers was surprised and captured, with the loss of but four Americans. Colonel Rall, the Hessian commander, being wounded and suffering greatly, limped slowly up to where Washington was seated on his horse and handed him his sword, begging him to be merciful to the captured men. Washington gave the promise, expressing his sympathy with the wounded officer, upon whom he called after he was carried to a house and laid upon a bed, and spent some time in trying to cheer his last moments. This Battle of Trenton did what Washington intended—electrified the despairing patriots, increased enlistments, and inspired hope throughout the land. It was the turning-point of the Revolution. It was Washington’s Christmas gift to the American people.