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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
On the morning of December 26, 1776, Trenton was the scene of one
of the most decisive battles of the Revolution. Washington, his prestige
seriously reduced after his army had been harried across the State and into
Pennsylvania by closely pursuing British, turned with about 2,500 troops
upon his foe by executing the famous crossing of the ice-choked Delaware
(see Tour 11).
Washington had planned his surprise attack on the Hessians in Trenton
for 5 a.m., expecting to find them asleep after a boisterous Christmas cele
bration. The difficult crossing of the river and the icy roads on the nine-mile march delayed until 8 o'clock the arrival of his two divisions, one
marching by the lower road and one by the upper road, but apparently
few of the Hessians were awake even then. The fighting was described by
Washington in a report to Congress as follows:
We presently saw their main body formed; but, from their motions, they seemed
undetermined how to act. Being hard pressed by our troops, who had already got
possession of part of their artillery, they attempted to file off by a road on their
right, leading to Princeton; but, perceiving their intention, I threw a body of troops
in their way, which immediately checked them. Finding, from our disposition, that
they were surrounded, and they must inevitably be cut to pieces if they made any
further resistance, they agreed to lay down their arms .. .
After resting a few hours in Trenton, the American troops returned to
the Pennsylvania shore. Two men died from the cold. Revolutionists
throughout the Colonies were heartened by the unexpected success at Trenton and the British command was correspondingly alarmed. General Howe
dispatched Cornwallis with 4,000 to 5,000 troops to intercept Washington
should he attempt to recross New Jersey. The American Army, meanwhile,
had recrossed to Trenton on the then frozen river.
Cornwallis arrived shortly before sunset on January 2 and found the
Continental troops drawn up on higher ground on the farther side of
Assunpink Creek. The engagement that followed, often confused with the Battle of Princeton on the next day, is known locally as the second Battle
of Trenton, or Battle of the Assunpink.
Three times the British charged up to the bridge and even onto it, but
each time the assault was broken by a hail of Continental lead. An eyewitness wrote that when the first attack crumbled, "... our army raised a shout,
and such a shout I have never since heard; by what signal or word of
command, I know not. The line was more than a mile in length, and from
the nature of the ground the extremes were not in sight of each other,
yet they shouted as one man ..."
A contemporary observer estimated that 150 enemy troops were killed.
Washington knew, however, that a more determined assault would be
made in the morning, which might overwhelm his poorly equipped army.
Since a thaw had broken the ice sheet across the Delaware, an escape to the
Pennsylvania shore was impossible. That night Washington and his officers conferred in the Douglass house to find a way out of the trap. It was
General St. Clair, according to some historians, who suggested the retreat
to Princeton by a little-used back road.
By good fortune the temperature dropped sufficiently to freeze this
ordinarily bad road so that artillery wheels could be supported. The army
marched off to whispered orders. To deaden the rumble of artillery wheels,
rags were wrapped around the rims. "Rags were plentiful, but they were
all on the backs of the soldiers," one historian commented. A skeleton
force was left behind to keep the camp fires burning in sight of the British, who were singing around well-filled kettles only a short distance away.
It is said that Washington even ordered dummy cannon mounted to aid
the deception, a device used as recently as 1937 by Chinese defenders of
Shanghai.
In the morning Cornwallis got hurried news of the Revolutionaries' success in overcoming the British garrison at Princeton (see PRINCETON).
Fearing for the safety of a treasure chest of £70,000 and a large supply
of military stores at New Brunswick, the British commander started his
army in quick pursuit. But the American troops had turned off to find
shelter in the Watchung Hills.
The prisoners numbered 23 officers and 886 men. Colonel Rall, the
Hessians' commander, was mortally wounded; Washington estimated the
enemy's dead at "not above twenty or thirty," while the Americans' casualties were "only two officers and one or two privates wounded." One of
the wounded officers was Lieut. James Monroe, later President, who helped
to capture a Hessian battery. About one-third of the Hessian force escaped
down the river road toward Bordentown.
The upper division arrived at the enemy's advanced post exactly at 8 o'clock; and
in 3 minutes after, I found, from the fire on the lower road, that that division had
also got up. The out-guards made but a small opposition; though, for their num
bers, they behaved very well,-keeping up a constant retreating fire from behind
houses.
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