Christmas Day, 1776, was dismally cold.There was a driving storm of sleet and the broad swollen stream of the Delaware, dotted with dark masses of floating ice, offered a chill prospect.To take an army with its guns across that threatening flood was indeed perilous.Gates and other generals declared that the scheme was too difficult to be carried out.Only one of the three forces crossed the river.Washington, with iron will, was not to be turned from his purpose.He had skilled boatmen from New England.The crossing took no less than ten hours and a great part of it was done in wintry darkness.When the army landed on the New Jersey shore it had a march of nine miles in sleet and rain in order to reach Trenton by daybreak.It is said that some of the men marched barefoot leaving tracks of blood in the snow.
The arms of some were lost and those of others were wet and useless but Washington told them that they must depend the more on the bayonet.He attacked Trenton in broad daylight.There was a sharp fight.Rahl, the commander, and some seventy men, were killed and a thousand men surrendered.
Even now Washington's position was dangerous.Von Donop, with two thousand men, lay only a few miles down the river.Had he marched at once on Trenton, as he should have done, the worn out little force of Washington might have met with disaster.What Von Donop did when the alarm reached him was to retreat as fast as he could to Princeton, a dozen miles to the rear towards New York, leaving behind his sick and all his heavy equipment.Meanwhile Washington, knowing his danger, had turned back across the Delaware with a prisoner for every two of his men.When, however, he saw what Von Donop had done he returned on the twenty-ninth to Trenton, sent out scouting parties, and roused the country so that in every bit of forest along the road to Princeton there were men, dead shots, to make difficult a British advance to retake Trenton.
The reverse had brought consternation at New York.Lord Cornwallis was about to embark for England, the bearer of news of overwhelming victory.Now, instead, he was sent to drive back Washington.It was no easy task for Cornwallis to reach Trenton, for Washington's scouting parties and a force of six hundred men under Greene were on the road to harass him.On the evening of the 2d of January, however, he reoccupied Trenton.This time Washington had not recrossed the Delaware but had retreated southward and was now entrenched on the southern bank of the little river Assanpink, which flows into the Delaware.
Reinforcements were following Cornwallis.That night he sharply cannonaded Washington's position and was as sharply answered.He intended to attack in force in the morning.To the skill and resource of Washington he paid the compliment of saying that at last he had run down the "Old Fox."Then followed a maneuver which, years after, Cornwallis, a generous foe, told Washington was one of the most surprising and brilliant in the history of war.There was another "old fox" in Europe, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, who knew war if ever man knew it, and he, too, from this movement ranked Washington among the great generals.The maneuver was simple enough.Instead of taking the obvious course of again retreating across the Delaware Washington decided to advance, to get in behind Cornwallis, to try to cut his communications, to threaten the British base of supply and then, if a superior force came up, to retreat into the highlands of New Jersey.There he could keep an unbroken line as far east as the Hudson, menace the British in New Jersey, and probably force them to withdraw to the safety of New York.
All through the night of January 2, 1777, Washington's camp fires burned brightly and the British outposts could hear the sound of voices and of the spade and pickaxe busy in throwing up entrenchments.The fires died down towards morning and the British awoke to find the enemy camp deserted.Washington had carried his whole army by a roundabout route to the Princeton road and now stood between Cornwallis and his base.There was some sharp fighting that day near Princeton.Washington had to defeat and get past the reinforcements coming to Cornwallis.He reached Princeton and then slipped away northward and made his headquarters at Morristown.He had achieved his purpose.The British with Washington entrenched on their flank were not safe in New Jersey.The only thing to do was to withdraw to New York.
By his brilliant advance Washington recovered the whole of New Jersey with the exception of some minor positions near the sea.
He had changed the face of the war.In London there was momentary rejoicing over Howe's recent victories, but it was soon followed by distressing news of defeat.Through all the colonies ran inspiring tidings.There had been doubts whether, after all, Washington was the heaven-sent leader.Now both America and Europe learned to recognize his skill.He had won a reputation, though not yet had he saved a cause.
