Washington Crossing the Delaware
Charles Wilson Peale's iconic painting is known to everyone, but most don't know that it depicts a key event in American history, one that shows us what Washington and his men were made of.
What the Greatest American Gave Us for Christmas
George Washington was not an obvious choice for commander-in-chief of a revolutionary army. He had no military education or training and, at age 43, he had all ready reached the retirement age for men of his time when he assumed command of the Continental Army in the summer of 1775. Many of the firebrands at the forefront of the American Revolution were younger: John Adams was 40, Thomas Jefferson 33, Thomas Paine 38, John Paul Jones 28, and Benjamin Rush 30. Washington had served with distinction as a militia officer 20 years earlier during the French and Indian War, but he was not qualified to be a field general.
He had a reputation as a shrewd businessman before inheriting Mount Vernon in 1752. Seven years later he married wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis and by 1775 he had become one of the richest men in America. Why risk it all by coming out of retirement to take on the King’s formidable Redcoats and the invincible Royal Navy?
Washington was what Hollywood loves: An Enigmatic Hero.
He was neither a learned man nor a notable speaker like many of his friends such as Alexander Hamilton and Patrick Henry. Washington was, however, a man of high intelligence with a passion for books who built a sizable library at Mount Vernon to house them all. He was a voracious reader, especially of politics and political theory. Biographer Richard Brookhiser says Washington read, “. . . everything that came off the presses, knew many of the authors and enjoyed picking their brains.”
At six foot three he cut an imposing figure; he was handsome, exceptionally strong, athletic and an esteemed horseman. Today we'd say he had “charisma.” Back then “charisma” bore a connotation of “saintliness." Like many others in the forefront of the Revolution, John Adams was in awe of Washington writing about “[his] . . . leaving his delicious retirement, his family and friends, sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all, in the cause of his country.” With everything to lose, Washington modestly accepted Congress’s appointment as Commander in Chief, but declined the handsome salary of $500 per month.
On the heels of his commission Washington rushed off to oversee the siege of Boston. About 112 British warships had filled Boston Harbor but the threat of their presence was minimized because they were pinned down in it. The Americans held the high ground along the water's edge and easily repelled British troops time and again as they attempted to mount an assault from their sea of ships.
Looking more like a stalemate than a British offensive, it was hard to determine who was besieging whom. After being bloodied and beaten back from Bunker Hill earlier, the British, humiliated and angered, withdrew to the city. For eleven months each side warily eyed the other while considering alternative ways to attack without destroying the city or taking massive casualties.
Colonel Henry Knox's Miracle
In November, Washington dispatched Colonel Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga. Knox's order was to take possession of artillery held there and transport it some 300 miles back to Boston where it could be used to dislodge the enemy and cripple its armada. Upon arrival at the fort, Knox found 58 mortars and cannon (60,000 tons in all) which were dragged to the banks of Lake George with great difficulty and loaded onto boats. From there they were rowed 40 miles to the lake’s southern shore and lifted onto huge sledges to be hauled through snow. It was a spectacular feat of strength and perseverance carried out during a particularly frigid spell of early winter in snow over a foot deep.
Knox and his cargo arrived at Boston to the cheers of his comrades in mid-January, 1776. Washington and his officers set to work planning an assault, taking great pains to keep the artillery hidden from the enemy while deciding how to put their new firepower to its best use.
The plan they devised called for more backbreaking labor. The cannons would be moved under cover of night to the unfortified Dorchester Heights, twin hills twice the height of and steeper than Bunker Hill, with a commanding view of the city and its harbor.
On the night of March 4th, Washington ordered a diversionary bombardment of British positions. The fusilade continued for hours while 2,000 troops and 300 wagons and carts pulled by oxen and hidden behind bales of hay, surreptitiously laid in place several days before, silently crept toward the Heights. The cannon, pre-assembled fortifications called facicles and picks and shovels for building breastworks and gun emplacements arrived intact. Working through the night, the troops and workers built a bastion with over 20 cannon in place. It was a logistical feat second only to the miracle of moving the cannon from Ticonderoga to Boston.
At daybreak, the British commanders gathered to survey the harbor and when Dorchester Heights came into view they could not believe their eyes. Stunned to a man, they realized that Washington had checkmated them as they slept. General William Howe, Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s forces, conceded that the city with its large Loyalist population, his army and the British fleet were in grave danger. Wanting to avoid unnecessary harm to American civilians and property, and to avoid destruction of the city (which Howe, in a note to Washington, promised to spare, provided his troops were allowed to depart unmolested), Washington ordered his men to standby and allow the British to pass.
Eleven days elapsed before the English entourage was fully aboard ship and favorable winds rose that allowed them to set sail. Washington surmised they were headed for New York, but Howe had chosen Halifax, Nova Scotia as a place to pull his forces back together and renew morale. It didn’t take long.
The British roared back, invading New York in July. They began by sailing a handful of ships, laden with soldiers, munitions and supplies, into the vast New York harbor every three or four days. Suddenly a breathtaking 100 ships swept into the harbor in a single day. To the army of farmers, shopkeepers, artisans, carpenters, shoemakers, wheelwrights and laborers, armed mostly with old muskets and antiquated swords, it was a startling display of British naval and military power.
While Washington proved to be a clever and resourceful leader at the Siege of Boston, he was still an inexperienced field commander. In the first major battle of the summer he was indecisive and his army was soundly beaten when, unsure of whether the British were going to attack Long Island or Manhattan, Washington made the fatal mistake of dividing his forces in an attempt to defend both. More hesitation and mistakes led to a series of costly defeats. The Continental Army was reeling and, as summer turned to fall, its supplies were dangerously low and men were deserting in droves.
The final blow came November 20th when the British launched a massive assault on Fort Lee in New Jersey. Though alerted that an attack may be imminent, the garrison was nonetheless taken by surprise and fled rather than make a fight of it. Winter was at hand and with the abrupt fall of the fort, irreplaceable supplies were lost: provisions, stores, blankets, cooking utensils and three hundred tents fell into enemy hands.
The British next turned their guns on Washington’s nearby troops and the chase was on. It was an inexplicably leisurely pursuit on the part of the English under General Howe. Washington’s demoralized command slowly retreated 200 miles from New York and across New Jersey with the Redcoats proceeding languidly behind, looking more like disinterested followers than pursuers.
Then, with the gravely weakened Continental Army standing on the east side of the Delaware River and the British on the west, General Howe had an unexpected change of mind. Rather than finishing off what was left of the rebel forces, he diverted his attention to New Brunswick. He decided that city could be easily taken and from there he could swiftly move to capture Philadelphia, the colonial capitol. His change in strategy was ill-conceived as he unwittingly preserved the crumbling Continental Army from annihilation.
It was said that Washington was a man who learned from his mistakes quickly. This assessment of him would be tested in two short weeks.
The Battle of Trenton
While Howe was moving on New Brunswick, Washington took his army south and into Pennsylvania and set up camp opposite Trenton. It was December 16th. Snow was on the ground where it remained in the frigid weather. The bedraggled army was poorly supplied and ill-equipped for winter with many men still in summer clothing and all of them exhausted from months of exertion. Each day, the army withered a little more due to death from the elements, illness and desertion.
News of the summer’s defeats and the long, embarrassing retreat ending in Washington’s withdrawal into New Jersey was widely known. Many believed the war was over; one additional deft blow from the British was all it would take. More than anyone, Washington understood just how close the end was. But he was not going to let the British win quite so easily and leave his men and the people open to the mayhem and anguish of defeat. He decided to strike back.
He wasn't content to merely to hit the British, he wanted to make a bold and defiant statement, one he felt necessary to restore the fighting spirit of his men and public confidence in the war. The British, having taken up winter quarters in New Brunswick, left a guard of about 2,000 well-trained Hessians mercenaries garrisoned at Trenton. Washington decided that was where he would attack and he would strike when least expected.
The Price Paid for the Fourth of July
It was nearly dark and raining when the first troops reached the banks of the Delaware River where the boats waited. Except for officers in uniform, they resembled an army of beggars in their threadbare summer coats and trousers. Men without boots were plentiful. Their feet bound in rags, they pushed on through a path of mud and slush. Here and there bloody footprints were seen in patches of fresh snow. The march began at two p.m. Christmas Day with an icy wind lashing at the two columns of troops as they moved out.
Six hours later they were standing silently at the river’s edge while eighteen field cannon and fifty horses were loaded aboard flat-bottomed wooden scows. The largest boat, 60-feet long, could hold forty men standing up and tightly packed side-by-side. Around eleven o’clock a northeaster bore down alternately flinging rain, hail and snow at them. At midnight, the boats shoved off.
Using poles and oars, the boats were eased into the dark, fast moving water. The river was about 240 yards wide where they entered it and choked with chunks of ice being pulled along by a strong current. It was three a.m. before the last of the scows completed the crossing. The storm, incredibly, grew worse as the men were forming back into columns to begin the nine-mile trek to Trenton where they hoped to surprise 2,000 the Hessians before daybreak.
Along the way, two of the men fell out of formation and shortly froze to death.
Just before eight o’clock the troops converged on the town from the surrounding hillsides. On their feet all night, the troops stood wet and cold, shivering before their target. Many of their muskets were soaked and inoperable. Washington gave the order “Fix bayonets!” which was quietly passed down through the ranks. The Hessians, who celebrated Christmas Day in a drunken revelry, were still asleep. They awoke to the explosion of cannons and the sounds of destruction crashing around them.
As the Hessians flew out of their barracks they were jolted by the sight of hundreds of shouting Colonials, rushing at them from every direction through the town's narrow streets with fixed bayonets. Amidst the chaos the Germans somehow managed to regroup enough of their troops to put up a fierce resistance. The fighting was house to house, bloody and savage. But in less than an hour an elite enemy force was overwhelmed by an army that had become a joke—the “rabble army” as the British condescendingly referred to them.
After the jubilation over the collapse of the British siege at Boston, there had been little to cheer about through a long summer and fall. There was scant reason to believe that a new nation could emerge from the subsequent morass of defeats and the long embarrassing retreat of the Continental Army from New York and across New Jersey.
The stunning victory at Trenton welded Washington’s army together and galvanized the will of the people to see the war through. The gallantry of the small army restored the colonists’ belief in themselves and the “grand perhaps” of the revolution. The Battle of Trenton became a key turning point in the war and remains a testament to how political will, asserted from the bottom up by ordinary citizens can shape the destiny of nations.
While unintended, the timing and daring of Washington's attack on Trenton gave the colonists an unexpected Christmas present: Unwavering faith that they could indeed establish a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Merry Christmas to all from The Intellectual Mosquito
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