“A Revolutionary Christmas Tale”
The Battle of Trenton
A REVOLUTIONARY CHRISTMAS TALE
The Boston Globe December 25, 1997, by Jeff
Jacoby. Christmastime, 1776, and the cause of
American liberty seemed lost. (Set forth below is
Jeff Jacoby’s moving account of an extraordinary
Christmas challenge.)
men. Meanwhile in Trenton, 1,500 Hessians under
Col. Johan Rall -- German mercenaries who were
among the finest fighters in the world -- had just
taken up quarters.
After a string of defeats in New York, George
Washington’s troops were in retreat. Flee-ing for
their lives, they raced across New Jersey, barely
keeping ahead of the redcoats. The revolution
was going nowhere. Many patriots feared it never
would, while Tory collaborators lined up to swear
allegiance to the King.
On Dec. 1, Washington’s bedraggled army, shrinking
daily from disease and desertion, reached Trenton,
on the banks of the Delaware River. Gathering
every boat they could find so the British would
be unable to follow, Washington’s men crossed the
river into Pennsylvania. There they encamped, safe
– but only for the moment. When the river froze,
Washington knew, the British would walk across
the ice, flatten his army, and roll on to victory in
Philadelphia. The Continental Congress knew it
too. On Dec. 12th it fled to Baltimore, leaving a
panic-stricken city behind.
Washington’s force comprised 2,400 men, with
infantry divisions commanded by Major Generals
Nathanael Greene and John Sullivan, and
artillery under the direction of Brigadier General
Henry Knox - “almost naked,” an enemy officer
described them, “dying of cold, without blankets,
and very ill supplied with provisions.”’ Even worse,
enlistments were about to expire. Come Jan. 1st,
Washington would be left with fewer than 2,000
It seemed hopeless. Morale was crumbling
everywhere. “I think,” Washington wrote to his
brother on Dec. 18, “the game is pretty near up.”
But a more fiery American, traveling with
Washington’s army, refused to despair. Thomas
Paine, author of the best-selling pamphlet
“Common Sense,” published a new essay, the first
of a series he called “American Crisis.” It opened
this way:
“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. . . .
Let it be told to the future world, that in the
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depth of winter, when nothing but hope and
virtue could survive, the city and the country,
alarmed at one common danger, came forth
to meet and to repulse it!”
target for the well-fed, well-armed enemy. But
Rall, who had once fought for the Czar, disdained
the patriots as “nothing but a lot of farmers.” He
refused to prepare for an American attack, so
unlikely did he consider one.
Before Washington and his troops left, Benjamin
Rush came to visit the General. While he was
there, he saw a note Washington had written,
saying, “Victory or Death.” Those words would be
the password for the surprise attack. Each soldier
carried 60 rounds of ammunition, and three days
of rations. When the army arrived at the shores of
the Delaware, they were already behind schedule,
clouds began to form, and it began to rain. As
the air’s temperature dropped, the rain changed to
sleet, and then snow.
On Christmas Eve, Washington would order his
weary soldiers to muster in groups and listen to
their officers read Paine’s new essay aloud.
Washington knew this was his last chance to act.
He formed an audacious plan. He would cross the
Delaware nine miles north of Trenton with about
2,400 men - and sneak up on the Hessian garrison.
The town had not been fortified, and he hoped
to surprise the enemy well before dawn, when
they would still be in a boozy slumber after their
Christmas festivities.
On Dec. 23, he sent word to Col. Joseph Reed:
“Christmas-day at night . . . . is the time fixed
upon for our attempt upon Trenton. For Heaven’s
sake keep this to yourself, as the discovery of it
may prove fatal to us.”
Indeed, had the British learned of Washington’s
plan, the revolution would have ended in defeat.
His men were exhausted and demoralized, an easy
If ever fortune favored the brave, it was on that
dismal Christmas night in 1776. Rall and his men
spent the night carousing, drinking, and playing
cards. When a local farmer knocked at his door
around midnight with news that the Colonials
were coming, a servant refused to let him interrupt
the revels. So the farmer scribbled a warning,
which was delivered to the Hessian commander -who stuffed it into his pocket, unread.
At 6 p.m. on Christmas Day, the crossing began,
with John Glover in command. The men went
across in Durham boats, while the horses and
artillery went across on large shallow bottom
ferries. The 14th Continental Regiment of Glover
manned the boats.
The patriots made their way across the ice-choked
river, through a punishing gale of sleet and snow.
For nine hours the Marbleheaders rowed, ferrying
boatload after boatload of men and cannon until,
at 3 a.m., the last soldier stepped onto the Jersey
shore No one died during the crossing, and all the
artillery pieces made it over in good condition..
The terrible weather conditions delayed the
landings in New Jersey until 3:00 am; the plan was
that they were supposed to be completed by 12:00
am. Washington realized it would be impossible to
launch a pre-dawn attack.
will be when the last trump shall sound. . . .”
As quickly as possible, Washington’s men returned
across the river, exhilarated by their triumph.
Against all odds, they had struck at the enemy
and scored a victory. A week later, recrossing the
Delaware to fight the British in Princeton, they
would score a second.
Then came the harrowing trek to Trenton, a ninemile ordeal through freezing wind and hail. “It
will be a terrible night for the soldiers who have
no shoes,” noted John Fitzgerald, a member of
Washington’s staff. “Some of them have tied old
rags around their feet, others are barefoot, but I
have not heard a man complain.” As the patriots
moved south, bloody footprints stained the snow.
They reached Trenton at dawn and fell upon the
Hessians, surprising them utterly. In 45 minutes, it
was all over. Of the 1,200 soldiers in the garrison,
nearly 1,000 were taken prisoner. Rall, the
Hessian commander, was fatally wounded. But the
Americans suffered only five casualties -- of whom
two had frozen to death on the march.
What a rout! Henry Knox, an artillery officer from
Boston, wrote to his wife that “the hurry, fright, and
confusion of the enemy was not unlike that which
The effect on morale -- the troops’ and the nation’s
-- was tremendous. The Christmas victory at
Trenton marked the psychological turning point
of the revolution. The pitiful Colonials had taken
on the King’s forces -- if only a single garrison of
Hessians -- and whipped them. As word of the
victory spread like fire, confidence in George
Washington and the revolutionary cause revived.
America, written off as beaten, would fight on to
freedom.