Posted on 12/23/2023 5:11:10 AM PST by Libloather
General John Glover delivered a priceless gift to the nation.
He saved the cause of American independence on Christmas Day in 1776.
Glover was a Marblehead, Massachusetts, mariner-turned-Revolutionary War hero who led a rugged regiment of calloused New England fishermen.
This famed Marblehead militia ferried George Washington and 2,400 troops in row boats across the ice-choked Delaware River on the night of Dec. 25 with the American rebellion on the brink of collapse.
The daring assault overwhelmed a garrison of 1,400 Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey, who were fighting on behalf of the British crown.
It was a stunning victory that reversed the course of the American Revolution and, ultimately, reshaped world history.
"This was a major military crossing under extraordinarily difficult circumstances," American Battlefield Trust historian Kristopher White told Fox News Digital.
"More than just men, there were horses, provisions and artillery. Washington came armed for a fight."
The daring triumph after a year of humiliating losses was, by many accounts, a Christmas miracle.
German-American painter Emanuel Leutze immortalized the attack in 1851.
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" hangs today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The A&E adaptation of the novel “The Crossing” is up on YouTube, btw, fun, some overacting, some compliance with actual events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jgEMrK1lcM
Same show, Battle of Trenton excerpt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwj7irGyblk
Battle of Trenton (Mt Vernon page)
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-trenton/
Painting, 1858, Surrender of Col. Rall:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005697044/
Replacement grave marker for Rall:
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2010/82/7570338_126943729404.jpg
Grave marker of John Glover:
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2023/334/5317697_d9f5bbd5-31b9-4498-9a71-5567b1ea7d61.jpeg
An interesting story. I must confess I hadn’t heard of him before.
???
The Delaware River at the point is tidal and the water would be flat calm at high or low tide.
I was born, raised, and grew up in the area.
:^) My pleasure. And Merry Christmas.
Same to you, Civ.
Yes and all the laws they wrote the Constitution is their biggest stumbling block as we have seen they are already working around it in many ways.
The current is retarded or backed up at high tide.
Washington returned to Pennsylvania after the battle. Using your logic, he would have ended up 20 miles downstream, inside Philadelphia.
Also, Glover’s men made multiple trips back and forth to get them all across the river. Are you saying that each time they rowed 10 miles up river against this current to get back to the embarkation point?
Systems of locks and canals allowed horses to pull barges and boats without having to battle the currents. One could take boats from Philadelphia up to New Hope up and down the river. What was very difficult is to cross the river. Parallel travel was a relative easy, but slow journey. Each lock had to fill and rise one at a time.
Oh, so now Glover used locks to cross the Delaware?
Give it up.
My wife and I went there in late December. 1992 I think.
The park ranger told us that the weather that day was very similar to what Washington’s army had to deal with back then.
It’s a lovely experience, isn’t it?
It was a ballsy move
Caught the Hessians hangovering
Could have been a debacle
It was nasty weather. 25 degrees spitting snow and ice.
Tough guys.
They were tough guys, indeed. Our nation owes much thanks for men like that.
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