Posted on 12/21/2004 1:54:44 PM PST by neverdem
GUEST OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Washington
AS 1776 was drawing to a close, Elkanah Watson, a young man in Massachusetts, expressed what many Americans feared about their war for independence. "We looked upon the contest as near its close," he wrote, "and considered ourselves a vanquished people."
There was good reason for pessimism. The British had driven Gen. George Washington and his men out of New York and across New Jersey. In early December, with the British on their heels, the Americans had commandeered every boat they could find to escape across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. They were starving, sick and cold. The artist Charles Willson Peale, watching the landing from the Pennsylvania shore, described a soldier dressed "in an old dirty blanket jacket, his beard long and his face so full of sores that he could not clean it." So disfigured was the man, Peale wrote, that at first he did not recognize him as his brother James.
In these desperate circumstances, George Washington made a stunning decision: to go back across the Delaware and launch a surprise attack on the Hessian mercenaries occupying Trenton. On Christmas night, he led 2,400 men, many of them with their feet wrapped in rags because they had no shoes, to a crossing point nine miles upstream from Trenton. As freezing temperatures turned rain to sleet and snow, they began to cross the river.
The task was harder than any of them had imagined. Men had to break through ice to get into the boats and then fend off chunks of floating ice once they were in the river. Getting cannons across - each weighed nearly a ton - was especially difficult. Downstream, two other groups that Washington had ordered to cross the Delaware failed in their mission. But Washington and his men persevered, until finally, at 4 o'clock in the morning, they were across and ready to march to Trenton.
They had planned to approach Trenton before dawn, but the difficulty of the crossing had delayed them, and it was daylight when they encountered the first Hessians. Still, the surprise worked, and in two hours, with few losses of their own, they captured nearly 900 of the enemy. "This is a glorious day for our country," Washington declared.
His men were exhausted after the battle, and many of them, their enlistments expired, decided to go home. But many others stayed with Washington as he decided to keep fighting. When he learned that thousands of British and Hessian troops were heading toward Trenton from Princeton, a pretty college town to the north, he deployed his troops along the south side of Assunpink Creek. He also sent a force to the north side of the creek to slow down the advancing enemy. Near evening on Jan. 2, 1777, when these delaying forces had done all they could, they ran for a narrow bridge that crossed the creek - and saw Washington waiting there for them. "I pressed against the shoulder of the general's horse and in contact with the boot of the general," a private remembered years later. "The horse stood as firm as the rider."
Gen. Charles Cornwallis, the British commander, decided he could wait to attack the Americans. "We've got the old fox safe now," he is supposed to have said of Washington. "We'll go over and bag him in the morning." But Washington had other plans. He knew that Cornwallis had brought most of his troops with him, which meant that there would be far fewer of the enemy at Princeton. That night, with men and officers enjoined to silence and cannon wheels muffled with rags, Washington led the main body of his army on a march around Cornwallis's troops toward Princeton. It was dawn before Cornwallis realized they were gone.
The first encounter of the two armies on farmland outside Princeton did not go well for the Americans. Many were killed, and the dazed survivors retreated, but Washington rallied his troops with the bravery for which he was becoming legendary and led them to within 30 yards of the British line. Once the two sides started firing, it seemed impossible that he would survive, but when the smoke cleared, there he was, straight and tall astride his white horse. With a great shout, the Americans began to advance. The British fell back and then ran. "Bring up the troops," Washington called to an aide. "The day is our own."
Twice in 10 days Washington and his ragtag army had defeated the greatest military power in the world, and their victories lifted the spirits of patriots everywhere. True, the years ahead would be hard - Christmas 1777 would find Washington and his men at Valley Forge. But because of the 10-day campaign that began on Christmas 1776, Americans could now think of winning their war for independence. They could imagine that their great struggle would have a glorious end.
Lynne Cheney, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of "When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots."
RevWar Nut ping!
What a great story. Washington's bravery was just shocking. He held the Revolution together by the force of his character.
not to forget by reason of ht ehelp Washington recieved
along the way from that "invisible hand " he credited with
helping us gain independence.
Artificer Henry Arnold Ping!!
""At this point, the Rats and RINOs would be calling for the Washington's resignation and negotiations with the British in order to surrender.""
Actually there were several influential officers and members of Congress who where trying to do exactly that. The man they intended to replace Washington was General Charles Lee, a former British officer who was commanding Continental Army troops in lower New York.
Washington ordered Lee and his men to join the Main Army in New Jersey but Lee took his time while he conspired against Washington with his friends in Philadelphia. By the time Lee's troops entered New Jersey, Washington's Army was west of the Delaware and the British had control of the entire middle of the state.
Lee's column moved slowly much to the consternation of his junior officers who wanted to reach Washington's Army as soon as possible. On the evening of December 14, 1776, Lee's troops were near Bernardsville, New Jersey. Lee himself decided to spend the night at Widow White's tavern in Basking Ridge, a few miles away. It is believed that Lee fully expected to take command away from Washington once he reached the Main Army.
Shortly after dawn on the 15th, a troop of the 16th Regiment British Light Dragoons, operating on information provided by a spy, surrounded White's tavern and after a brief fight, captured General Lee. His dreams of removing Washington from command of the American Army were finished. Lee spent the next year as a prisoner of the British in New York and Washington led his ragtag Army across the Delaware back into New Jersey and history, 10 days later.
I agree! Something more than sound military tactics at work there!
Bush is more like Washington then any President since him.
John
I don't know - Bush is certainly brave and a man of great character. But Lincoln, while he didn't lead troops into battle, was a man of dogged determination who endured hatred, danger and the most extreme circumstances to keep our nation together. I think he deserves to be mantioned in the same breath.
When it's all said and done, Bush will be mentioned in the top tier of Presidents, with FDR, TR, Lincoln, Washington, Reagan, Jackson and Eisenhower.
The problem is, we have a political constituency here in America that none of those other Presidents had to contend with: the America-hating, secular humanist Radical Left. And they write a lot of history. Not always well or accurately, but they do write.
You forgot to mention arrogant slimeball Lee's dalliances at the tavern. Or the fact that, thank God, he stayed behind while sending on the troops themselves (so he could get some nookie and wine) who did not get involved in any such action or capture, and could reach Washington.
Nah, more likely Reagan. (NOT LINCOLN, who violated the Constitution in so many ways and led us down the path we continue today, of over-arching government regulation and intrusion [ie, unconstitutional stuff].)
I just meet that Bush is a brave man who would willingly give up his life for the good of others. He is one who is mentally and physically tough enough to do what Washington did. Bush is cunning and bold like Washington. Bush thinks like a warrior.
John
Note the author's name.
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