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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 12/26/2002 12:01:47 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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As Maj. General William Howe entered winter quarters on December 13, 1776, Lt. General Charles Cornwallis now received permission to halt his advance at the Delaware River. Howe, supported by Maj. General Henry Clinton, wanted to pull his line of defense to between Brunswick and Newark. However, Cornwallis convinced Howe to extend the lines for several reasons. Tthe Americans were considered a minimal threat to the distant garrisons and lines of communication. Pulling back would make the British appear weak and unable to maintain positions. Such a move would also deprive New Jersey Loyalists of military protection during the winter. As the British Army settled in for the winter, garrisons of Hessians were established at Burlington and another at Trenton under Colonel Johann Rall. Garrisons of British troops were established at Bordentown, Pennington, Perth Amboy and Princeton, while Cornwallis set up his base of operations at Brunswick, twenty-five miles behind the forward garrisons. Meanwhile, General George Washington's army was receiving a boost with new arrivals. Pennsylvania and Maryland militia under Colonel John Cadwalader and Colonel Nicholas Haussegger had begun to arrive on December 5 and continued to stream in. On December 20, 1776, Maj. General John Sullivan arrived in command of the remaining 2,000 men from the 5,000 that had been under Maj. General Charles Lee's command untl his capture. On the same day, Maj. General Horatio Gates arrived 800 men set down from Fort Ticonderoga by Northern Department Commander Maj. General Philip Schuyler. Even though the New Jersey militia had not come to General Washington's call, they were carrying out their own campaign. They had remained near their homes to protect them from the British and especially the Hessian troops, who had quickly developed a reputation among the rebels for brutality and theft. The militia were soon taking advantage of the stretched British lines across New Jersey by carrying out regular raids on British patrols, stealing supplies and interfering with communications.  On December 22, 1776, General Washington had about 6,000 men listed in his roles having lost men on November 30 when their enlistments ran out. Of those, about 4,700 were fit for duty. His fall campaign had been little more than a series of retreats and morale was very low with the successive defeats and the loss of New York City. On December 31, more enlistments would run out and reduce his force to under 1,500 men. Winter was coming fast and the British would be able to continue their pursuit once the Delaware River froze over. General Washington decided to attack the unsuspecting British forces who had entered winter quarters and were celebrating the holidays. He hoped to salvage a victory at the end of a disappointing campaign. He first wanted to attack the Hessians at Bordentown, but the local militia in that area was too weak to offer support. He then chose the isolated Hessian garrison under the command of Colonel Johann Rall. Rall had not heeded orders to build fortifications and send out patrols. Even though he was a skilled soldier and able commander, Rall had a low estimation of the rebels, calling them "country clowns." Washington planned for for an early morning attack on December 26. He knew the Hessians would heartily celebrate Christmas on the evening of December 25, so he meant to attack when they were tired and probably hungover. General George Washington ordered the crossing of the Delaware River to begin right after dark on Christmas Day, December 25, 1776. He wanted to be in position to launch his attack in the early morning hours. He expected the Hessian troops to have heartily celebrated Christmas and be drunk and tired when he attacked. A storm blew up and the men were forced to cross in the ice and snow, which slowed the crossing. General Washington personally led 2,400 men, horses and eighteen cannon across the river the river at McKonkey's Ferry, which was nine miles above Trenton. He would then attack the town from the north. Brig. General James Ewing was to lead 1,000 militia at the Trenton Ferry and block a retreat to the south. Colonel John Cadwalader would lead 2,000 men, mostly militia, across the river at Bordentown and attack the garrison there as a diversion. However, with the storm, Ewing was unable to make it across, while Cadwalader was unable to bring his artillery and too late to be of any assistance.  General Washington's troops set out at 2 P.M. and began crossing atfter dark. The crossing was to be completed by 12:00 A.M., but the storm began at 11 P.M. and delayed completion of the crossing until 3:00 A.M. and the column was not fully ready to march until 4:00 A.M. The hoped for surprise attack in the early morning darkness was now impossible. However, Colonel Rall still felt unthreatened. Even with intelligence from Loyalists and American deserters having given away the day and hour of the attack, Rall did not know how large the attacking force would be. At Birmingham, about four miles from their crossing, General Washington's force split into two columns. Maj. General Nathanael Greene led one column onto the Pennington Road to attack the garrison from the north. General Washington accompanied this column. Maj. General John Sullivan led the second column continued on the river road so it could attack the garrison from the west. By 6:00 A.M. the troops were miserable. Two men reportedly froze to death and muskets won't fire because of the cold, but Washington was committed and would not give up. At the Hessian garrison in Trenton, Colonel Rall had passed out and was sound asleep along with most of his 1,200 man force, which was divided into three regiments: Knyphausen, Lossberg and Rall. They had sent out no patrols because of the severe weather. The weather had taken a toll on General Washington's troops, but had also given them cover. At 8:00 A.M. General Washington came upon a house about half a mile from Trenton where Hessian sentries were posted. The first shots were fired in the engagement. Only a few minutes later, General Sullivan's column routed the Hessian sentries at the outpost a half a mile west of Trenton  Colonel Rall himself was slow to wake and dress because of the effects of the late night. The Hessians turned out quickly and formed up, but their attempts to attack to the north were hampered by the flanking fire from the western column and the artillery. The Americans positioned two cannon on a rise that guarded the two main routes out of town. The Hessians tried to bring four guns into action, but American fire kept them silent. Captain William Washington, cousin to General Washington, and Lieutenant James Monroe, future President of the United States, were wounded while capturing the Hessian guns. The Knyphausen regiment of Hessians was separated from the other two regiments and driven back through the southern end of Trenton by Maj. General John Sullivan's column. Many men of this regiment were subsequently able to escape to the south where Brig. General James Ewing's troops were to have been located. The other two Hessian regiments, Lossberg and Rall, retreated into an open field and attempted a counterattack that was quickly driven back. Colonel Johann Rall ordered his force to retreat southeast into an apple orchard just outside Trenton. Only moments after giving the order, Rall was mortally wounded. Once in the orchard, the Hessians formed up and attempted to make their way north to the road to Princeton. When they reentered the town, the Continentals now joined by civilians fired on them from buildings and other cover. Their formations were broken up by cannonfire. The two regiments retreat back to the orchard where they were forced to surrender.The remnants of the Knyphausen Regiment were making for Bordentown, but they were slowed when they tried to haul their cannon through boggy ground. They soon found themselves surrounded by General Sullivan's men and they also surrendered. It was only 9:30 A.M. and had been an overwhelming victory for General George Washington.
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Per a nice photocopy of a May, 1774 pay sheet for Capt. Morgan's Roll at Ft. Pitt, I see my great-to-the-fifth grandfather.
What a hoot now to see the reenactors stay away in droves due to "inclement weather".
The Hessians reflected in the German officials comparing Bush to Hitler.
So Blair is opposed on war on Iraq "by his own priest"--now, that's a good thing.
As for the anacephalic Senator Murray, I phoned her and got her machine during regular office hours which meant she was hiding under her desk.
I said she'd praised the murderer of 3,000 of our citizens and had no business in the Senate, should resign immediately.
God Bless General Washington.
He was out planning renovations on Mt. Vernon the day he died--what a hardy and modest soul.
God Bless the patriots of every age who count freedom first among earthly comforts.
And pitchforks, tar and feathers for Osama Murray.
Thank you for that wonderful comment.
It is a shame, the difference between how much history I learned in school and what my children are being taught is amazing, I can't believe that education has changed so much is such a short time.
And pitchforks, tar and feathers for Osama Murray.
The first American submarine was designed before the Revolutionary War by David Bushnell, a young inventor from Connecticut. He designed and built a one-man submersible vessel that he called Turtle. Bushnell's Turtle featured a hand-cranked screw-like oar that moved the boat forward and back underwater, air pipes that brought fresh air into the boat, ballast tanks that took on water to dive and emptied to ascend, and a primitive torpedo to attack enemy ships.
Encouraged by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Bushnell adapted his vessel to use against the British during the war. Turtle was sent to New York harbor in September 1776 to surprise the British ships blockading the city. Turtle's pilot Ezra Lee crept up on HMS Asia and attempted to attach explosives to the side of the wooden ship, but failed to do so before losing control of the boat. Lee escaped, but tried again to attack the British one month later without success. Despite Turtle's failures, Bushnell proved that a boat could be used for underwater surprise attacks.
Washington Post
> November 26, 2002
> Pg. 29
"My Heart On The Line"
> By Frank Schaeffer
"Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.
"In 1999, when the barrel-chested Marine recruiter showed up in dress blues and bedazzled my son John, I did not stand in the way. John was headstrong, and he seemed to understand these stern, clean men with straight backs and flawless uniforms. I did not. I live on the Volvo-driving, higher education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I write novels for a living. I have never served in the military. It had been hard enough sending my two older children off to Georgetown and New York University. John's enlisting was unexpected, so deeply unsettling. I did not relish the prospect of answering the question "So where is John going to college?" from the parents who were itching to tell me all about how their son or daughter was going to Harvard. At the private high school John attended, no other students were going into the military.
"But aren't the Marines terribly Southern?" asked one perplexed mother while standing next to me at the brunch following graduation. "What a waste, he was such a good student," said another parent. One parent (a professor at a nearby and rather famous university) spoke up at a school meeting and suggested that the school should "carefully evaluate what went wrong."
"When John graduated from three months of boot camp on Parris Island, 3,000 parents and friends were on the parade deck stands. We parents and our Marines not only were of many races but also were representative of many economic classes. Many were poor. Some arrived crammed in the backs of pickups, others by bus. John told me that a lot of parents could not afford the trip. We in the audience were white and Native American. We were Hispanic, Arab and African American and Asian. We were former Marines wearing the scars of battle, or at least baseball caps emblazoned with battles' names. We were Southern whites from Nashville and skinheads from New Jersey, black kids from Cleveland wearing ghetto rags and white ex-cons with ham-hock forearms defaced by jailhouse tattoos. We would not have been mistaken for the educated and well-heeled parents gathered on the lawns of John's private school a half-year before.
"After graduation one new Marine told John, "Before I was a Marine, if I had ever seen you on my block I would've probably killed you just because you were standing there." This was a serious statement from one of John's good friends, an African American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John said, "would die for me now, just like I'd die for him."
"My son has connected me to my country in a way that I was too selfish and insular to experience before. I feel closer to the waitress at our local diner than to some of my oldest friends. She has two sons in the Corps. They are facing the same dangers as my boy. When the guy who fixes my car asks me how John is doing, I know he means it. His younger brother is in the Navy.
"Why were I and the other parents at my son's private school so surprised by his choice? During World War II, the sons and daughters of the most powerful and educated families did their bit. If the immorality of the Vietnam War was the only reason those lucky enough to go to college dodged the draft, why did we not encourage our children to volunteer for military service once that war was done? Have we wealthy and educated Americans all become pacifists? Is the world a safe place? Or have we just gotten used to having somebody else defend us?
"What is the future of our democracy when the sons and daughters of the janitors at our elite universities are far more likely to be put in harm's way than are any of the students whose dorms their parents clean? I feel shame because it took my son's joining the Marine Corps to make me take notice of who is defending me!!!
"I feel hope because perhaps my son is part of a future "greatest generation." As the storm clouds of war gather, at least I know that I can look the men and women in uniform in the eye. My son is one of them. He is the best I have to offer. He is my heart."
Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book, co-written with his son, Marine Cpl. John Schaeffer, is "Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps."
We did...more grandkids than ever and I filmed much of the festivities to send to my bro and sis-in-law in Germany. Next year, they'll be stationed in Dayton, so hopefully this'll be the last MUD Christmas without the whole Klan there!!
"It's good to see you in the Foxhole - I think it's an appropriate place for a "mud" boy!"
LOL...good to be here!! Seems like a good group of folks!!
FReegards...MUD
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