[XRdsRev]

I originally posted this last Christmas. I hope nobody is offended if I post it again this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[mainepatsfan]

It's a great story. If the New York Times had been around at the time they would have criticized Washington for his "risky move".

[Congressman Billybob]

This is a welcome post, every year. It is wise to remind modern Americans of how close we came to failure in the effort to create this nation. That is a reminder of how delicate as well as urgent, is the task to retain this nation.

I add one important fact to this account. The first chapter of Thomas Paine's The American Crisis was published in Philadelphia a week before the attack on Trenton. General Washington appreciated it so much that he ordered Paine to come to the camp and read this words aloud to the soldiers, just days before this attack:

"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 who stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman...."

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest, "Jon Stewart, You Magnificent B*stard! I Read Your Book!"

[ghostrider]

Great post - and timely considering the world situation. I had never before learned the details of this great victory. It just goes to illustrate the resolve my folks had. "Just take one more step, and then one more step. Make them one step at a time and never quit. There is always one more step in each of us."

[SwinneySwitch]

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

From Ye New Yorke Tymes, December 27, 1776:

4 WOUNDED, 3 FROZEN TO DEATH IN TRENTON
Washington refuses to answer questions about up-musketing, providing shoes for troops.

[ex-snook]

Of interest. The reenactment was cancelled this year because the Delaware was flowing too swiftly.

[Doctor Raoul]

Not all of Washington's soldiers had shoes and it was Rummy's fault.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Plutarch]

The historian David Hackett Fischer has a terrific new book which describes Washington’s Feat, Washington’s Crossing .

[Pharmboy]

If and when any of you are near Trenton, I would strongly recommend a visit to the Old Barracks, built in the 1750s to house the Crown's troops during the French and Indian War (several were built, but this is the only one that survives). It was here that some of the Brits and Hessians were quartered before the battle.

Then, after walking the town with an old battlefield map, drive over to the battlefield in Princeton and stand in the Ford farmhouse wherein that great hero of the Revolution, Hugh Mercer died (all the Mercer Counties are named for him; and, he was General Patton's great great great grandfather).

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUMP