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Princeton University Library 32101 072355041
STRYKER
CONTINENTAL ARMY AT THE CROSSING OF THE DELAWARE RIVER ON CHRISTMAS 1776
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LIBRARY OF
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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The Continental Army
At the
Crossing of the Delaware River
On Christmas Night of 1776.
BY WILLIAM S. STRYKER.
Read October 15, 1895, at the dedication of a monument at Taylorsville, Pennsylvania, by the Bucks County Historical Society, and a memorial tablet at Washington's Crossing, New Jersey, by the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati.
TRENTON, N. J. : THE J. L. MURPHY PUB. CO., PRINTERS. 1896.
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What could be more cheerless than the condition of the Con- tinental army in December, seventeen hundred and seventy-six ? Christmas day was approaching, but for them there was no holiday rejoicing. The weather was bitterly cold, and their miserable clothing, which was scarcely sufficient to protect them in autumn weather, left them exposed to the nipping frosts of early winter. At night they lay down on these hillsides, covered with snow, with- out so much as a blanket to shield them. In lieu of shoes, they had bound their feet with rags. Suffering with cold and hunger, marching over the frozen ground with bleeding feet, this was the fate of the patriot army which had been gathered for the purpose of resisting British tyranny in America. What then was left for these heroic men but to make one final struggle for liberty, to strike one last desperate blow-and die? The cold increased. Across the Delaware river, in the cantonment of Trenton, preparations for the Christmas revel were in progress, but on the Pennsylvania shore men grasped their flint-locks more closely in their chilled fingers and waited with stern, determined faces the next orders of their leader.
The night shadows were creeping over the woods on Jericho Hill and the road from NEELEY's mill to Newtown. In the doorway of SAMUEL MERRICK'S house on that well-traveled road stood a gen- eral officer of WASHINGTON's army, listening to the distant ring of horses' hoofs on the frozen ground. A moment later General GREENE's expected guests drew rein before him and he saluted his commander-in-chief. General WASHINGTON was attended by an
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THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
aide-de-camp, the gallant Colonel BAYLOR, and six Philadelphia troopers as a body-guard. He had ridden over from WILLIAM KEITH's house, on the Brownsburg road, to General GREENE'S quarters, to be present on this Christmas eve at a council of war to which he had called his leading commanders. A few moments after the arrival of WASHINGTON and his guard, a little group of officers was seen dismounting in the dooryard of the old stone house, and the courtly STIRLING, the best-dressed man in the army ; the brave and determined New Hampshire General SULLIVAN, and the foreign adventurer, DE FERMOY, were welcomed from the door- step by General GREENE. Then, at short intervals, came the experienced soldier, ST. CLAIR, and the equally-skilled STEPHEN ; the devoted Virginian, MERCER; Colonel SARGENT, of Massachu- setts, and the sturdy mariner, GLOVER.
After preparing supper for General GREENE and his compatriots, the MERRICK family left the house to the exclusive use of the coun- cil. The meal had just been announced when Colonel STARK, tall and straight as an Indian, and Colonel KNOX, the artillerist, were admitted. The Reverend Doctor ALEXANDER MCWHORTER, of Newark, pronounced grace at the supper of this important gathering of American military heroes.
When the frugal repast was over and the short winter twilight had faded into darkness, the famous council began. No explana- tion was needed to tell these soldiers of the critical situation in which the American army was placed. Each fact which led up to their present unhappy predicament stood out before them with painful clearness. But what was to be done? The young republic was already surrounded with clouds of doubt, disaster and defeat. Some step must be taken promptly, some decisive blow struck or their longed-for liberty as a people would be lost, perhaps, forever.
The commander-in-chief laid before them his fully-matured plan, so ingenious and yet so simple that all who read can grasp its mili- tary subtlety. To make the perilous crossing of the icy Delaware
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AT THE CROSSING OF THE DELAWARE.
during the hours of darkness ; to creep on the unwary Hessian foe in Trenton when Christmas wines and Christmas revelry had relaxed their customary vigilance and made a dull watch; to throw them into helpless confusion by the suddenness of the attack, and by striking from three sides at once-this was the plan of action upon which WASHINGTON had decided as the bold stroke to retrieve his country's fallen fortunes. The division of Colonel JOHN CAD- WALADER at Bristol was to attack the cantonments of Colonel VON DONOP at Mount Holly, Black Horse and Bordentown ; the corps of General EWING, of Pennsylvania, and General DICKINSON, of New Jersey, were to cross at Trenton landing, take position on the south side of the Assunpink creek, and, if possible, to close up all avenues of escape or entrance of a reinforcement for the British troops in Trenton ; at the same time WASHINGTON and the com- manders present at the council of war, with twenty-four hundred of their best Continental soldiers, would make the direct attack on the garrison town of Trenton. Colonel STARK, who was so soon to drive his country's foes " pell-mell " through the streets of that vil- lage, "dealing death wherever he found resistance," gave the key- note to the evening's consultation when he said, immediately after WASHINGTON had concluded : "Your men have too long been accustomed to place their dependence for safety upon spades and pickaxes. If you ever expect to establish the independence of these States you must teach them to place dependence upon their fire- arms and courage." General GREENE and General SULLIVAN spoke hearty words in commendation of the scheme, and Lord STIRLING, that brave but gouty Jerseyman, always ready to strike a blow at British rule in America, made some enthusiastic remarks on the importance of an immediate attack. Colonel GLOVER gave a sin- cere promise as to what his men would do, which promise he carried out faithfully and successfully. "Now is the time to clip their wings," said WASHINGTON, "while they are so spread ;" and the plan in all its details was approved by these zealous military leaders.
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" Christmas day, at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed upon for the attack upon Trenton," General WASHINGTON wrote to his adjutant-general, Colonel REED, at Bristol.
So the memorable council dissolved, the horses were brought to the doorway, and the little company rode away in the darkness.
In every great enterprise a crisis is sure to come ; it may be slight, unseen, easily surmounted, or it may be vital, fully recognized, requiring desperate exertions and fraught with tremendous results for good or ill. Such an hour had now arrived for the Continental army. The defeat on Long Island ; the evacuation of New York ; the capture of Fort Washington ; the surrender of Fort Lee; the retreat through the Jerseys and the near approach of the expiration of the term of service of a large part of the army-all had brought the young nation to the lowest depths of despair. In this desperate condition a blow must be struck immediately at the military power of Great Britain, or the cause of national freedom and unity in America would be irretrievably lost. The great chieftain had no idea of abandoning a cause in which he had risked his fortune, his honor and his life, and all men turned to him blindly, hoping that in some way he could change disaster and defeat into glory and victory. So, with a tranquil countenance, WASHINGTON moved about among his officers and men, inspiring them with 'his own undaunted spirit and high sense of patriotic duty, and impressing them with the belief that sooner or later he would bring them out of this depressing darkness into the brightness, the glory of victory and an enduring national life.
Early on Christmas morning WASHINGTON issued his orders for the march to Trenton. Every detail had been carefully studied and each brigade commander knew exactly what was expected of him and of his men. The position of each detachment on the march and in the attack was carefully given ; a profound silence was enjoined and death was the penalty to be meted out to any soldier who quit the ranks. Three days' rations were cooked, and
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MONUMENT AT WASHINGTON'S CROSSING, NEW JERSEY, Erected by the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, October 15, 1895. Inscription on the Monument : " THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI IN THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, TO COMMEMORATE THE CROSSING OF THE DELAWARE RIVER BY
. GENERAL WASHINGTON AND THE CONTINENTAL ARMY ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT OF SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX."
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AT THE CROSSING OF THE DELAWARE.
every officer put a piece of white paper in his hat that he might readily be recognized in the gloom as an officer. The accoutre- ments were put in order, forty rounds of ammunition carefully packed, and the troops destined for this expedition were ordered to parade over the hill back of McKONKEY's ferry.
: On the Ist day of December, before leaving Brunswick for Prince- ton, WASHINGTON had dispatched Colonel RICHARD HUMPTON, of the Eleventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Continental Line, to gather together all the boats on the Delaware river above and below the falls at Trenton. Colonel HUMPTON had called to his aid such well-known and skilled rivermen as JACOB GEARHART, DANIEL BRAY, URIAH SLACK and THOMAS JONES, and, with a zealous party of farmer boys, they had collected all boats of every description in the upper waters of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers. These boats, with those used at HOWELL's ferry and BEATTY's ferry on Decem- ber 7th and 8th, to carry over the retreating army from Trenton to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, they had hidden behind the thick woods of Malta Island, and at the mouth of Knowles' creek, where they could not be seen from the New Jersey shore. Just before dark these boats were brought down some two miles to McKON- KEY's ferry. There were also rafts which had been made for the transportation of the artillery, and there was the long, canoe- shaped Durham boat used especially for carrying iron ore from Oxford Furnace, in Sussex county, New Jersey, from the Durham Iron Works, in Durham township, of this county, and flour from JOHN VAN CAMPEN'S mill, at Minisink, to the market at Philadel- phia. These boats were possibly named after ROBERT DURHAM, the manager of the furnace, and were about forty feet long, painted black, and had an oar adjustable at either end for steering the boat. This was the best boat for the purpose of moving troops across a swift river, as it could carry a regiment of men at every trip.
As early as two o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas day some of the regiments most remote from the ferry began to march, and
Bullshit 500€ 700 men !
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THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
in an hour thereafter all the troops ordered for this enterprise were moving toward the place of parade over the hill. The movements of these men over the light snow which had fallen could easily be traced by the blood which dropped from the feet of those who had no shoes.
During the night of December 20th, which had been intensely cold, some of the upper branches of the river had entirely frozen over. All day Monday and Tuesday the current had been swift and nearly free from ice, but by noon on Wednesday, which was Christmas day, the water was full of floating cakes of ice, not very thick, but very troublesome to boatmen who wished to make a quick and direct crossing. The weather that night became even colder and more cheerless. Some snow and a good deal of hail and sleet fell and the darkness was almost impenetrable.
In the meantime, while the patriot soldiers plodded with dogged determination through the snow, how was it at Trenton ? General HOWE, the British commander-in-chief, had posted at Trenton three Hessian regiments, fifty Hessian Yagers and a few British Light Horse, in all about fourteen hundred men. Since the 14th of December they had occupied all the public buildings and were quartered in many of the private houses. They did some picket and guard duty, but the work to which they were looking forward, confident of success, was to cross the river as soon as it should be completely frozen over, take the capital city of Philadelphia, and spend the remainder of the winter there, enjoying the gay and con- genial society of the loyalists in what was then the most consider- able commercial center in the country. Colonel JOHANN GOTTLIEB RALL, the senior officer at the post, affected to make light of the army under WASHINGTON, calling it a lot of farmers who knew nothing about war and would surely run at the first attack of his veteran troops. On Christmas night there was a small alarm on the Pennington road outpost, but this was soon over and seemed only to make them more careless in their fancied security. They
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remembered how they had 'kept the Christmas-tide in the Father- land, and, although a great ocean separated them from Hesse, they proposed to have as great a frolic as the wine-cellars of the rich merchants of Trenton could afford. So even after the alarm they continued the revelry so imprudently begun. Colonel RALL him- self joined a convivial party, and it was just before daylight the next morning when he reached his own quarters and his bed. Gen- eral WASHINGTON knew the state of affairs in the village through his trusted spy, JOHN HONEYMAN, and he was prepared to take advan- tage of the tempting situation.
It was just at dusk this cheerless Christmas night when WASHING- TON, with Colonel HENRY KNOX and the other members of his staff, came to the river bank ready to give the order for the first boat to shove off. Sitting on his chestnut sorrel horse, he dictated a letter to Colonel CADWALADER at Bristol, telling him that, notwithstand- ing the discouraging accounts he had received of what might be expected from all the operations below, he was determined to cross the river and attack Trenton in the morning, as the night promised to be dark and his movements would be concealed. With more impatience than he usually permitted himself to show, he heard an aide-de-camp of General GATES say that that officer had not assumed the command at Bristol as he had desired, but had gone on to intrigue with the members of Congress at Baltimore in his own interest and contrary to the expressed wishes of his chief. He had left the post of duty, of danger and of honor.
The hour for the crossing had arrived. Close to the commander- in-chief rode his true friend, Colonel KNox, and with stentorian voice he repeated the commands of WASHINGTON. Above the noise of the crunching ice-above the calling of the boatmen, louder than the voices of the drivers of the artillery horses-the orders of KNOX resounded through the darkness and the storm. His services that night cannot be over estimated.
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When the boats were shoved off from the Pennsylvania shore and had reached the swift current, the jagged cakes of ice struck them repeatedly and severely, and it was with the greatest difficulty that they could be properly handled. The wind was high, and at eleven o'clock the air was filled with blinding snow. Then again, as once before, over the East river after the battle on Long Island, and as he had promised at the council of war, Colonel JOHN GLOVER and his magnificent Marblehead Regiment of sea faring men, did ines- timable service in guiding the army over the dark and angry river.
Several years after the war, in addressing the Legislature of Massa- chusetts, General KNox used these words in reference to Colonel GLOVER's regiment : " I wish the members of this body knew the people of Marblehead as well as I do. I could wish they had stood on the banks of the Delaware river in 1776, in that bitter night when the commander-in-chief had drawn up his little army to cross it, and had seen the powerful current bearing onward the floating masses of ice which threatened destruction to whosoever should venture upon its bosom. I wish that when this occurrence threat- ened to defeat the enterprise they could have heard that distin- guished warrior demand ' Who will lead us on?' and seen the men of Marblehead, and Marblehead alone, stand forward to lead the army along the perilous path to unfading glories and honor in the achievements of Trenton. There, sir, were the fishermen of Mar- blehead at home upon land and water, alike ardent, patriotic and unflinching, whenever they unfurled the flag of the country."
The name of Captain JOHN BLUNT, a shipmaster of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has come down the century to us as one of those who gave most efficient aid on that terrible night. The progenitors of some of the families represented here to day figured in that noble band of volunteers from both sides of the river, who gave their skill and their strength to stemming the angry stream that bitter night. Tradition gives us the names of PHILLIPS, SLACK, MUIRHEID, LANING, TITUS, GREEN, SCUDDER, GUILD, INSLEE and WOOLSEY. All honor
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to those heroes on that Christmas night of seventeen hundred and seventy-six !
It had been confidently expected that all the troops intended for this expedition, with the horses of the artillery and cavalry, the eighteen cannon and howitzers, could easily be transported over the river by midnight, and so leave the hours between twelve and five o'clock for the march to the village. But it was after three o'clock in the morning before the last man and the last gun had reached the New Jersey shore. It was then too late to strike the town in the early dawn, but General WASHINGTON was still deter- mined to make the attack. The risk must be taken and he was fully resolved to capture the village and its Hessian garrison.
The story of the surprise, the attack and the capture has been often told and need not be repeated here. The details of the march by the river and Pennington roads is known to you all. The old clocks in Trenton struck the hour of eight as the sharp reports of the American rifles were heard north of the town and repeated near the river. Colonel RALL, not yet recovered from his midnight frolic, essayed to muster his gallant troops. They fell back before the irresistible dash of the men of General GREENE's division ; they lost their cannon, and their leader fell from his horse, fatally wounded ; they retreated to the apple orchard and tried to escape by the bridge and through the waters of the Assunpink creek. At this juncture, finding themselves surrounded, they surrendered, and the patriot army took possession of nearly a thousand men, as many rifles, six cannon and flags, and all the stores which the Hessians had collected.
Before nine o'clock in the morning, the day, which had opened in gloom and secret despondency, had changed to one of bright- ness and hope and future glory. The "crisis," as' proclaimed a week previous by THOMAS PAINE, the "time which tried men's souls," had passed to make way for glorious triumph. What mat- tered it then if the sleet cut their faces, the wind whistled through
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their tattered regimentals, or the blood oozed from their frosted feet ? Had not victory perched upon their banners? Had they not shown the veterans of European wars that they could be defeated and captured by the fire-lock in the sturdy arm of a true Ameri- can? And so they minded not the nine-mile march back again to McKONKEY's ferry, with their prisoners, the recrossing of the river, the upsetting of the boats and the involuntary swim in the icy waters. The next day a thousand men were unfit for duty. What mattered it ?- they were hero-victors all ! A river with a danger- ous current had been crossed in the darkness; a British post had been captured, and the turning point in the war had been passed. Glory, eternal glory, to the twenty-four hundred young men who crossed this perilous river on that memorable Christmas night !
It is just and fitting-nay, it is a duty-to mark in loving remem- brance the spots where great deeds have been enacted, or where great men have lived and died, and in this way to commemorate to future ages the magnificent heroism of the men who suffered that the nation might endure. By monuments alone can we fittingly rescue from oblivion the achievements of those who, in the hour of greatest trial, fought for personal liberty and national independ- ence. So, to-day, in honor of the heroes who crossed the river on that wintry night, we have erected two monuments to mark the historic crossing-the one on the Pennsylvania and the other on the New Jersey shore-and we dedicate them both in the spirit of true patriotism. Let the recollection of the virtues of these soldiers and the record of their noble lives inspire us all to the latest gen- eration, and then this great country, great in its constitution, great in its history, shall stand a monument to the ages, as long as the world endures-the home of an enlightened, a Christian, a liberty- loving people, the " land of the free."
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE
TRENTON BATTLE MONUMENT, DECEMBER 26TH, 1891.
Frei, BY WILLIAM S. STRYKER,
President of The Trenton Battle Monument Association.
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TRENTON, N. J .: THE J. L. MURPHY PUB. CO., PRINTERS. - 1895.
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
The true patriot, THOMAS PAINE, on the 17th day of December, 1776, in a timely and most ingenuous treatise called "The Crisis," written for the purpose of explaining and enforcing the principles of revolution, began with this striking sentence: "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 thanks of man and woman." The closing days of the year in which American independence was declared, were indeed trying times for the lover of his country ; and the men who, at that time, amid terrible discouragements, still clung to the patriot cause, deserve and will receive through all the ages the thanks, the eternal gratitude, of all friends of liberty.
In the paper which I will read to you to-night I shall not give you a sketch of the battle of Trenton as you have read it in the popular histories, nor shall I give it to you with the statements con- cerning the fight that I have often heard related. I will try to narrate, as briefly as possible, the story as I have found it, after fifteen years of study of German records and German diaries at Hesse Cassel and Marburg, and the closest scrutiny of letters written by participants in the battle. I propose to so localize each feature of the affair that you, as Trentonians, and all others who are familiar with our city, may see the surprise of the Hessians on the very spot where each event really occurred, and that you may, in the light of to-day, tell to your children correctly the story of the great battle which took place on the streets of our old historic town.
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It may be necessary to mention a few facts in connection with the condition and position of the American and British armies during the fall months of 1776. The battle of Long Island had been fought on August 27, and resulted disastrously to the patriot forces. A hasty retreat was made by General WASHINGTON across the East river to New York City. On the 16th day of November Fort Washington, held by twenty-six hundred Americans, was taken by assault and the garrison were compelled to lay down their arms between the Hessian regiments of RALL and VON LOSSBERG. The contrast in the situation of these German regiments on that day and their condition forty-four days thereafter was truly wonderful. A week later Fort Lee, on the west bank of the Hudson river, was abandoned because a large force under Lord CORNWALLIS, which had ascended the steep and rocky path at Closter dock to the top of the Palisades, had come into the rear of the fort and made it untenable. A very large amount of commissary stores, of guns, of ammunition and of camp equipage, which the Continental army could not spare without distress, here fell into the hands of the enemy. That army was then posted on the west bank of the Hackensack river. It had scarcely four thousand men fit for duty, and they were greatly in need of tents and shoes and blankets. Desertions were increasing and no recruits joined the army.
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