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‘Victory Or Death’ — Triumph Of The Winter Patriots

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The Crossing. Art by Mort Kunstler.

It’s the most important Christmas story in American history. The Battle of Trenton, fought in the early morning hours of December 26, 1776, saved the American revolutionary cause.

After a series of devastating defeats in New York through the summer and fall of 1776, General George Washington’s Continental Army slogged in a long retreat across New Jersey, across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. the Continental Congress fled to Baltimore, fearing a thrust from the British from Jersey into Philadelphia. By any sane measure, it looked like the jig was up. With enlistments set to run out on December 31, the army was on the verge of disintegration And Washington was on the verge of despair.

George Washington may not have been the most brilliant of tacticians, but he had an aggressive, attacking spirit, and he figured to go down swinging. He and his Council of War conceived a bold plan to recross the Delaware on Christmas night to strike the town of Trenton, New Jersey, garrisoned by German Hessian mercenaries. Washington himself scrawled out the watchword for the operation: Victory or Death.

The following short documentary nicely captures the bold, brilliant 10-day campaign that rejuvenated the American cause in the darkest days of winter, the very Times that try men’s souls described by Thomas Paine in his pamphlet The American Crisis.

Washington got his ragtag force across the ice choked Delaware in the midst of a nasty storm, and surprised the Hessian garrison in Trenton. Contrary to conventional accounts, the garrison and its commander were not drunk from over-celebrating Christmas. That was a calumny heaped upon the commander Johann Rall — who died in the fighting — after the fact, abetted by an embarrassed British high command.

From Battlefields.org:

December 26. Behind schedule because of the storm, the Americans arrive on the outskirts of Trenton around daybreak. Washington splits his force into two columns. One, commanded by Major General Nathanael Greene, attacks from the north, while a second, under Major General John Sullivan, attacks from the west to cut the line of retreat to the south.

The Hessian garrison, under the command of Colonel Johann Rall, had been harassed by American militia for several weeks and the men are exhausted. Although Washington engages the pickets on the outskirts of town, Rall is taken completely by surprise. A running fight through Trenton is a decidedly one-sided affair. Some Hessians manage to escape, but most are captured. While leading his troops, Rall is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he formally surrenders to Washington.

The strategic consequences to the Trenton action were significant. Washington was able to follow it up with a stinging defeat of British troops at Princeton a few days later, demonstrating that American military competence was not just an occasional fluke. Soldiers reenlisted, fresh troops joined the force, and a people whose faith in the success of American arms was wavering were shored up. Doubts about Washington’s competence were suppressed.
There were dark days ahead, to be sure, and it would take years more of blood, toil, tears and sweat to realize American independence. But never again would the light of liberty come so close to guttering out as it did in December 1776, saved by a bold, desperate stroke that came over Christmas.
Jim Cornelius

Jim Cornelius

Born in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Jim Cornelius grew up dreaming of distant frontiers, of mountain men, long hunters, African explorers. His older brother gave him a tattered copy of Allan W. Eckert’s The Frontiersmen, a biography of Simon Kenton, and the twig was bent. Graduated from...

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  2. Ugly Hombre says

    Very good- the original Yankee spirit…

    https://www.newenglandhistoricalsoc…war-veterans-christmas-dinner-new-hampshire/#

    “Benjamin Pierce, a war hero and father of future president Franklin Pierce, threw a Christmas dinner for 21 Revolutionary War veterans in 1824.Ammi Andrews of Ipswich, Mass., was the oldest guest at 89; the youngest was Nathaniel Johnson at 59.

    The Rev. John Lawton offered a prayer, and the veterans launched into their reminiscences. Ammi Andrews told a story about capturing a British sentinel during Benedict Arnold’s expedition to Quebec.

    “At 1:30, they moved into the dining room and ate dinner while offering 13 toasts, one for each of the original states. The first nine toasts honored Washington, the war heroes and hard-won battles. The last four called for patriotism, liberty and the preservation of the union of the states. Twelve more toasts followed, praising the U.S. victory in the War of 1812, the Marquis de Lafayette and the Greeks fighting for liberty.”

    “His earnest patriotism was shown on the occasion of his inviting nineteen of his old Revolutionary compatriots (all residents of Hillsborough), to dinner on one of the anniversaries of a Continental triumph. This happened but a few years previous to his death. One of the veterans remarked the absence of one of their number who lived in the town, and mentioned the fact to the Governor, who said, “I invite no one to my table who is afraid of the smell of gunpowder.”

    https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/revolutionary-war-veterans-christmas-dinner-new-hampshire/

    Found this on line and thought it was very good and reckoned I would share it

    “We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution” J.F.K.

    Reply

    • Jim CorneliusJim Cornelius says

      ““I invite no one to my table who is afraid of the smell of gunpowder.”

      Love that line.

      “We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution” J.F.K.

      In all of its messy, glorious humanity — we are indeed.

      Reply

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