Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolution, was the first move in a surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey on the morning of December 26. Planned in partial secrecy, Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the icy Delaware River in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation. Other planned crossings in support of the operation were either called off or ineffective, but this did not prevent Washington from successfully surprising and defeating the troops of Johann Rall quartered in Trenton. The army crossed the river back to Pennsylvania, this time burdened by prisoners and military stores taken as a result of the battle.
Washington’s army then crossed the river a third time at the end of the year, under conditions made more difficult by the uncertain thickness of the ice on the river. They defeated British reinforcements under Lord Cornwallis at Trenton on January 2, 1777, and defeated his rear guard at Princeton on January 3, before retreating to winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey.
Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), by Emanuel Leutze. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
While 1776 had begun well for the American cause with the evacuation of British troops from Boston in March, the defense of New York City had gone quite poorly. British General William Howe had landed troops on Long Island in August and had pushed George Washington’s Continental Army completely out of New York by mid-November, when he captured the remaining troops on Manhattan.[1] Howe then sent troops under the command of Charles Cornwallis across the Hudson River into New Jersey and chased Washington across New Jersey. Washington’s army was shrinking, due to expiring enlistments and desertions, and suffered from poor morale, due to the defeats in the New York area. Most of Washington’s army crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania north of Trenton, New Jersey, and destroyed or moved to the western shore all boats for miles in both directions. Howe and Cornwallis, rather than attempting to immediately chase Washington further, established a chain of outposts from New Brunswick to Burlington, including ones at Bordentown and Trenton, and ordered his troops into winter quarters.[2]
Washington encamped the army near McKonkey’s Ferry, not far from the crossing site. While Washington at first took quarters across the river from Trenton, he moved on December 15 to the house of William Keith to be closer to the army. When Washington’s army first arrived at McKonkey’s Ferry he had four to six thousand men, although 1,700 soldiers were unfit for duty and needed hospital care. In the retreat across New Jersey Washington had lost precious supplies, as well as losing contact with two important divisions of his army. General Horatio Gates was in the Hudson River Valley and General Charles Lee was in western New Jersey with 2,000 men.[3] Washington had ordered both generals to join him, but Gates was delayed by heavy snows en route, and Lee, who did not have a high opinion of Washington, delayed following repeated orders, preferring to remain on the British flank near Morristown, New Jersey.[4][5]
Washington had additional problems, including the fact that the enlistments of many of his men were expiring.[6] The series of lost battles and the retreat from New York had left morale very low in Philadelphia, where many residents and the Second Continental Congress fled to the south.[7] Many soldiers were inclined to leave the army once their commission was finished, and several had taken the opportunity to desert the army before their enlistments were up.[8] Orders were issued to bring supplies to the camp, and men were dispatched to recruit new soldiers, who did slowly begin to arrive at the camp.[9] Militia recruiting in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania was also successful, spurred on by British and Hessian mistreatment of New Jersey’s residents.[10]
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