Translate

Monday, April 20, 2015

Crossing the Delaware Revisited

Quote: (imagine that it is George Washington speaking): “A chill wind blows off the Delaware. The Durham boats, which usually ferry cargo, lay waiting at the water’s edge. I survey the soldiers before me this Christmas Day. They are a ragtag bunch with mismatched uniforms. Officers wearing remnants of old military dress. Enlisted men in work or hunting clothes. Many without a coat and some without shoes. A few with handkerchiefs for hats. What sets me apart as commander-in-chief is the light-blue ribband running across my chest, and my blue waistcoat with buff trim to complement my buff breeches. Five months of horrific fighting without a single major victory has decimated the ranks. Nearly 90 percent of the men are gone—killed, wounded or deserted. Now I have just 2,400 soldiers. The terms of the enlisted men expire at the end of the year. Their duty done, they’re sure to return to their homes. The disagreeable weather has hampered our progress; there’s no way we’ll get to the Hessian camp before sunrise. The element of surprise is gone. I step into the Durham boat. It’s 60 feet long and flat-bottomed. I take my position at the bow and order the crew to shove off. Eight men lower their long, iron-tipped setting poles into the muck and push. They keep at it, while more men paddle against the current. An eerie calm comes over the boat. The only noise is the grunting of my men and the slap, slap, slap of paddles in the water. We must make it across the river. After that it’s a nine-mile march to Trenton. And then, battle. If we’re defeated again, our great cause is all but lost."

[ “I’m sure you’ve seen the famous painting of the Delaware crossing by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. But not many know the harrowing details of the events that inspired the artist. The British had soundly defeated the colonists in New York, driving them off Long Island into Brooklyn and eventually to the northernmost tip of Manhattan. From there they fled across the Hudson River to New Jersey. As they marched through Newark, a young officer, Lieutenant James Monroe (yes, that James Monroe) counted the troops. Their number had shrunk from 30,000 men to about 3,000. The British brutally exploited the situation. They imported Hessian mercenaries to solidify their grip on New Jersey, and the colonists fled once again, this time to Pennsylvania. “These are the times that try men’s souls,” Thomas Paine wrote in a pamphlet published just seven days earlier. “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 love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
“Washington made one last desperate plan: attack the Hessian garrison at Trenton. The troops assembled at McKonkey’s Ferry on Christmas. The plan was for the army and all its supplies and artillery to be on the New Jersey side of the river by midnight. But Nature itself seemed to turn against Washington. A fierce nor’easter swept into the Delaware Valley. Rain, sleet and snow made it impossible to see more than a few feet. The river was clogged with ice. Yet when Washington ordered them to shove off, they did.
“On a calm day, crossing the Delaware at that point by Durham boat takes perhaps five minutes. That night it took more than seven hours to get the boats across. Finally reaching the opposite shore, Washington sat on an old wooden box and gathered his cloak around himself. His plan was in ruins. They really had no chance of reaching Trenton before daylight. Yet Washington couldn’t turn back. There was nowhere left to run. So they had to march on to Trenton.
“Contrary to legend, the Hessian forces were not drunk from celebrating. These were crack troops who slept with their rifles and were constantly alert. It was the weather that Christmas night, not drink, that made them drop their guard. It was a rout: Washington’s men took more than 900 prisoners—about half the Hessian force—and lost not a single man. News of the colonists stunning victory spread like wildfire, reinvigorating the cause. That night turned the tide of the war. There was nothing inevitable about what had happened. Everything that could have gone wrong, did. It only came to pass because of the determination and leadership of George Washington. Following him, a small group of men changed the course of the nation and the world…..” ] by James Gibson