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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
Vol. I.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
WASHINGTON CROSSING THE
DELAWARE.
IIE latter part of the
year 1776, when the
@Hm JMIm hopes of the Americans
were at their lowest ebb,
" and the army and cause
were more gloomy than at any
MY previous period of the war, this dar
ffji ing and perilous feat was accom
plished by the Commander-in-Chief.
The American ar
my had met with
disaster after disas
ter; Fort Washing
ton, a strong post on
the Hudson river,
had fallen. Wash
ington, in order to
prevent Sir William
Howe from marching
on Philadelphia with
his entire army, had
been compelled to re
treat from river to
river in Pennsylva
nia, until, from vari
ous causes, his army
had been reduced to
barely four thousand
men, with which
number ho crossed
the Delaware river. Here he was joined
by other detachments of the army, but
not in sufficient numbers to enable him to
meet Sir William Ilowe, who, with a large
and well appointed army, was only wait
ing until the river was frozen sufficiently
hard to enable him to cross on the ice
and attack the city.
The army, feeble and miserably clad,
was on the point of dissolution by the
expiration of its term of enlistment. —
“The year and the campaign were clos
ing amidst unusual despondency. Wash
ington almost alone remained unshaken,
MACON, GrA., NOVEMBER 30, 1867.
and on one occasion he declared that if
the enemy succeeded in obtaining posses
sion of the whole of the Atlantic States,
ho would retreat behind the Alleghanies,
and bid them defiance there. But it was
at precisely this juncture that he struck
the boldest stroke of the war, and in less
than two weeks not only entirely changed
the face of affairs, and retrieved the for
tunes of the campaign, but established
his own reputation, for all coming time,
as a consummate chieftain.”
A considerable detachment of the Brit
ish army, consisting principally of Hes
sians, with a squadron of dragoons, were
in possession of Trenton, New Jersey,
while similar bodies occupied other points,
with a larger force at Brunswick.
Washington conceived the plan of sur
prising the Hessians at 1 ronton, and the
other forces at Bordentown and Burling
ton, by dividing his own small army into
three parties, one headed by himself, and
the others by Gens. Ewing and Cadwal
lader, and crossing the river above and
below Trenton. “On the night of the
25th of December, when the Delaware, a
broad and rapid stream was filled with
floating ice, under a driving storm alter
nately of snow, rain and sleet, and with
the weather so cold that two of his men
froze to death on the way, his own part
of the movement was successfully accom
plished. Trenton was surprised by him
about 8 o’clock in the morning, and after
a brief action, with nominal loss to the
Americans. A thousand Hessians were
taken prisoner—their commander, Col.
and resumed the defensive. By such
bold and successful operations as this, the
fortunes of the war were completely re
versed, and the confidence and hopes of
the country revived.
— ♦♦♦
During the war, a lady, passing
from cot to cot through the wards of a
hospital, was shocked to hear one fellow
laughing at her. She stopped to reprove
the wretched fellow.
“Why, look here, ma’am,” said he,
u you’ve given me a tract on the sin of
dancing, when I’ve both legs shot off.”
No. 22
Hall, being killed.—
The dragoons escap
ed down the river.”
In consequence of
the impossibility of
.•rossing the river at
other points, the two
detachments under
Ewing and Cadwal
iader failed to accom
plish their portion of
the plan. Washing
ton rocrosssed the
river in safety with
his prisoners, who
were nearly half as
numerous as his own
detachment, and, af
ter an interval of two
or three days; return
ed to his old quarters