1776

by David McCullough

Nor, importantly, did he fire Greene, or shuffle him off to some meaningless, out-of-the-way command.

Washington would repay loyalty with loyalty, and this, after so many bad decisions, was one of his wisest decisions ever.

Margaret (“Molly”) Corbin,

By young Monroe’s estimate, Washington had at most 3,000 men, yet his expression gave no sign of worry. “A deportment so firm, so dignified, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in any other person.”

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 their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

In Clinton’s place, Howe put Cornwallis, knowing he had a far more reasonable man to deal with

Charles Cornwallis was a true eighteenth-century English aristocrat,

he was at his professional prime but, unlike Howe, a man with no bad habits or inclinations to self-indulgence, and if not as intellectually gifted as Clinton, he had no peevish or contrary side.

He was devoted to his ailing wife,

and devoted to his men—“

He was the most popular British general serving in America, known to be strict but fair, and genuinely concerned ...

It was such resolve and an acceptance of mankind and circumstances as they were, not as he wished them to be, that continued to carry Washington through.

The first of the British artillery arrived at the river, and by late afternoon British and American cannon were exchanging fire, the American guns commanded by young Captain Alexander Hamilton.

Everything depended on Lee. The letter to Trumbull was written December 14, when Washington knew nothing of events of the day before, Friday the 13th—events wholly unexpected and of far-reaching consequences. As time would show, that Friday the 13th had been an exceedingly lucky day for Washington and for his country.

By all reasonable signs, the war was over and the Americans had lost. Yet for all the troubles that beset him, all the high expectations and illusions that he had seen shattered since the triumph at Boston, Washington had more strength to draw upon than met the eye—in his own inner resources and in the abilities of those still with him and resolved to carry on.

Washington was fully the commander now and it suited him. Out of adversity he seemed to draw greater energy and determination.

It was from Bristol, where he was helping to organize Pennsylvania militia, that Joseph Reed had written a remarkable letter to Washington dated December 22. It was time something was done, something aggressive and surprising, Reed wrote. Even failure would be preferable to doing nothing.

on December 21, Robert Morris had written to say he had heard an attack across the Delaware was being prepared and that he hoped this was true. Responding now to Reed, Washington confirmed that an attack on Trenton was to begin Christmas night.

Johann Gottlieb Rall was a sturdy, able career soldier, and at age fifty-six a senior among officers. The command at Trenton had been conferred in recognition of his valor at White Plains and Fort Washington.

Rall would be roundly criticized later by some of his junior officers for being lazy, lax, indifferent to the possibility of surprise attack,

If anything, the colonel was thought to be too much on edge.

It was the size of the attack to come, and in such weather, that Rall did not anticipate, and in this he was not alone.

In a matter of days, newspapers were filled with accounts of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, the night march and the overwhelming success of the surprise attack, the numbers of prisoners taken, the cannon, arms, swords, horses, even the number of drums and trumpets from Colonel Rall’s military band. But fast post riders and word of mouth spread the story more rapidly still.

William Howe responded to the news of Trenton by taking immediate action. Cornwallis, his leave canceled, was ordered to return at once to New Jersey with an army of 8,000.

Having no authority whatever to do so, he offered a bounty of ten dollars for all who would stay another six months after their enlistments expired that day—a

In the last hours before New Year’s Day, Washington would learn that on December 27, by the vote of Congress, he had been authorized to “use every endeavor,” including bounties, “to prevail upon the troops . . . to stay with the army. . . .” Indeed, for a period of six months the Congress at Baltimore had made him a virtual dictator.

In his letter of reply to the members of Congress, Washington wrote: Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall constantly bear in mind that as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.

it was Washington who held the army together and gave it “spirit” through the most desperate of times.

He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.

“A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.”

The war was a longer, far more arduous, and more painful struggle than later generations would understand or sufficiently appreciate. By the time it ended, it had taken the lives of an estimated 25,000 Americans, or roughly 1 percent of the population. In percentage of lives lost, it was the most costly war in American history, except for the Civil War.