You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

by Alexis Coe

If Washington had been a king, Americans waiting to celebrate him on the road to New York would have bowed, but since the country had evicted the monarchy, it was Washington who bowed to them. And they loved him for it. Hundreds of people walked alongside his small caravan to Baltimore, where he stayed the night. Well-wishers took him all the way to Wilmington, Delaware, the next day, and the day after that a military escort accompanied him to the Pennsylvania border. There the state president, Thomas Mifflin, escorted him, along with two cavalry units and a company of around a hundred men, into Philadelphia. Once in town, Washington ditched the carriage for a white horse. The crowds went wild. They cheered him on as he boarded a commercial ferry, crossing into New Jersey along the same passage he had on that Christmas night in 1776, when a much-needed victory at Trenton restored belief that the war could be won; this time, the ride and weather were much more accommodating. He rode under a bridge with a sign that read “The Defenders of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters”; it was covered in flowers, more of which were thrown at his feet. He was so moved by the gesture that he immediately had a thank-you letter sent “To The Ladies of Trenton.”