It is January 12th. Welcome to Episode 12 of History in a Year. Today, the American Revolution is on life support. George Washington has lost New York, his army is dissolving, and the British are waiting for spring to finish him off. But on Christmas night 1776, Washington bets everything on a single, desperate gamble. We cross the frozen Delaware River, debunk the myth of the “drunk Hessians,” and witness the miracle at Trenton that saved the nation.
STEPHEN: Welcome to History in a Year: America’s First 250 Years.
LEAH: Join us every single day as we journey from the Revolution of 1776 to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
STEPHEN: You can find every episode and join the discussion at PointedWords.com. I’m Stephen.
LEAH: And I’m Leah.
STEPHEN: It is January 12th. Welcome to Episode 12. Yesterday, we left Washington escaping from New York by the skin of his teeth. But the escape wasn’t the end of his troubles. It was just the beginning of the “Retreat.”
LEAH: The fall of 1776 was a disaster. The British chased Washington across New Jersey. He didn’t have enough men to fight. He didn’t have enough food. He didn’t have shoes—observers noted that you could track the American army by the bloody footprints left in the snow.
STEPHEN: By December, Washington had crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. He seized every boat for miles so the British couldn’t follow him. But he was trapped.
LEAH: And the clock was ticking. This is the crucial detail. Most of his soldiers had signed one-year enlistment contracts. Those contracts expired on December 31st.
STEPHEN: Washington knew that on New Year’s Day, his army would basically cease to exist. He would be left with practically no one. The Revolution would end not with a bang, but with a whimper.
LEAH: The British General, William Howe, knew this too. He decided not to attack. Why waste men in the winter cold? He pulled his army back to New York and left a chain of outposts in New Jersey to hold the territory.
STEPHEN: He left the town of Trenton, right on the river, in the hands of the Hessians—those German mercenaries we’ve talked about. They were led by Colonel Johann Rall.
LEAH: Washington sat in his tent, shivering. He wrote to his brother: “I think the game is pretty near up.” But Washington wasn’t the type to quit. He realized he had one card left to play.
STEPHEN: He decided to attack. In the middle of winter. At night. It was insane. It violated every rule of 18th-century warfare.
LEAH: The plan was to cross the Delaware River on Christmas night, march nine miles to Trenton, and attack the Hessians at dawn.
STEPHEN: He chose the password for the operation: “Victory or Death.” And he meant it literally. If this failed, the army would be captured, he would be hanged, and the war would be over.
LEAH: So, let’s go to the riverbank. Christmas Night, 1776.
STEPHEN: The weather was atrocious. It wasn’t a silent night. A massive Nor’easter blew in. It started as snow, then turned to sleet, then hail. The wind was howling.
LEAH: The Delaware River was choked with massive chunks of ice floating down the current. It looked like a death trap.
STEPHEN: Washington turned once again to John Glover and his “Marblehead Regiment”—the fishermen who had saved him in New York. These guys were tough as nails.
LEAH: They were using “Durham boats.” These were massive, black, flat-bottomed cargo boats used to haul iron ore. They were 40 to 60 feet long, with high sides. They were heavy and hard to steer, but they could hold a lot of men and cannons.
STEPHEN: Getting the men across was hard enough. But the real challenge was the artillery. Henry Knox—the bookseller who brought the cannons from Ticonderoga—was there. His booming voice was the only thing that could be heard over the wind, directing the loading of 18 cannons and horses onto these icy, slippery boats.
LEAH: Washington hoped to be across by midnight. But the ice was so bad that they didn’t finish the crossing until 3:00 AM. They were three hours behind schedule.
STEPHEN: Now, imagine being a soldier. You are wet, freezing, and you’ve just spent hours on a terrifying river crossing. Now, you have to march nine miles to Trenton in a sleet storm.
LEAH: Two men actually froze to death on the march. Officers had to walk up and down the line waking men up because if they sat down in the snow to rest, they would die.
STEPHEN: Their gunpowder got wet. When an officer told Washington that the muskets wouldn’t fire, Washington replied, “Use the bayonet. I am resolved to take Trenton.”
LEAH: Now, let’s look at the Hessians in Trenton. There is a persistent myth that they were all drunk from celebrating Christmas.
STEPHEN: That is false. They were professionals. In fact, they were exhausted because American militia bands had been harassing them for weeks. They had been sleeping in their boots, constantly on patrol.
LEAH: Colonel Rall, the commander, was brave but arrogant. He called the Americans “country clowns.” He refused to build fortifications around the town because he thought it was beneath his dignity to hide behind dirt.
STEPHEN: However, there is a famous story about a note. On Christmas night, a Loyalist farmer tried to warn Rall that Washington was coming. Rall was playing cards and drinking wine. He took the note, put it in his pocket without reading it, and kept playing.
LEAH: That unread note was found in his pocket after he died.
STEPHEN: At 8:00 AM on December 26th, the Americans arrived at the edge of town. They were late—it was already daylight—but the storm was so bad that the Hessian sentries couldn’t see them coming.
LEAH: The attack was a complete surprise. The Americans poured out of the woods. Henry Knox set up his cannons at the top of King Street and Queen Street—the two main roads in town.
STEPHEN: This was crucial. In 18th-century warfare, if you control the streets with cannon, the enemy can’t form a line. The Hessians ran out of their houses, tried to form ranks, and were immediately blasted by grapeshot—which is basically a giant shotgun shell.
LEAH: It was chaos. The Hessians were confused, their powder was wet, and they were being attacked from three sides.
STEPHEN: A young American lieutenant named James Monroe—who would later become the 5th President of the United States—was shot in the shoulder while charging a Hessian cannon. He nearly died, but a doctor managed to clamp his artery.
LEAH: Colonel Rall tried to rally his men. He climbed on his horse and led a charge. But he was shot twice in the side. He fell from his horse and was carried into a nearby church.
STEPHEN: Without their leader, the Hessians crumbled. Within 45 minutes, it was over.
LEAH: The Hessians surrendered. Washington had captured nearly 900 prisoners. He also captured vital supplies: muskets, powder, and shoes.
STEPHEN: The American casualties? Two men froze to death on the march. Five were wounded in battle. Not a single American was killed in combat.
LEAH: It was a miracle. Washington rode over to the dying Colonel Rall to offer his condolences. Rall handed over his sword and died later that day.
STEPHEN: But Washington couldn’t stay. The British army was nearby. He had to cross the river again, with 900 prisoners, back to Pennsylvania.
LEAH: The news of Trenton electrified the colonies. A week ago, everyone thought the war was over. Now, they saw that the invincible Hessians could be beaten.
STEPHEN: But Washington still had the problem of the expiring enlistments. It was December 27th. The contracts ended in four days.
LEAH: On December 30th, Washington lined up his troops. He asked them to stay for just six more weeks. He offered a bounty of $10—a fortune for these men.
STEPHEN: At first, no one stepped forward. They wanted to go home. They were tired.
LEAH: Washington rode his horse to the front of the line. He gave one of the most emotional speeches of his life. He said: “My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected. But your country is at stake… The present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny.”
STEPHEN: He finished, and there was silence. Then, a single soldier stepped forward. Then another. Then the entire line. They stayed.
LEAH: With his army intact, Washington crossed the river a third time a few days later. He fought another brilliant battle at Princeton on January 3rd, defeating a British reinforcement column.
STEPHEN: Those “Ten Crucial Days”—from Christmas to January 3rd—changed everything. Washington had saved the Revolution.
LEAH: He drove the British out of most of New Jersey. He settled into winter quarters in Morristown. The war would go on.
STEPHEN: But the British weren’t done. They were humiliated. And for 1777, they came up with a new plan. A plan to cut the head off the snake.
LEAH: They were going to invade from Canada. They were going to sever New England from the rest of the colonies.
STEPHEN: Join us tomorrow for Episode 13. We head into the deep woods of upstate New York. We meet a dashing British playwright named Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, and we witness the turning point that convinces the world America can actually win. The Battle of Saratoga.
LEAH: I’m Leah.
STEPHEN: And I’m Stephen.
STEPHEN: You can find every episode at PointedWords.com. And this… is our story.