📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
With the Continental Army disintegrating from desertion and expiring enlistments, Washington made a desperate gamble. On Christmas night 1776, he led 2,400 soldiers across the ice-choked Delaware River in a blinding sleet storm, marching nine miles to attack the Hessian garrison at Trenton at dawn. The surprised Hessians were overwhelmed in less than an hour. Colonel Rall was mortally wounded; nearly 900 Hessians were captured.
Thomas Paine wrote 'These are the times that try men's souls' just weeks before. Trenton reversed the catastrophic momentum of the New York campaign, re-enlisted thousands of soldiers, and restored patriot morale across the continent. The crossing became one of the most iconic images in American history.
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