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12) Washington Crossing State Park (NHL)
Trenton
17) Trenton Battle Monument
18) Old Barracks Museum (NHL)
19) William Trent House Museum (NHL)
Princeton
16) Princeton Battlefield State Park (NHL)
13) Nassau Hall (NHL)
14) Morven (NHL)
15) Bainbridge House
20) Rockingham State Historic Site |
Ten Crucial Days
On the night of December 25, 1776, General
George Washington led 2,400 troops of the Continental Army
in a perilous crossing of the icy Delaware River. Beset by freezing
rain, they marched nine miles to Trenton, and delivered a stunning
surprise attack on the Hessian garrison early the next morning.
Washington's forces, by dividing into
two wings, confused the Hessian
garrison of 1,400 men at Trenton into
believing themselves encircled. Some
22 Hessian soldiers and officers were
killed, including Colonel Johann Rall,
their commander; 84 were wounded, and
886 were taken prisoner. This decisive
victory at the first Battle of Trenton revitalized
the American cause.
After ferrying their Hessian prisoners across the Delaware
to Pennsylvania on December 26, Washington's troops
returned to New Jersey to engage the British at Trenton once
again on January 2, 1777. Fighting along the Assunpink Creek
ended at dusk. During the night, Washington led his troops along
a back route to Princeton, where he attacked General Cornwallis'
rear guard on the morning of January 3, 1777. While the second
Battle of Trenton (also known as the Battle of the Assunpink)
had no military outcome, it enabled another American victory,
at Princeton. In the ten days succeeding Christmas, Washington
had engaged the enemy in three battles and by winning two had
restored belief in the possibility of ultimate victory.
Other Trenton sites associated with the battles, but not regularly open to
the public, include:
The 1739 Friends Meeting House (Hanover and Montgomery Streets)
was occupied by British Dragoons in December 1776. George Clymer, a
Pennsylvania signer of the Declaration of Independence, is interred in the
burial ground.
Saint Michael's Church (North Warren Street at Perry): The
congregation of this 1747 "English Church" was split between Loyalists
and Patriots, causing the suspension of religious services during the war.
David Brearly, a New Jersey signer of the Constitution, who later became
the state's first federal judge, is buried in the churchyard.
Buried on the west
side of the First Presbyterian Church (120 E. State St.) in unmarked graves
are Hessians who died in the First Battle of Trenton, including Colonel
Johann Rall. Reverend John Rosbrugh, a casualty of the Second Battle of
Trenton, and the first American clergyman to die in battle is buried on
the east side.
On January 2, 1777, the small frame 1766 Alexander Douglass
House (oft-moved, now at Front and Montgomery Streets) sheltered the
Continental Army council of war where the decision was made to make an
overnight march to Princeton to attack the British garrison.
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