The 12×20 original painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by German artist Emanuel Leutze hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The impressive masterpiece is the image that most of us have of Washington crossing the Delaware. It is more symbolic than accurate, as Leutze painted it to encourage revolutions in Europe.
Let’s look at the actual event on this 230th anniversary.
Morale was very low in December 1776. Washington had withdrawn his battered troops to New Jersey after repeated attempts to dislodge the British from New York City. In an attempt to extend the British lines, Washington had further withdrawn to Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Washington devised a plan to cross the Delaware River during the late night of Christmas Night in 1776 and attack a post of 1,500 Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey, which was left vulnerable.
Washington had about 6,000 troops at his disposal, but nearly a third of them were unfit for battle because of illness. The troops met at McConkey’s ferry around 3 p.m. on Christmas Day. The boats began to be loaded at sunset for the crossing of the ice-choked river. During the crossing, the temperature hovered near freezing and a mixture of sleet and snow began to fall. By 3 a.m., the crossing was complete. The wintry precip continued to fall as the troops massed for the march on Trenton. The bad weather would make the surprise complete, as the Hessians believed there was no way the ill-equipped Americans could make a crossing in the storm.
Washington divided his men into two columns, knowing that two groups of men had not been able to cross the river because of ice. They marched on the city and were ready for battle by 8 a.m. It is a myth that the Hessians were drunk from their Christmas celebrations, but the element of surprise was more likely why the battle lasted only an hour with 7 casualties on the Americans’ side. The Hessians lost 23 men, had 92 wounded and 913 of them were captured. It was a superb victory for the Americans, aided by the weather.
