George Washington's Surprise Attack
Page 1
Copyright © 2014 by Phillip Thomas Tucker
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tucker, Phillip Thomas, 1953-
George Washington’s surprise attack : a new look at the battle that decided the fate of America / by Phillip Thomas Tucker, PhD.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-62873-652-6 (alk. paper)
1. Trenton, Battle of, Trenton, N.J., 1776. 2. Washington, George, 1732-1799–Military leadership. I. Title.
E241.T7T83 2014
973.3’32–dc23
2013047083
ISBN: 978-1-62873-652-6
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication:
To my father, Willard Thomas Tucker, 1924-2013.
He Inspired This Work In Too Many Ways To Count.
Most Of All, His Guiding Hand, Sage Advice, and Inspirational Influence
Made This Book Possible. As A True American Patriot, He Sincerely Believed
In The Inspirational Value And Importance Of This Work For Today’s America.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter I: Crossing the Rubicon: Washington’s Most Imposing Obstacle
Chapter II: Turning Point: Washington’s Audacious Decision to Forge Ahead
Chapter III: All Quiet at Trenton
Chapter IV: Washington Pouncing Like “An Eagle Upon a Hen”
Chapter V: Meeting Washington’s Surprise Attack
Chapter VI: Rall Counterattacks
Chapter VII: Bitter Struggle for the Lower Town
Chapter VIII: Rall Lashes Back With Renewed Fury
Chapter IX: Final Drama Played Out in a Snowy Apple Orchard
Chapter X: The Knyphausen Regiment’s Submission
Chapter XI: A Most Remarkable Victory
Epilogue: Trenton’s Long Shadow
Notes
Introduction
After securing victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781, with his soldiers of liberty and the troops of America’s French ally, George Washington was celebrated as America’s greatest conquering hero when he arrived with much fanfare in the prosperous Maryland state capital of Annapolis. Here, thankful city fathers, representing the American people’s exuberance, presented a stirring city address to General Washington. However, they focused not on the recent Yorktown success, but on Washington’s sparkling victory at Trenton, New Jersey, more than five years before. Emphasizing how Washington’s December 26, 1776 miracle victory saved the revolution from an early death, the esteemed civic leaders of Annapolis declared, “We derive peculiar pleasure from the contemplation, that the successes [of Washington and his Continental Army] at Trenton and Princeton laid the corner stone of our freedom and independence.”1
Articulating the sentiments of the American people, these heartfelt words of the Annapolis elite were right on target. Before Washington won his most improbable victory at Trenton on the snowy, bitterly cold morning of December 26, 1776, only a military miracle could have possibly saved the unprecedented egalitarian dream of America, a common people’s revolution, and an audacious republican experiment. After having suffered one sharp military setback after another for months during America’s darkest year of 1776, when the once-vibrant dream of nationhood had all but succumbed to an early, agonizing death, everything now depended upon a forty-five-year old former Virginia militia commander, who had yet to win a single battle in America’s struggle for liberty after nearly a year and a half. Washington’s military reputation and career lay in ruins. After the panicked members of the Continental Congress fled the new republic’s capital of Philadelphia and with the British-Hessian Army drawing ever closer in early December, Washington was left with the sole responsibility to somehow do the impossible.
Therefore, the irrepressible Virginian, who proved to be at his best exactly when America’s fortunes had fallen to their lowest ebb, took the greatest risk and gamble of his career. He decided to go for broke when the stakes could not have been higher for America. On Christmas night, which appeared to be the final Yuletide of the infant republic’s short lifetime and a failed experiment in nationhood, Washington prepared to lead a stalwart band of ill-clad, often-defeated band of revolutionaries from across America into the cold depths of the black unknown east of the Delaware River in a desperate bid to preserve a new, shining future for America.
Embarking upon what no one of either side imagined any sane military leader would attempt to even think about in the midst of winter’s tight grip when eighteenth-century armies traditionally remained quietly in winter quarters, Washington sought to reverse the fortunes of war on one throw of the dice in what was literally America’s last opportunity to do so. With Continental enlistments of almost all of his best troops about to expire at the year’s end, Washington had little choice but to stake everything on his surprise attack on the Trenton garrison of the best professional soldiers in America, the Hessians.
By this time, America’s resistance effort had fizzled miserably after a string of summer and autumn disasters. Without a late December victory from America’s rustic revolutionaries, this struggle for America’s possession, heart, and soul was over. If Washington lost the next battle, then the young American republic was fated to become nothing more than only an obscure footnote in history books. Washington fully realized that if he and what little remained of his Continental Army suffered yet another defeat during America’s darkest hour, then the young American republic and dream was forever doomed to an ignominious end.
Consequently, undertaking what was truly a mission impossible, Washington planned to cross the swollen, ice-clogged Delaware River (like Julius Caesar who ferried his legionnaires across wide rivers to surprise his opponents in winter’s depths) from eastern Pennsylvania to western New Jersey, conduct a lengthy night march south through uncharted territory to descend upon Trenton from the north, assault three veteran regiments (a full Hessian brigade) of well-trained troops, and capture the suddenly strategic Delaware river town of Trenton.
Quite simply, what Washington planned to embark upon was the most audacious offensive effort of the war. Because actual independence could only be achieved by winning victory on the battlefield, America’s true creation story actually began not with the signing of the Declaration of Independence—“of but little importance” without military victory in Thomas Paine’s insightful words—at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776, but at Trenton on December 26, 1776 with the most improbable victory of the American Revolution. When the idealistic dream of a new people’s republic had been transformed into a nightmare by early December 1776, the fortunes of war were miraculously reversed by Washington in what was his finest hour.
Clearly, the high-stakes showdown at Trenton was far more than the story of a typical battle of wasteful bloodlet
ting because America’s independence had to be won by the flintlock muskets and rifles of Washington’s rough-hewn, illiterate common soldiers—mostly farmers and hunters—rather than by the pen of the erudite, aristocratic members of the well-educated colonial elite in Philadelphia. Therefore, this all-important clash of arms in the harsh environment of a swirling snowstorm resulted in the American Revolution’s most dramatic reversal of fortunes in which the United States of America was truly born. With his one-sided December 26 success validating Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence, Washington’s unexpected victory at Trenton earned a new lease of life for the American republic because the declaration’s signing had been only a stillbirth that was more rhetorical, if not fanciful, than real. Therefore, Washington’s victory at Trenton was in fact America’s true creation story, rebirth, and original national Illiad.
All of the humiliating fiascos and defeats of 1776 during America’s darkest period set the stage for Washington’s Trenton miracle. Washington’s improbable victory at Trenton provided a miraculous rebirth of the dying army and republic in the most dramatic reversal of America’s fortunes at nearly the last possible moment. The stoic Virginian’s remarkable December 26 success ensured that America’s revolution against monarchy, imperialism, and empire was not just another doomed resistance effort, like so many ill-fated Celtic rebellions in Ireland and Scotland against the British Empire’s might. Against all odds and when time was running out for America, the fortunes of war were miraculously reversed by Washington and his resilient “band of brothers” to shock the world in a hard-fought, urban battle that raged through Trenton’s streets in the midst of a steady snowfall.
All in all, consequently, no single clash of arms was more either more timely or significant than Washington’s first battlefield success of the American Revolution. Washington’s seemingly impossible victory saved a dying revolution by only the narrowest of margins. Never in the annals of military history has a more maligned military leader, especially one without a formal military education or adequate military experience, achieved a victory with more significant long-term consequences and implications than Washington’s dazzling success in the snows of Trenton.
Most importantly, America’s great egalitarian dream and utopian vision of remaking the world anew were resurrected by Washington with the most surprising battlefield successes in American history. Defying traditional military axioms, Washington, whose command presence inspired his long-suffering citizen soldiers to rise to their supreme challenge in this most brutal of winter campaigns, stunned the day’s leading military men on both sides of the Atlantic. Relying upon a brilliant battle-plan and an unprecedented synthesis of the elements of surprise, speed, stealth, and shock, Washington revered the hands of a cruel fate by orchestrating the most inventive, audacious, and innovative battle plan of the American Revolution: crossing the raging Delaware River at night, marching for nearly ten miles over difficult terrain in the inky blackness amid blizzard-like conditions, and then launching a simultaneous attack from two separate wings, or divisions, not long after the icy dawn of December 26, 1776 to catch a formidable opponent by surprise at Trenton. Washington’s sparkling victory at Trenton was a tactical masterpiece second to none in the American Revolution.
However, Washington’s victory at Trenton was only possible by his inspiring role in leading the way by example through the torrents of sleet, hail, snow, and blustery winds of a “blue norther” and then into the fiery forge of battle. Washington’s strength of character, unshakable commitment to “the sacred Cause . . . of Liberty” (in his own words), his firm belief that God was guiding America’s destiny, and sheer force of willpower fueled a relentless moral, physical, and spiritual drive to secure success at Trenton at any cost. Fortunately for America, the commander-in-chief’s sterling qualities rose to the fore at Trenton in what was very much of a personal, psychological, and professional rebirth for Washington—not only as a military commander but also as a person. In a remarkable resurrection, Washington’s finest traits as a commander emerged from the darkest depths of despair, adversity, and humiliation to reach an unprecedented zenith. Amid the greatest adversity and despite the longest odds for success, the dynamic Virginian inspired his often-defeated men to rise to their greatest challenge and reap their most surprising, unexpected victory. Exactly when the challenge was greatest, the combat prowess of the American fighting man rose magnificently to the fore during the desperate and close-range Dantesque struggle that raged fiercely from street to street covered in a thick layer of snow.
For more than two centuries, Washington’s most unexpected battlefield success has been long shrouded in myth, legend, and romanticization. Consequently, a host of complexities, ironies, and contradictions about this major turning point in the course of American history have been overshadowed by stereotypes and romantic myths to grossly distort and obscure the truth. Despite the battle’s vital importance, many of the most interesting aspects, realities, and perspectives about this legendary contest have been overlooked, ignored, or minimized by generations of Americans historians. Unfortunately, even leading scholars have preferred instead to cling to the many comfortable and familiar myths, traditional romance, and long-existing stereotypes.2 Even revered Founding Father John Adams lamented how the American Revolution’s truths were early transformed into little more than “melodramatic romance.”3 And highly respected historian Ray Raphael likewise emphasized how the revolution’s most famous episodes have been an “invention of history.”4 Likewise, Edward G. Lengel concluded how many so-called “truths” about the American Revolution simply “never actually happened.”5
Therefore, long-deferred, seldom-asked questions will be explored more thoroughly than ever before in this work: just how much of the battle of Trenton’s traditional, legendary, and long-accepted story has been distorted beyond recognition by the multiple layers of popular mythology, romance, and fiction? This book has been written to provide answers to such questions while presenting a host of new views, insights, and perspectives about the battle that turned the tide in America’s darkest hour. By eliminating as much of the traditional romance, mythologies, distorted legends, and simplistic stereotypes as possible, a host of previously unexplored complexities and mysteries about what actually and really happened at the battle of Trenton and exactly why will be revealed in considerable detail for the first time in this work.
Therefore, the “real” story, warts and all, of the unforgettable saga of Trenton will be presented in full. Focused primarily on analyzing the hidden history of America’s most pivotal battle during its struggle for existence, this book will explore the forgotten stories, mysteries, and legacies of the American Revolution’s most dramatic confrontation. In addition, the lesser-known but key individuals, officers, and enlisted men on both sides who fought and died at Trenton for what they believed was right will be analyzed in great detail. Eclipsed by the giant shadow of “the father of the country,” many of Washington’s talented, resourceful top lieutenants, who made bold, timely, independent tactical decisions that contributed to victory at Trenton, have been forgotten. Their story will be told.
Another especially overlooked but fascinating aspect of the tenacious struggle for the possession of Trenton was the forgotten bitter conflict between the German Hessians (the generic name for all Germans who served in the British Army in America) and hundreds of Washington’s German American soldiers, including many German-born Continentals. In a fratricidal showdown that raged through Trenton’s icy streets, Washington’s German Regiment of Continentals played a key role in forcing the surrender of their fellow Teutonic countrymen.
Long overlooked by American historians, this tragic civil war among the German people on America soil was perhaps best represented by Colonel Johann Gottlieb Rall, the Hessian brigade’s ill-fated commander whose reputation (and life) was destroyed by Trenton’s loss. Not long after the battle, he encountered his own German cousin of Washington’s Army,
just before he died of wounds received leading a spirited counterattack into the embattled center of Trenton.6
The contradictions and complexities of the German experience in colonial America were also revealed by the fact that Colonel Rall’s direct paternal descendant hailed from Maryland. German patriots on Rall’s direct descendant’s maternal side also fought at Trenton, Lieutenant Peter Weiser, First Pennsylvania Continental Regiment. His brother from Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, Captain Benjamin Weiser served in Washington’s German Regiment of Continental troops during the autumn of 1776.7
Clearly, by exploring such forgotten aspects of one of America’s most famous battles, Trenton’s story has proved to be far more revealing and fascinating than the simplistic, traditional morality play of righteous revolutionaries battling against merciless, evil mercenaries. The most popular Trenton myth has been that the Hessian garrison’s alleged drunkenness in celebrating Christmas led to their ultimate downfall on the early morning of December 26. Unfortunately, this enduring stereotype and popular view has been only recently reinforced by the popular 2000 historical drama The Crossing.
Ironically, the only widespread drunkenness at Trenton resulted when Washington’s soldiers celebrated their most improbable victory of the war. And contrary to the persistent stereotype of the savage, immoral, and Godless mercenary, Rall’s Germans consisted mostly of a humble, pious soldiery of the Calvinist, or Reformed, faith, not unlike their revolutionary Protestant counterparts, who were less fundamentalist Calvinists, in Washington’s ranks. As strict Calvinists, which was unrealized by Washington and his men at the time, the Hessians, on high alert, had not observed Christmas at Trenton in a festive, drunken manner, a celebration which they viewed as far too pagan and sacrilegious.8
Symbolically, given that so many German soldiers fought against each other at Trenton to reveal only one dimension of the many ironies and complexities of the German experience in America, it was perhaps appropriate that the famous 1851 painting Washington Crossing the Delaware was created by German American artist Emanuel Leutze. Merely an allegorical artistic representation rather an authentic historically correct depiction, one of America’s most iconic paintings was ironically based upon a panoramic view of the Rhine River that was much wider than the Delaware, where Washington crossed the angry river to gain the New Jersey shore. Leutze’s artistic masterpiece was also symbolic because some Germans who fought against each other at Trenton had once been neighbors in Germany’s Rhine River region. Indeed, one central irony that revealed the horror of this Teutonic fratricidal conflict on American soil was the fact that soldiers from Germany, who faced each other in the swirling combat along Trenton’s narrow, snow-covered streets, not only hailed from the same German communities and rural areas, including the Rhineland, but also were related by blood.