George Washington's Surprise Attack

by Phillip Thomas Tucker

  Wiederhold suspected that the returning members of his early morning patrol had been lax in their duties—understandable given the soldiers’ weariness, the Christmas season, and stormy weather—, failing to complete a thorough, proper reconnaissance along the Pennington Road. Who could have blamed these young men for having only hunkered down in shelter to warm and protect themselves from winter’s harshest offerings this morning, especially on the Christmas holiday when they were thinking about their faraway homes, wives, families, and children instead of killing American rebels, who were mostly farmers like themselves and only battling for their personal freedom?

  Acting on a gut instinct, although exhausted after an anxious night spent worrying about ghost-like American raiders suddenly emerging out of the blackness to reap revenge on their tormentors, Wiederhold sought to investigate the situation for himself. Upon peering north toward more elevated terrain, upon which the Pennington Road ran, and through the heavy fall of snow flakes cascading down, the seasoned Knyphausen Regiment lieutenant was shocked by what he suddenly saw: in the distance, around sixty men, looking like ghostly apparitions, pouring out from the blackened woodlands to the northwest, and moving forward at a good pace, despite the thick snow cover. Straining his eyes at the unbelievable sight that took his breath away, Wiederhold soon realized that these men possessed firearms and the discipline of tried soldiers. Indeed, these men advanced south at the “long trot” through the open fields of snow around the Pennington Road, after having spilled from the dark forests only about two hundred yards distant. What these attackers gave the veteran lieutenant was an early morning shock at the sight of the most improbable development, especially given the storm’s intensity and the overwhelming contempt held by the Hessans for American soldiers.

  Wiederhold now realized that his most advanced Pennington Road sentries were not sufficiently alert. He knew where to lay blame for this unexpected and rare breach in discipline “because it was a holiday.” At first, the fusilier lieutenant mistakenly thought that this advancing force was just “merely a roaming party” on yet another small raid, like Wallis’s Virginians, to harass Trenton’s most advanced pickets as in the past.

  Wiederhold began to shout out the alarm at the top of his voice. The already uniformed fusiliers grabbed their dry weapons from a nearby row of muskets and prepared to meet the fast-moving interlopers. Not yet realizing that he was facing Washington’s main force of veteran Continentals, Wiederhold and his disciplined Knyphausen Regiment soldiers were quickly under arms. They were determined to put up a good fight and maintain their lofty reputations. With shiny muskets already loaded just in case of such a surprise, thanks to Rall’s wisdom, the aroused Hessians poured like a flood from Howell’s cooper house, located just below, or south of, the snowy intersection of the Scotch and Pennington Roads, rushing out into the biting cold and the harsh northeast wind. Lieutenant Wiederhold, in his own words, was now determined “to give the enemy a firm challenge,” believing that he was confronting only a small raiding party of ragtag militia.

  However, Wiederhold soon realized that these rebels continued to move forward without any hint of tentativeness. Most alarming to the lieutenant, they were surging onward as if they meant business. All in all, these Americans were simply acting much too boldly, heading directly toward Trenton and a full Hessian brigade with far too much confidence for a relatively small body of men. Lieutenant Wiederhold now understood that these onrushing soldiers, even though they looked more like New Jersey farmers than professional fighting men, represented a far more serious threat than a small band of raiders: obviously a fast-moving vanguard, which was leading a much larger body of soldiers—the main American force—advancing not far behind them.

  Confirming his conviction that far more attackers had to be advancing just behind this vanguard, Wiederhold then saw larger numbers of American soldiers pouring from the blackened belt of woodlands and surging through the open fields covered in snow. In fact, it soon seemed as if the Americans were swarming everywhere. This vanguard of seasoned Virginians, displaying a level of discipline matching that of the Hessians to the surprise of all who saw the sight, quickly formed into a neat firing line on Pennington Road, standing tall before Wiederhold’s thin formation of slightly shorter men. Aligning with a precision that revealed that these unsoldierly looking Americans were battle-hardened veterans, Captain Washington’s Virginia Continentals then unleashed the morning’s first volley that erupted from both sides of the road. Breaking the morning stillness, the American volley crashed and rang across the open fields, which had been overflowing with crops of corn, oats, and wheat only a few months before. Echoing through the crisp, early morning air, this resounding volley announced the sudden arrival of Washington’s main strike force just outside and northwest of Trenton.

  But in the Virginia Continental’s sense of elation, excitement in catching the enemy by surprise, and an overeagerness to hit tempting Hessian targets, including Wiederhold himself, they unleashed their first fire when the range was yet too great for the volley to strike home. Therefore, no damage was inflicted upon the small line of eighteen exposed Hessian pickets and their sword-wielding commander, who stood before them to present an ideal, tempting target. Nevertheless, the Germans boldly held not only their ground but also their fire. They also maintained their composure and discipline even as the first hail of bullets whistled close by. Then, while Captain Washington’s soldiers hurriedly reloaded their flintlocks, the foremost company of Stephen’s Virginia men, advancing rapidly behind the vanguard, then aligned in a neat rank and opened fire.

  Still upset that his picket patrol had been “not alert enough” this morning to now place him and his men in such a bad fix, the veteran fusilier lieutenant thought clearly in this crisis situation and quickly developed a plan of action. Displaying considerable nerve, he calmly waited for Captain Washington’s and Stephen’s Virginians to swarm even closer after they unleashed their initial volleys before ordering his men to return fire. After the third volley exploded from the overeager Virginians, out of breath and panting, who continued to miss their targets, Wiederhold finally screamed for his pickets to open up with the first Hessian fire of the day.

  Meanwhile, more of Washington’s attackers continued to emerge out of the blinding snowstorm like wintry demons from some Arctic region heading toward Lieutenant Wiederhold’s band of isolated men. An unstoppable tide, the Americans advanced swiftly through the fallow fields and open meadows, bathed in a fresh sheet of snow, until Wiederhold and his band of Knyphausen fusiliers were “almost surrounded by several battalions.” With lengthy lines of Greene’s Second Division troops overlapping his flanks like an ocean wave, Wiederhold finally ordered his handful of men rearward.

  He now planned to fall back to the next, and main, advanced picket post held by von Lossberg fusiliers. In a final act of defiance and feeling the shame of running before the most despicable of foes, two Knyphausen Regiment fusiliers quickly reloaded while falling back, frantically jamming bullets into musket barrels with long wooden ramrods. Then, in a show of bravado, they suddenly spun around and turned to gamely face the onslaught of Old Dominion attackers. The two Hessian pickets then calmly took aim and fired at their onrushing opponent. Near the mounted General Washington at the front as usual, Colonel Fitzgerald wrote in his diary how, “Two of them fired on us, but the bullets whistled over our heads.”68

  This hot exchange of initial volleys delivered along the Pennington Road resulted in no casualties on either side. The lack of casualties revealed the high degree of nervous excitement, weariness, and overeagerness of the Virginians, which was only natural at an important engagement’s opening. However, on the town’s northwest outskirts, this fight was only beginning for the seventeen Hessian pickets under Lieutenant Wiederhold’s command. Even though “I was passed by several [of Greene’s] battalions” on the flanks, especially to the south where the Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts troops of Mercer’s brigade
swarmed forward from the west, Wiederhold ordered his band of Knyphausen pickets to continue to offer resistance while falling back toward Trenton “under a steady fire.” Previously chosen for the key assignment “to attack and force the enemies Guards and seize such posts as may prevent them from forming in the streets” of Trenton, Captain Washington’s foremost vanguard and Stephen’s lead brigade of Virginia Continentals fulfilled their mission with skill and alacrity.69

  With the chase through the snow now on toward Trenton, Washington ordered Captain Washington and his elite contingent of Third Virginia Continental Regiment soldiers, of Stirling’s brigade, who had only recently rejoined the army just north of the intersection of the Pennington and Scotch Roads from their independent advanced assignment, down the snowy roadway in pursuit. Eager to strike a blow and push all the way to Trenton, these Virginia soldiers were now “determined to fight to the last for their country,” wrote Captain Chilton. With a resounding cheer that echoed through the air, Captain Washington’s Virginians dashed down the Pennington Road in an attempt to capture the Hessian pickets before they escaped to Trenton and sounded the alarm. After having already demonstrated spunk in defying the odds, the two especially belligerent Germans of Wiederhold’s advanced picket detachment were finally overwhelmed by the onrushing Virginians, who took mercy on their exhausted captives. There was no killing of prisoners on this post-Yuletide morning because this war between cousins had not yet degenerated to that horrific point.

  Meanwhile, “under constant fire,” Wiederhold’s survivors continued to withdraw at a steady pace toward the main picket headquarters, just northwest of town, about a half mile to the east. Captain Ernst Eberhard von Altenbockum commanded this picket headquarters. At age forty, he was an unmarried officer with twenty-two years of hard-earned experience in the von Lossberg Regiment. Located at the Alexander Calhoun House that also served as a little general store on the Pennington Road, the picket headquarters now became Washington’s next target. Born in Courland, a Baltic Sea region of rolling hills, dense forests, and medieval towns in western Lativa where many ethnic Germans lived, in 1736, Altenbockum was a most enterprising officer. He had taken command of the 170-man detachment of the advanced guard of the right column during the steamrolling assault on Fort Washington, when Major Dechow was cut down in leading the Knyphausen Regiment up the commanding heights to a mid-November 1776 victory.

  Here, at the picket headquarters, sleepy Hessians had already poured from the house when they heard the first outburst of firing. These weary von Lossbergers had been under arms for three consecutive nights and sleeping in uniforms, with leather cartridge-boxes strapped on, and had been ready for action on a moment’s notice for the last eight days like other regimental members. These advanced Hessians northwest of town had been caught off guard in no small part because of sheer exhaustion from having answered so many recent alarms and previous threats, both real and imaginary.

  Barking out orders in the frigid cold, Captain Altenbockum rallied around twenty of his seasoned fusiliers in record time. With what appeared to be a robotic ease, Altenbockum’s pickets then formed a straight line astride the Pennington Road before the snow-covered Calhoun house, as long practiced on drill fields, on both sides of the Atlantic, so often in the past. In facing northwest and looking up the road through the falling snow, they made their defensive stand against the raging American tide that had so suddenly emerged out of the dark woodlands. To protect his flank and his exposed Pennington Road position, Altenbockum “formed a right angle across the street before the captain’s quarters.” At last, a sweeping volley erupted from a concentration of Hessian muskets, thundering across the high ground northwest of Trenton.

  Despite facing overwhelming odds, the Hessians continued to demonstrate that they yet possessed plenty of feistiness and fighting spirit that surprised the foremost Americans, including even hardened veterans. Here, before the wood-frame Calhoun House and standing astride the Pennington Road in guardian fashion to buy time for the yet-unassembling men of the Rall brigade situated in the river valley below in Trenton, Altenbrockum’s little formation was bolstered when Lieutenant Wiederhold and his withdrawing pickets suddenly raced up. They hurriedly formed up beside Altenbockum’s soldiers, extending their right to the street’s other side. Captain Altenbockum now felt more confident with the arrival of Wiederhold’s veterans, knowing that he had to buy time in order to give the Rall brigade, on lower ground to the southeast, time to rally.

  The united band of Knyphausen and von Lossberg Regimental members now stood side by side, defying Washington’s Virginia vanguard. But now even more American troops were seen swarming southeast toward Trenton and across the open fields of a harsh New Jersey winter, disturbing the freshly fallen snow and Altenbockum’s chances of holding firm. After firing a ragged volley, Altenbockum ordered his fusiliers of the Fifth Company, von Lossberg Regiment, to reload in a hurry.

  But the luxury of sufficient time no longer remained with Captain Washington and his Third Virginia troops already practically right on top of the badly outnumbered fusiliers, charging down the Pennington Road as if nothing could stop these Old Dominion veterans. Nevertheless, most Germans of the two united picket outposts refused to flee southeast to join their comrades in Trenton. Instead, the Hessians continued to hold their ground, standing firm to buy precious time for the Rall brigade. With time rapidly running out, Altenbockum hoped that the main picket detail of von Lossbergers retiring from the Princeton-Trenton Road might yet reinforce him. However, as fate would have it, these eagerly awaited reinforcements failed to reach the hard-pressed captain’s position in time.70

  One of Washington’s elated attackers was surprised at the spunky fighting spirit demonstrated by these outnumbered Hessians, of two picket outposts, who were now united under the experienced leadership team of Altenbockum and Wiederhold. During one of the day’s most spirited delaying actions, the advanced pickets, who represented two regiments, stood their ground with defiance. Demonstrating courage and sheer nerve in the face of the American onslaught, the foremost Hessians before Trenton now fought back in a defensive position before Captain Altenbockum’s headquarters. These Germans no longer fired volleys as ordered by officers. Instead, they blasted away at will, loading and firing rapidly. Bestowing a compliment, one of Washington’s soldiers, described in a letter how “Their advance guard gave our advance guard several smart fires” this morning.71

  Buying additional precious time for the Rall brigade, Captain Altenbockum and Lieutenant Wiederhold stood firm in the snowy street with their pickets, even while Captain Washington’s fast-moving Virginians, tall, lanky western men with Long Rifles, closed in for the kill. Large-sized and burly like Lieutenant Monroe who advanced beside him, Captain Washington now demonstrated how thoroughly he had been transformed from the quiet, pious divinity student to a model warrior. With a florid complication, placid face, and the gentlemanly manners of a typical Virginia Tidewater aristocrat of the planter class, Captain Washington had once believed with all his heart that killing his fellow man was the worst of all sins during a more innocent time that was no more. Only a year ago a fresh-faced sophomore attending classes at the prestigious College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Lieutenant Monroe described with admiration how “Captain Washington moved forward with the vanguard in front, attacked the enemy’s picket, shot down [an] officer. . . .”72

  Indeed, by this time, the Virginian’s fire was not only closer but also more concentrated and accurate, inflicting an escalating amount of damage on the spunky Hessians, including the fallen lieutenant cut down by a single shot from the sharp-eyed Captain Washington. Captain Altenbockum, far from his Courland homeland on the Atlantic’s other side, now faced a howling tide of attackers led by the cousin, Captain Washington, of the commander-in-chief, while the German American cousin of Trenton’s commander was among the troops now swiftly descending upon Trenton. All the while, Altenbockum and his band of pickets continued to face th
e brunt of Washington’s vanguard surging down the Pennington Road. Along with the fallen von Lossberg lieutenant, a sergeant and several privates were also hit by the Virginians’ rifle fire that swept through the Hessians’ ranks.

  Presenting a most encouraging sight before his troops, meanwhile, Washington hurried Stephen’s Virginia brigade onward through the snow flurries behind his cousin’s onrushing vanguard. Major George Johnston, the third highest ranking officer of Colonel Charles Scott’s Fifth Virginian Continental Regiment in Stephen’s vanguard brigade, marveled at Washington’s inspiring, dynamic leadership, writing how, “Our noble countryman [from Mount Vernon] at the head of the Virginia brigades, exposed to the utmost danger, bid us [to] follow [and] We cheerfully did so in a long trot” toward the head of King Street at Trenton’s northern edge.73

  After having witnessed so many American soldiers panicking, fleeing, and surrendering throughout the New York Campaign, Washington was elated by this novel sight of elite Hessian soldiers fleeing for their lives down the Pennington Road. Perhaps as an old fox hunter of the Virginia Tidewater’s forests, meadows, and murky swamps, he recalled that especially dark September day on Harlem Heights when he had felt the humiliating sting of the blaring notes of a contemptuous British bugler, who mocked the withdrawing Americans by playing a traditional fox hunting call.

  That searing taunt had infuriated Washington and fueled a desire for revenge: the ultimate insult on the American character that he now planned to erase with the most unexpected of victories at Trenton. Exorcising an old demon and humiliating stereotype that had become accepted as fact on both sides of the Atlantic, Washington was relieved by the sight of his onrushing troops now thoroughly dispelling at least one persistent stereotype (Americans always run from Hessians) that had long stained the fighting qualities of Washington and his men.