“No,” Nat said. “I did not. I am still motivated by a sense of duty to our cause that requires me to fight. For me, privateering no longer warrants the risks taken. I have made enough to provide for Anna and my son for a while. At least if I am taken prisoner on land, I will not be hung on the spot as a pirate. I suppose that makes me a coward, but so be it.”
“You are no coward,” Will replied quickly. “I have seen my share of them at many battles. But what has this to do with me and Elisabeth?”
Nat ignored his friend’s exasperated tone. “All of us who serve suffer from being separated from those we love. The only difference is you know the dangers facing Elisabeth and I do not know what perils confront my Anna. The human imagination, Will is a wondrous instrument. I am witness to it daily. I fear for the health of my infant son. Winter is upon us. Will he catch a cough and succumb before he has lived even one full year? The church graveyards in Salem are marked with small granite slabs for those babes who died in their infancy.”
Will recalled the tiny grave of his infant brother, born and buried behind their farmhouse, not one month old. It had been a long time since he had thought of the farm in Scholarie.
“I will not list the dangers I envision. You know the familiar diseases of smallpox and measles. I know of many more and the perils of childbirth are not far from my mind. Anna is of a delicate and frail physique.” He paused, shook his head to rid it of some dark vision and wiped his nose on the back of his glove.
They turned back toward the camp and rode in silence for a while.
“I tell you Will, you will never know real fear, horrible, helpless, terrifying fear, until you hear your beloved scream with the pain of childbirth and know there is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to help, other than to drop to one’s knees and pray, as hard as you have ever prayed, to the Almighty. Fortunately, Anna was attended by an experienced and skillful midwife.”
Will recognized there was some truth to Nat’s mournful confession. “You have hardly given me any consolation, other than the opportunity to unburden myself to a friend. Yet, truly I do feel somewhat relieved.”
“Perhaps I can brighten your countenance more with the news that Privates Adam Cooper and Titus Fuller, who served with me on my sloop and also felt compelled to cease being privateers, have accompanied me to Valley Forge. I left them to seek out shelter while I went to find you.”
“Adam and One-Eyed Titus here?” Will said. “That is indeed good news.” He urged Big Red forward eager to see his old friends. “However, you have chosen a most inopportune time to join us. We shall all starve together. We know not from one day to the next whether or not we will eat or even if what is provided is fit to be eaten.”
“Starving together with friends is better than hanging alone from a yardarm,” Nat replied as he bounced high in the saddle. “Besides, we are Massachusetts men and used to harsh winters.”
And Will thought, this winter will end and give way to the resumption of the war and a spring campaign. A campaign to drive the British from Philadelphia. If her father consented, he and Elisabeth could be married there. He resolved to keep that idea foremost in the days ahead, waiting for the time when the army would march out of Valley Forge and move on Philadelphia.
End Notes
Part One- Trenton and Princeton
Chapter 1- The Taking of Trenton 1) After the initial surprise, the Hessians rallied. Two threepounders were arrayed in front of Colonel Rall’s headquarters on King Street. As the Hessians engaged the American artillery at the top of the street, a Virginia unit, under the command of Captain William Washington, (a relative of George Washington), and Lieutenant James Monroe (later President of the United States), attacked the two guns. The Virginians captured both guns, although Captain Washington and Lieutenant Monroe were wounded. They were among the few American casualties of the battle. (William M. Dwyer, “The Day Is Ours!” p. 256.) Captain Washington was wounded in both hands and Monroe took a musket ball in his shoulder, which severed an artery, causing him to bleed profusely. (Richard M. Ketchum, “The Winter Soldiers,” p. 260.)
Colonel Knox also ordered Sergeant White of the Massachusetts Regiment and others, whose own cannon had been disabled by a broken axle, to join in the attack, shouting: “My brave lads, take your swords and go up there and take those two pieces they’re holding. There is a party going; you must go and join them.” (Dwyer, p. 256.) White stated “I hallowed as loud as I could scream to the men to run for their lives right up to the pieces.” (Ketchum, p. 260.)
I have given the fictional characters of Lieutenant Hadley, Will and the gun crew the honor of capturing the Hessian brass threepounder and turning it on the fleeing enemy.
2) Among the American troops attacking Trenton on December 26th were Colonel Nicholas Hausegger’s German Continentals, Regiments from Pennsylvania and Maryland, totaling about 375 men. They shouted, “in German and in English,” for the Hessians to surrender and lay down their weapons. (David Hackett-Fischer, “Washington’s Crossing,” p. 251.)
3) The enduring myth of the Battle of Trenton is the Americans surprised the Hessians, sleeping off their drunken stupors of Christmas Day and took the town. This falsehood diminishes both the American Army’s accomplishment and the Hessians’ brave and stubborn defense. Historians agree the Hessians were not drunk but tired and worn down by the incessant patrolling, sentry duty, and harassment of their supply lines.
Accounts of the numbers of Hessians, killed, wounded and captured differ. Dwyer states the Americans captured 868 Hessians, killed or wounded 106, took six field pieces, fifteen regimental flags, one thousand muskets, and other equipment including a full set of band instruments and forty hogsheads of rum, some of which was drunk by the victorious Continentals on the spot. Among those captured were twenty-five musicians, who ironically became favorites in Philadelphia and provided music on July 4, 1777, the first anniversary of independence. (Dwyer, p. 270.) General Washington wrote to Congress only “two officers and two privates were wounded” on the American side. (Dwyer, p. 271.)
David Hackett-Fischer states the Hessians lost 918 men, 22 killed and 83 seriously wounded. The Americans captured 896 officers and men and enough supplies and “material to equip several American brigades,” including “six double fortified Brass three pounders with carriages and ammunition wagons.” Hackett-Fischer points out, correctly, the American casualties were higher than Washington reported. He speculates that although there were not many battlefield casualties, many of the exhausted and starving men died of exposure, malnutrition, hypothermia and other illnesses, either on the march to Trenton or on the way back, or even in barracks when they returned to Pennsylvania. (Hackett-Fischer, pp. 254-255.)
Regardless of the actual numbers, the Battle of Trenton was a significant and important victory and a disaster for the British. American morale soared. An English journalist, reporting from Virginia, wrote: “The minds of the people are much altered. A few days ago they had given up the cause for lost. Their late successes have turned the scale and now they are all liberty-mad again.” (Dwyer, p. 279.) General Howe’s report to Lord Germain, Secretary of State for America in the British Cabinet, stated, ‘the unfortunate and untimely defeat at Trentown has thrown us farther back than was at first apprehended, from the great encouragement it has given to the rebels.” (Dwyer, p. 278.)
Chapter 2- Keeping the Enemy at Bay 1) Although the victory at Trenton buoyed the spirits of patriots, and many young men may have joined local militias, many other units term of service expired at the end of December. On December 30th, a cold snowy day, one day before the expiration of their service, Washington spoke to some Regiments of the Continental Army. Eyewitness accounts report that after the General’s first appeal, in which he offered a $10 bonus for the men to remain in the army for an additional six weeks, not a man stepped forward. He tried again, stating:
“You have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected, but your countr
y is at stake, your wives, your houses, and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty, and to your country, which you probably never can do under any other circumstance.” He concluded this is “the crisis which [will] decide our destiny.” (Ketchum, p. 278.)
Nearly all who were fit for duty stepped forward. Hackett Fischer noted that one of the veterans who agreed to stay on “remembered later that nearly half of the men who stepped forward would be killed in the fighting or dead of disease ‘soon after.’” (Hackett Fischer, p. 273.)
Brigadier General Knox appealed to another body of troops. General Thomas Mifflin’s appeal was described by a Rhode Island Sergeant as follows: “Monday the 30th in the afternoon our brigade was sent for into the field where we paraded before the General. . . and after making many fair promises to them, he begged them to tarry one month longer in the service and almost every man consented to stay longer who received 10 dollar bounty as soon as signed their names. Then the General with the soldiers gave three huzzas and was with clapping of hands for joy amongst the spectators and as soon as that was over the General ordered us to have a gill of rum per man. . .” (Dwyer,p. 289).
The bounty was paid in “hard money,” raised by Robert Morris in Philadelphia, that is “Spanish silver dollars, French crowns and English shillings,” and not Continental paper. (Dwyer, p. 294.) The Spanish milled dollar, the “peso duro” or hard dollar was also known as a piece of eight. Five Spanish dollars equaled one English pound sterling. (Ketchum, p. 280.)
The end result was a total of 1,200 poorly clothed, hungry, shivering “animated scarecrows,” agreed to stay. The Fourteenth Continentals, the Marblehead Mariners, who had served so well since March 1775, elected to go home, probably infected with “privateers’ fever,” that is the opportunity to become wealthy by earning shares of the cargo seized from British vessels captured by American privateers.
2) Among the patriots, 1777 was called the “year of the hangman” because the number seven resembled a gallows. Soldiers and statesmen alike knew the Crown regarded them as guilty of treason. If the Revolution failed and they were arrested, many thought they would hang for their rebellion.
3) The weather favored the Americans. The army needed time, after crossing the Delaware and marching through Trenton to dig in on the south side of Assunpink Creek and form defensive lines. Washington had between 6,000 and 7,000 men, including untried militias and thirty artillery pieces. They crossed the Delaware at Trenton, marched through the town and began digging in on the sloping heights above the creek. Most of the troops arrived on December 28 and 29. Washington arrived on December 30, with General Sullivan’s troops, their crossing having been delayed by ice floes in the Delaware. The artillery reached Trenton on December 31, 1776. (Dwyer, p. 292).
There had been an early thaw on New Year’s Day with temperatures close to 50 degrees by the afternoon, followed at night by a heavy rain. On January 2nd, the abnormally warm temperatures continued. The melting snow, together with the rain had turned the main road from Princeton to Trenton into mud, knee deep in places. (Dwyer, p. 314.) This hampered the British Army’s advance from Princeton, making their march a tough, slow slog and bogging down their field artillery and baggage train.
Washington’s plan was to delay the British Army’s progress for as long as possible so it would be dark when they reached Trenton and unable to launch a full scale attack. At eleven a.m. the British Army, 9,500 strong, reached the town of Maidenhead. They were about seven miles from Trenton.
One thousand or so American troops blocked their way. Led by Colonel Hand, the riflemen of the First Pennsylvania Continental Regiment, hidden by thick woods and aided by field artillery, ambushed the advancing British and Hessians, forcing them to form battle lines before the Americans retreated and set another ambush closer to Trenton. When the outnumbered Americans were a little more than half a mile from Trenton, Generals Washington, Greene and Knox, rode out to encourage Hand’s outnumbered Americans, now down to six hundred or so, to delay the oncoming British for as long as possible.
It was past four o’clock when Hand’s troops were finally forced to retreat into Trenton. The sun set about a half an hour later. They had retreat into Trenton. The sun set about a half an hour later. They had 317; Ketchum, pp. 288-290; Hackett-Fischer, pp. 294-298.) When the British entered Trenton, there was little daylight left and the opportunity for a decisive daylight battle was gone.
4) It was not unusual for young men to become officers or hold rank above that of Private in the Continental Army. CaptainLieutenant Winthrop Sargent of the Massachusetts Artillery was 23. Sergeant Joseph White, who was promoted on the orders of General Knox for his role in the first battle of Trenton was, at age 19, a gun commander at the Battle of Princeton. Lieutenant James Monroe, second in command of the Third Virginia Continentals, at the same battle, was 18. Alexander Hamilton, a battery commander at the first Battle of Trenton, was about 20. The fictional battlefield promotion of Private Will Stoner to Corporal, almost 17, is in keeping with the actual practice of the times.
5) General Washington, on his white horse waited, “at the far end” of the bridge across the Assunpink, for the men of Hand’s Regiment and the troops sent to provide cover for them to enter the American lines. (Ketchum, p. 290.) At the time there was general cannon and musket fire from both sides. The bridge was barely wide enough to allow a horse and carriage to pass.
A private in a Rhode Island Regiment, retreating across the narrow bridge wrote: “The noble horse of Gen. Washington stood with his breast pressed close against [the] end of the west rail of the bridge, and the firm, composed and majestic countenance of the General inspired confidence and assurance in a moment so important and critical. In this passage across the bridge it was my fortune to be next to the west rail, and arriving at the end of the bridge rail, I was pressed against the shoulder of the general’s horse and in contact with the general’s boot. The horse stood as firm as the rider, and seemed to understand that he was not to quit his post or station.” (Hackett-Fischer, pp. 300-301.)
6) As the sun began to set, but before it became completely dark, the Americans could see the British and Hessians troops, battalions of them, clearly outnumbering the defenders, assembled on the upward slope toward the top of Trenton. Enemy regiments of grenadiers, jaegers, and light infantry moved through the town in plain view, marching to assault the bridge across the creek. Behind them, came columns of Redcoats. British artillery began bombarding the American lines.
The troops recognized the crisis. There was no safe way to retreat. An Ensign in the center of the line, across from the bridge noted, “no possible chance of crossing the River; ice as large as houses floating down, and no retreat to the mountains, the British between us and them.” (Hackett-Fischer, p. 303.) If the American lines broke, it would be a rout.
An American officer, recalling the battle years later wrote, it was “an awful moment [when] Cornwallis displayed his column and extended his lines. . . . If ever there was a crisis in the affairs of the Revolution, this was the moment; thirty minutes would have sufficed to bring the two armies into contact, and thirty more would have decided the combat. . .” (Hackett-Fischer, p. 303.) A Rhode Island Private observed “commencing at the moment when the British troops first saw the bridge and creek before them, [until their attacks were repelled] depended the all-important, the all absorbing question whether we should be independent states or conquered rebels.” (Dwyer, p. 319)
7) The Hessian Grenadiers began their charge at the bridge from about sixty yards away. The American artillery and troops opened fire and although the Hessians made it to the bridge, their column “moved slower and slower until the head of it was gradually pressed nearly over, when our fire became so destructive that they broke their ranks and fled.” (Dwyer, p. 323.)
At that point, the Am
erican troops yelled. “It was then our army raised a shout, and such a shout I never since heard; by what signal or word of command, I know not. The line was more than a mile in length and from the nature of the ground the extremes were not in sight of each other, yet they shouted as one man.” (Dwyer, p. 324.)
The Hessians and British assaulted the bridge two more times. Each time when they were driven back, the Americans spontaneously shouted in defiance, victory and perhaps with relief. Sergeant White described the effect of grape shot on the advancing troops: “We loaded with canister shot and let them come nearer. We fired all together again, and such destruction it made, you cannot conceive. The bridge looked red as blood, with their killed and wounded in their red coats.” (Dwyer, p. 324.)
8) General Knox noted that after the fighting stopped, the artillery fire ceased, “except for a few shells we now and then chucked into town to prevent [the enemy] enjoying their new quarters securely.” (Dwyer, p. 325.)
Chapter 3- A Cold Night March 1) While General Cornwallis waited in Trenton, confident his attack in the morning would overwhelm the American lines, Washington left the entrenchments around one a.m. on January 3rd and led most of his army around the British left flank and on to Princeton by a little known path through dense woods until they reached a road roughly paralleling the Trenton to Princeton Post Road. It was a distance of twelve miles. The troops were cautioned to march in silence, while a skeleton force remained behind, stoking the bonfires and attempting to make the usual camp noises of an army still in place. (Hackett-Fischer, pp. 318-321; Dwyer, pp. 328-331.) The freeze that night worked in the American’s favor, hardening the roads making for faster marching and the passage of the gun carriages. (Dwyer, p. 331.) Washington’s army of about 6,000 men approached Princeton by the Saw Mill Road in the early morning.
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