[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Most Americans today have an image of Washington's crossing the Delaware during the Revolutionary War. He's at the bow of the boat, his knee up, looking stoically forward as his men push through an ice flow to get him across a very fast river, much wider than the Delaware that I have behind me today. That is the myth of Washington's crossing. The reality is much more compelling than that.

George Washington's army had been forced out of New York. Defeat after defeat during the New York campaign forced him to go into New Jersey, fall back into Pennsylvania. By the time he arrived in Pennsylvania it's mid-December and the British had been hot on his heels. But they decide not to cross the Delaware River. They know that winter is coming. And most of European armies do not campaign during winter season. They decide to stay on the New Jersey side of the river and go into Winter Quarters.

Their field commander, Lord Charles Cornwallis, even goes a step farther and decides he's going to go back to London and not even stay on the continent for the winter. The British Army is so certain that the Continental Army will not survive this winter that they are not going to keep actively campaigning. Washington's army had lost almost 90% of its strength since it engaged in the campaigns around New York. Enlistments are about to run out at the end of 1776 for Washington. His army is disintegrating around him. It is up to Washington to keep his army together and keep the colonial movement towards revolution and towards independence going forward.

To do so, he is going to cross the Delaware and embark on a winter campaign. He has 5,000 or so men that he could cross the Delaware River with. He brings together a council of war. He talks to his generals. And they decide to cross the river at McConkey's Ferry and a number of other sites. He'll utilize John Glover and his Marbleheaders, who are essentially their amphibious wing of the Continental Army, men who had helped extract the army from New York by crossing the river. These hearty sailors are going to go down to boats along the Delaware River, pile men into them, and cross the river.

A river crossing is not something to be taken lightly for an army. Men, material, horses, and artillery have to be ferried across. So specific boats like Durham boats, heavy duty boats, have to be used to ferry men across the river. And let's keep in mind something. It's winter. There's ice flows on the river. So when George Washington decides to cross here on Christmas night of December 25, 1776, when he jumped into his boat, he is not like that Leutze painting.

He is not standing at the bow of a ship. He is probably sitting down, trying to keep warm. It's below freezing out here. A snow and rain storm will come across these men as they push on towards Trenton. Not to mention if his boat hits an ice flow out in the middle of the Delaware and he topples over, as he stands there stoically and majestically at the bow of a ship, the Continental Army may lose its commander. Hypothermia might set in. Or his men may never find him in the dark.

This is a dangerous crossing. It's a fighting the elements. It's fighting time because it's Washington's going across the Delaware River here, he is trying to get to Trenton, New Jersey as quickly as possible. He's trying to destroy a garrison of Hessian soldiers, 1,500 or so men, who hopefully have been celebrating so much Christmas that they will not expect a Continental Army attack.

And that's exactly what happens. Washington crosses the river here. He converges on Trenton. And the crossing here is going to bring victory because it was done so quickly. It was done in secret, that he is able to strike Trenton, surround most of the German garrison and land a blow against the British officers. Charles Cornwallis is forced to cancel his trip to London and come back and start to deal with the fox that he calls George Washington.

[CLOCK TICKING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]