Ten Crucial Days

Ten Crucial Days. The Road to Princeton. On December 25-26, 1776, General George Washington, and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to attack Hessian forces in Trenton. This bold decision marked the beginning of a period known as the Ten Crucial Days, which culminated in the Battle of Princeton on this site on January 3, 1777. Washington’s inspirational victories during this campaign, kept the fight for independence alive.

In December 1776, the Continental Army was on the retreat after a disastrous campaign around New York City. With soldiers, deserting and enlistment expiring at the end of the month, general Washington needed to take decisive action, or the war would be lost.

After leading a Continental force of about 2,400 soldiers on the perilous crossing of the Delaware, Washington marched his troops through a blizzard until they reached Trenton, where they defeated the Hessian troops occupying the town. It was Washington’s first significant victory of the war.

On New Year’s Eve, Washington rallied his troops with an impassioned speech, convincing most to extend their enlistments. On January 2, 1777, British forces under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis marched from Princeton to Trenton to trap Washington’s army against the Delaware River. After a day-long running engagement down the King’s Highway, the Americans held them off at Assunpink Creek, winning their second major victory. Regarding Washington, and undeterred Cornwallis allegedly noted that he planned to “bag the fox in the morning.”

He never got the chance. That night, Washington secretly marched the army northeast to attack the British garrison in Princeton, leaving a small group of soldiers in Trenton to maintain the campfires as a decoy.

Produced with the support of an award of Federal funds from the American Battlefield Protection Program, administered by the National Park Service.

[Caption]:
Thomas Sully, The Passage of the Delaware, 1819. Oil on canvas, 372.11 x 525.78 cm. (146 1/2 x 207 in.)
Gift of the owners of the Old Boston Museum