Battle of Trenton: An Eyewitness Account

From the American Revolution Website:  Here is an eyewitness account of the Battle of Trenton written by an officer on Washington’s Staff (account and more back ground info here):

New Town PA, December 22, 1776

Things have been going against us since last August, when we were forced to give up Long Island, losing 3000 men and a great amount of supplies. In October we were forced to evacuate New York and cross the Hudson into New Jersey.

We reached Trenton Dec. 2. It was prudent forethought on the part of General Washington to send General [William] Maxwell ahead to secure all the boats on the Delaware River and have them at Trenton upon our arrival. If it had not been done we should have been in a bad fix with [British Army Lieutenant-General Charles] Cornwallis at our heels. As it was the Hessians under Count [Carl von] Donop and Colonel [Johann] Rall arrived in that village in season to fire a few shots at the last boat.

According to last accounts General [William] Howe [the British Commander-in-Chief] and General Cornwallis have gone to New York leaving General [Sir James] Grant with a few hundred English troops at Princeton, Colonel Rall with 1500 Hessians at Trenton and Count Donop with 2000 at Bordentown, ten miles down the river from Trenton.

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