Tales of Time Gone By: Crossing the Delaware

By the end of the year 1776, the Continental army was ragged, discouraged, and ready to pack up and go home. Numerous defeats left the soldiers low on morale, and with the end of their enlistments rapidly approaching, George Washington knew he needed to move quickly. 

Washington’s plan was to have three separate crossings on the night of December 25th, with a tentative fourth, should General Israel Putnam have enough troops. 2,400 men, along with the Commander in Chief himself, were to cross at McConkey and Johnson’s ferries, about ten miles northwest of Trenton. 

Colonel John Cadwalader’s Pennsylvania Assembly, and Colonel Daniel Hitchcock’s militia were to cross south of Trenton, at Neshaminy ferry. Their objective was to distract Colonel Von Donop, and Colonel Stirling’s troops, giving the rest of the army time to take Trenton, without having to worry about reinforcements coming.

Brigadier General James Ewing, and his militia were to cross in the center of the two, at Trenton ferry, very close to the town. They were to hold the bridge over Assunpink Creek, which was the only way for the enemy to escape to the southeast. 

For the plan to work, the Continental army would have to be across the Delaware by midnight that night, so they could arrive at Trenton before daybreak, keeping the element of surprise on their side. 

At four in the afternoon on Christmas day, the Continental army marched out for their evening parade. They had done this before, yet this time was different. Each man was told to gather enough provisions for three days, and even the officers and musicians were ordered to carry a musket, and each was given sixty rounds of cartridge to carry with him. 

Washington ordered for silence, and that any man quit his ranks, he was to be killed. As the men marched in columns of eight abreast down the road. 

The plan quickly went south, with many of the troops arriving at the assigned meeting place late. They’d been hindered by the weather, which had quickly started to turn foul after sunset, as well as being weighed down by all they had to carry. In addition to all this, many of the men were sick, and several had no shoes, leaving a trail of bloody footprints in their wake. 

Downriver, Ewing’s troops were also having problems. His men ran into the same storm that hindered their upriver comrades. When they finally reached their crossing point, they found the river congested with ice, a blockage too thick for boats to get through, yet too treacherous to cross on foot. Ewing’s crossing failed.

At Neshaminy Ferry, the place where Cadwalader and Hitchcock were to cross, the river was nearly a quarter of a mile wide, and very turbulent. This, combined with the ice floes, caused Cadwalader to call the crossing off at Neshaminy Ferry, and head six miles downstream, to Dunk’s Ferry. They finally began to cross at eleven pm, running into an ice jam. This one wasn’t as thick as the one Ewing’s forces had encountered, though the boats still couldn’t pass through. Around six hundred of the light infantry troops managed to make their way over the ice to the other side, while those still in the boats tried to break through the ice. Eventually, the 1st and 3rd battalions made it through to the opposite shore, as the 2nd tried to follow. Unfortunately, the ice blocked their way, and they were unable to break through before the storm worsened, and they were called back, Cadwalader and Hitchcock fearing it would be too dangerous for them to keep going.

After three hours on the New Jersey side of the river, the troops there were called back as well, though they debated going on with the attack without either their commanders or their artillery, though they eventually decided against it. 

When they finally made it back across the river, they were ordered to return to their quarters, where they arrived just before dawn. Hitchcock and Cadwalader’s crossing had failed. 

Now, only Washington and his troops remained. And finally, something went right for the Continental army. When the soldiers arrived at the crossing point, the boats were ready. Many were large, thirty to forty-foot Durham boats, built for carrying heavy loads of cargo for the iron works. They were very stable, even in the bad boating conditions. As well as other, smaller watercraft, they had the ferries, which would be useful in transporting the horses and their eighteen pieces of artillery across the river, which was about eight hundred feet wide at McConkey’s Ferry. 

Henry Knox was put in charge of the crossing, and his voice carried over the storm, which was worsening as they hastened to get to New Jersey. In the river itself, the water was high, and moving quickly, sending the ice floes crashing into each other and the boats as the boatmen struggled to pole their way to the other side. Not making matters easier was the fact that the moon was blocked out by the clouds, making it near impossible to see to the other side, and the temperature was well below freezing. 

As they crossed, a few men, including Colonel John Haslet, fell in, and needed to be fished out. Despite this, no man died from falling in the icy Delaware that night. 

On the New Jersey shore, Washington wondered whether he should call the whole operation off. They were three hours behind schedule now, and would certainly be attacking in daylight at this point, though he decided it would be too much trouble to abandon it at this point.

As the troops moved across, they were sent to gather in the appointed meeting place, where Adam Stephen’s brigade were stationed. Ordered not to let any man in or out of the ranks, except for those with the password: “Victory or Death.” 

The march to Trenton would go on, bringing much needed morale to the troops as it ended in victory.

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