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CHRISTMAS, 2012
Hi Folks,
I want to talk about Congress. On July 4th, 1776 Congress passed legislation declaring The United States of America to be independent of Great Britain. On that same day Congress passed legislation to raise a standing Army. Congress also placed General George Washington in Command. But those same Congressmen failed to show any interest in funding the Legislation or agreeing on a Budget.
Washington had achieved great success earlier in the year in Boston. A group of volunteers, mostly Farmers, Fishermen and Ship Caulkers had forced the British to evacuate the town on March 17th. They accomplished this by using the cannon that Vermont Farmers had captured at Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. These guns were placed atop Dorchester Heights during the night of March 16th, overlooking the British Garrison in Boston and the British Fleet in Boston Harbor. The British had no choice but to leave as they were out-gunned and out-maneuvered. Washington allowed the British to retreat under an agreement that they would not burn the Town as they left.
Now, on July 4th, under orders from Congress, Washington set about to rout the British from the Town of New York. In order to attempt this, Washington enlisted the services of Fisherman John Glover from Marblehead, and a group of Cape Ann Fishermen. These men and their Amesbury-built fishing dories were necessary to move Washington's Army across Long Island Sound and then the East River.
But Washington's campaign in New York was a complete failure and he had to retreat south across New Jersey with the British chasing him all the way. Reaching the Delaware River on December 7th, Washington had to commandeer a fleet of iron ore boats in order to reach safety on the Pennsylvania side of the river.
On December 8th, safely on the western shore, Washington set about to regroup his decimated Army. Of his original twenty thousand men, only three thousand remained, with only two thousand of these men fit for Duty. They still wore their summer uniforms and were getting by on a few ounces of corn meal and a few ounces of salt pork a day. Of his 1300 cannon only 18 remained. Washington knew that once the Delaware River froze over, the British would simply march across on the ice and attack his weakened Army. He immediately wrote to Congress requesting funds for winter uniforms, boots, blankets and food.
And so his Army sat; trying to care for the sick and wounded as best they could, and regain a little strength on meager rations. And when the cold rains arrived at mid-month, the men had no beef fat left to keep their canvas tents waterproof.
Then on December 20th, Washington learned that the British General Howe had deployed 1200 Hessian Soldiers to occupy the village of Trenton and make certain that Washington and his Army did not try to escape to the safety of Boston. On that same day Washington received a reply from Congress. Congress, it seems, fearing Washington could no longer defend the Capital City of Philadelphia, had removed itself to Baltimore. Also, Congress had left Washington in full Command, but had failed to provide any funding for food, boots, uniforms, blankets or munitions.
So, in desperation, Washington developed a bold plan. He knew that Hessians were German, and thus celebrated Christmas with gusto. He knew that there would be much drinking on Christmas Day and into the night by the Hessian troops occupying Trenton. His plan was to attack the Army garrisoned there before daylight on the morning of December 26th.
Christmas morning dawned cold and rainy. All of the American gunpowder was rendered useless and musket flints would not spark. None-the-less, at full darkness, about half past five, Glover and his Fishermen started to row Washington's Army across the ice-filled Delaware to the New Jersey Shore. This proved a time consuming and laborious task. When the crossing was completed, at about three in the morning, two thousand cold, tired, malnourished, ill-clothed men, with nothing but bayonets, started the twelve mile march down-river towards Trenton Town.
As Washington had suspected, the Hessian Army was badly hung over from the Christmas Festivities of the previous day, and he was able to capture the town with no loss of American lives---save for two of his men who had frozen to death during the long march down-river.
Against all odds, but with great tactical skill, Washington had achieved his first victory in nearly twelve months. Twelve hundred prisoners were captured---along with desperately needed supplies--- corn meal, dried beef, salt pork, clothing, blankets, boots, muskets and cannons with powder and shot.
Never again would Washington's Continental Army fall to such desperate lows. And in France, Franklin's efforts to bring the French into the war on the side or the Continentals, were bolstered by the magnitude of the victory at Trenton.
It would be six long, hard years before the British finally surrendered, but those two thousand men, who so suffered through that Christmas Day in 1776 had literally saved The American Revolution.
I could have chosen to write about Christmas Day in The Wilderness, outside of Richmond in 1862; or Christmas Day at The Bulge in 1944; or Christmas Day in the Mekong Delta in 1968. But I chose to recall the FIRST American Christmas----in 1776.
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