Together with a 1,600-man Pennsylvanian brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas Mifflin, and 600 Pennsylvania militia under Colonel John Cadwalader, Washington had managed to muster about 5,200 men, though many of them were poorly trained. Cadwalader, in fact, had arrived too late to take part in the Battle of Trenton but occupied the town after Washington had pulled out. Not wishing to discourage the newly arrived reinforcements, Washington crossed the Delaware for the fourth time to join Cadwalader, then retired to the south bank of Assunpink Creek.

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To the north, the overall British commander, Lt. Gen. William Howe, remained cautious, for which his subordinates criticized him. Some might even have questioned his loyalty to King George III, as Howe understood and even sympathized with the rebel cause in the American colonies. He had opposed the Coercive Acts and at one time even declared that he would refuse an American command if it were offered to him. When the call came, however, Howe accepted, citing his duty to’serve my country in distress,’ and saying, ‘A man’s private feelings ought to give way to the service of the public at all times.’

After expelling Washington from New York, Howe consolidated his victory and rested his men instead of pressing home the final, fatal blow. He had always considered his army more of an occupation force, and was certain that time and starvation would be his ultimate allies against Washington. And so, after fortifying Trenton, Bordentown, Burlington and various other posts around New Jersey, Howe had left his New Brunswick headquarters for New York, to wait out the winter. Then, however, Washington achieved his stunning victory at Trenton, killing or capturing 970 Hessian troops. It was an embarrassment that Howe could not allow to happen again.

Howe had granted Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis leave to tend to his ailing wife in England. Cornwallis was moments from boarding his ship when news of the Trenton disaster arrived, along with orders from Howe to deal with Washington’s army once and for all. Journeying 50 miles through harsh weather, Cornwallis quickly organized British forces in southern New Jersey and plotted to strike back at the man who had kept him from returning home. Having left 1,400 troops at Princeton under Lt. Col. Charles Mawhood and 1,200 at Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville) under Brigadier Alexander Leslie, Cornwallis had a total of 5,500 to 6,000 Redcoats with him.

On January 1, 1777, Cornwallis led his main force toward Trenton, but his progress was delayed by a series of attacks, ambushes and fighting retreats orchestrated by rebel Colonel Edward Hand. The British did not reach Assunpink Creek until 5 p.m. on the 2nd, and Washington’s troops repulsed three attacks before Cornwallis camped for the night. ‘We’ve got the old fox safe now,’ the still-confident Cornwallis is said to have remarked. ‘We’ll go over and bag him in the morning.’

While Cornwallis watched across the way, fires sparkled by the rebel tents through the night; men could be heard moving back and forth, perhaps preparing their sparse artillery for the next day’s desperate engagement. As the sun came up on January 3, Cornwallis rose and gazed across at the enemy lines. Except there was no enemy there. The rebels were gone.While Cornwallis slept, Washington had put his own plan into action. Leaving only 400 of his men to maintain a semblance of nocturnal activity in his camp, he had withdrawn his baggage and heavy artillery, with their wheels wrapped in rags to muffle the sound, south to Burlington. At 1 a.m., the bulk of his army had departed on an audacious march around Cornwallis’ force to strike at the detachment the Briton had left behind at Princeton. To cut Princeton off from reinforcements, Washington detached 350 troops under Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer to destroy the Stony Brook Bridge.

Hugh Mercer had been labeled a rebel long before the American Colonies’ insurrection. As a young man, he had taken part in a failed coup aimed at placing Prince Charles Edward Stuart on the throne that his grandfather, James II, had lost in 1688. The last of ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’s’ Scottish followers were crushed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and Mercer became a fugitive. Moving to America, he fought for Britain during the French and Indian War, during which he met and came to admire Washington. After that war, Mercer moved to Fredericksburg, Va., where he bought Washington’s boyhood home, Ferry Farm–though he would never actually live there–and even acted as a physician for Washington’s mother. When the Colonists rose against the mother country in 1775, Mercer joined the Patriots’ cause and was immediately made a colonel. He had distinguished himself again at Trenton, and it is likely that Washington had Mercer in mind when he wrote to John Hancock that the behavior of his officers ‘reflect[ed] the highest honor.’

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