Battle of Princeton

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‘We are devising such measures, as I hope, if they succeed, will add as much or more to the distress of the enemy than their defeat at Trenton, and I promise myself the greatest advantages from having engaged a number of the Eastern troops to stay six weeks beyond their time of enlistment, upon giving a bounty of ten dollars.’ So wrote Major General George Washington to Robert Morris, George Clymer and George Walton in a letter from his headquarters on New Year’s Day, 1777. Washington was intent on following up his victory over the British army’s Hessian contingent at Trenton on December 26, 1776. But time was against him. The enlistments of most of his men had expired at midnight on December 31, and it would take money, morale building and all Washington’s dignity to keep them any longer.

Before the victory at Trenton, Washington’s Continental Army had been on the verge of disintegration. Washington himself remembered the humiliation of having his men pushed off Harlem Heights while a British bugler played a fox hunting call. (’It seemed to crown our disgrace,’ noted one of his aides.) Following his calculated gamble of doubling back across the Delaware River to surprise the Hessians at Trenton the day after Christmas, Washington felt that the cards were in his hand. But it takes money to play the game, and Washington’s troops were starving. There was a rumor that a chest with 70,000 pounds sterling in it resided on the British side of the river. Washington was not about to discourage such a rumor, with the proviso that it would be better if such a chest were in American hands.

Washington had already ordered that ‘the sum that is lodged at Ticonderoga’ be brought down from the Northern Department. But that would take time–something he did not have, especially if he was to land a crushing blow. He had told Congress–and would tell it again–of his need for food and supplies, but it could not provide them. In a last-ditch effort, he had called upon the personal fortunes of friends for much-needed pay and provisions. The two parcels of money (for both his soldiers and his spies) from Morris, Clymer and Walton had arrived just in time.

‘At this trying time,’ a sergeant in his camp recalled, ‘General Washington, having now but a handful of men and many of them new recruits in which he could place but little confidence, ordered our regiment to be paraded and personally addressed us, urging that we should stay a month longer. He alluded to our recent victory at Trenton, told us that our services were greatly needed, and that we could now do more for our country than we ever could at any future period, and in the most affectionate manner entreated us to stay. The drums beat for volunteers, but not a man turned out. The soldiers worn down from fatigue and privations, had their hearts fixed on home and the comforts of the domestic circle, and it was hard to forego the anticipated pleasures of the society of our dearest friends.

‘The General wheeled his horse about, rode in front of the regiment, and addressing us again said, ‘My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do and more than could be reasonably expected. But your country is at stake, your wives, your houses, and all that you hold dear.

”You have worn yourself out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty and to your country which you probably never can do under any other circumstances. The present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny.’

‘The drums beat the second time. The soldiers felt the force of the appeal. One said to another, ‘I will remain if you will.’

‘Others remarked, ‘We cannot go home under such circumstances.’

‘A few stepped forth, and their example was immediately followed by nearly all who were fit for duty in the regiment, amounting to about two hundred volunteers.’

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Tags: 17th - 18th Century, American Revolutionary War, Historical Conflicts

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