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Page 30 text:
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Battle of Princeton
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Page 31 text:
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I 1 I I !M Ml M II n II II II 11 ! 1 I.J n M 1 Ej 1928 7 Battle of Princeton BETWEEN five and six thousand able-bodied patriots were gathered on Christmas day, 1776, around the headquarters of General Washington on the Penn- sylvania side of the Delaware River and southwest of Trenton. Envious American eyes were fixed on the force of Hessian soldiers, carousing in true holiday spirits in the New Jersey town. The German mercenaries were heedless of the silent, ragged force of men that later crossed the river a few miles north of their camp Christ- mas night, marched to the encampment, and fell upon the regiments quartered there. The surprised soldiers, or, rather, what remained of the British militaries, was scattered in the wilds of central New Jersey. JECOND POSITION During the ensuing week. Lord Howe in New York, appraised of the American victory, despatched General Cornwallis with eight thousand trim British regulars to western New Jersey. The continental regiments, jubilant in the time of victory, had encamped south of Assanpink Creek in Trenton after transporting the captured Hessian troops to the Pennsylvania bank and recrossing the Dela- ware ' s icy channel to their present position. Militia under Cadwalader, Ewing, and Mifflin joined Washing- ton ' s regiments of foot and artillery along the creek. As the British strength in Trenton was augmented by daily arrivals of fresh soldiers from New York, Wash- ington realized the danger to the American position and condition of the fighting revolutionists. He had lately been granted the supreme command of the army as military dictator. An engagement with the enemy appeared inevitable, and the American leader sought means of avoiding any encounter against superior num- bers. He was willing, however, to vie with isolated portions of the enemy ' s troops after the fashion of the ancient Roman general, Fabius. Necessity, dire neces- sity, he wrote, will, nay, must, justify an attack. The feasible alternative was to march northeast, out- flanking Cornwallis, and to sever the red coat line of communication at some point between Trenton, Maiden- head (now Lawrenceville), Princeton, and New Bruns- wick, but preferably at the college town, which lay due south of Morristown where the next largest continental army was encamped. Skirmishes in Trenton on January 1, 1777, strengthened this decision. The night of the second, the continental were at work, so the red coat imagined, in making campfires and erecting breastworks, but this noisy, flaming activity was a ruse to cloak the withdrawal of the Americans, men, cannon, and baggage. A starry sky, a cool wind, and frozen roads were providential blessings to the marshalling militia. By one o ' clock in the morning the column had stealthily departed on its circuitous route 27
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