Transcription
Ah, yes. My favorite Christmas story. Today we're talking about George Washington crossing the Delaware. Yes, like the painting. We've all seen the painting. We've all seen the internet memes like, "America will cross a frozen river on Christmas to kill you in your sleep." Haha, that's funny.
What's not funny is the fact that everybody knows the painting, but almost nobody knows the full story. It's a metaphor. I get it. But that actually happened, though. And the reason that's a tragedy is because while the painting is cool, the painting doesn't convey the message that Washington didn't just cross the Delaware River while it was frozen. He crossed it on three separate occasions, handed out three separate ass whoopons, and saved the entire American Revolution. And it is probably the 10 most important days in American history. And we're going to get to all of it right afterward from our sponsor.
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Our story begins in December of 1776. George Washington is currently leading the Continental Army and things are not going well. They have suffered loss after loss after loss at the hands of the British. They've lost New York. They've lost Long Island. They've lost Fort Washington. They've lost Fort Lee. And they are now being driven out of New Jersey. All that remains of the Continental Army at this point is about 2400 men. They are beat up. They are freezing. They are starving. And they've lost almost all of their supplies in their previous losses. And they are now being forced to retreat across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania to desperately try to stop the British from taking Philadelphia. And if that wasn't bad enough, the army is about to not exist because on December 30th at midnight, all of the enlistments for all of the men in the Continental Army expire and most of them are probably going to go home because they're tired of getting their asses kicked, which means the American Revolution is going to dissolve and it's game over. We remain British forever. Well, that sounds terrible.
It is terrible. And the British realize this. So they decide they're not going to attack Philadelphia. They decide it's the fourth quarter. They're up by 100 points. They're just going to take a knee, let the clock run out, and win the game. There's no reason for them to march south, have one last fight with Washington, and take Philadelphia because the American Revolution is dying just fine on its own. So the top British generals, General Howe and General Cornwallis, order their men to go into winter quarters. General Cornwallis makes plans to go back home to Britain to spend winter with his wife. And General Howe is gonna go up to New England and spend winter with his mistress. Okay, the British obviously the bad guys in this story, but you got to give it to them. That's a brilliant plan, right? You get to go home, be warm, get a piece of ass, and still win. I'll make that deal.
What their plan did not account for was that a 6'2 giant by the name of George Washington was about to make the decision that he was going to be the main character of the American Revolution. He was about to have his Rocky moment where he decides nothing's over till it's over. But the clock is ticking right now. Announce about December 8th and he's got till December 31st at midnight to figure out a way to get all of his men to not abandon their enlistments to remain in the army, build an army over the course of the next winter and then take the fight back to the British. And to make things 10 times worse, pretty much everybody has given up on him. Continental Congress is pissed off at his string of losses. All of the other top generals in the Continental Army are secretly going behind his back telling Congress that they should be his replacement, and they're talking about firing George Washington. They've basically already decided they're going to let the British plan work. They're going to let the clock run out. They're going to let the American military dissolve and then they're going to hope in the spring everybody will have forgotten that they've just had their ass beat for the last 6 months straight and they'll be able to raise a new army, put somebody else in charge of it, and they're going to go fight the British. But George Washington knows the people aren't going to forget. This revolution is going to die right here, right now, if he can't do something about it.
And this is the lowest point of George Washington's life. In his own writings, I'm paraphrasing, but he basically says, "I want to quit. I wish I could quit, but I know if I quit, nobody else is going to take up my spot and do what needs to be done right here, right now." He knows that he's the dad. He is a father to a new nation, and quitting is a luxury that he doesn't have. So, he gets to work and he comes up with a plan.
George Washington decides that somehow someway before December 31st at midnight, he needs to get a win. He needs to get a win so he can capture enemy supplies and more importantly he can get his men and the revolution as a whole some morale. He needs to prove to himself, his men and the whole world that the British military is not invincible and that they can be beat. And then maybe, just maybe, his men will reinlist and he can keep the revolution alive. He can turn this from a fourth quarter situation to a halftime situation and he can come out of this winter with a bigger, better army that's ready to take the fight to the British. But in order to accomplish that, he's going to have to change everything. Up until this point in the war, George Washington has led a very conservative, defensive-minded war. He's going to have to flip that on its head. He is going to have to get aggressive and go out on the offense. He is no longer going to be the general sitting up on the hill overlooking the battlefield issuing orders. He is going to be on the front lines with his men, leading them in combat the entire time because that's the only way his men are going to follow him.
With that in mind, he decides they are going to go to the nearest British outpost. They are going to launch an attack and they are going to crush them there, steal all the supplies and get this victory. But that's easier said than done because the nearest British outpost is a town called Trenton in New Jersey. So they're going to have to recross the Delaware River when it's borderline frozen in winter when the men are already freezing, starving, and beat up. So the journey alone is a humongous ask. And even if they can make it to Trenton, once they get there, the problem only gets worse because it's occupied by 1500 Hessians. And the Hessians are German mercenaries hired by the British. They are basically the Blackwater of their day. They are the world's premier soldiers for hire. They are in every way professionals and good ones at that. The Continental Army, on the other hand, is a bunch of average Joes that picked up muskets one day. They don't know how to march. They don't know how to fight that great, but they're willing to fight. It is quite literally pros versus Joes. And to make things worse, the Joes are freezing, starving, and low on supplies. And the Hessian pros are not. They are the exact opposite. This is borderline impossible. If they're gonna pull this off, they're going to need a Christmas miracle. Which is exactly why we're gonna attack on Christmas.
We'll improvise. Just keep it kind of loosey goosey. Action. All right. So, it's decided we're attacking Trenton on Christmas. So, we got to get a plan together. First things first, we got to be able to transport all the men and all the cannons across the river as quickly as possible. And in order to do that, we're going to need as many boats as possible. Luckily, the Delaware River is used for commerce. So, there's these things called Durham boats that a lot of farmers and businesses that operate on the river already own. And these boats are capable of carrying a huge quantity of weight because they're usually used for carrying like iron ore or crops. So, if we can get our hands on those, we'll be able to transport large quantities of men and cannons across the river as quickly as possible. And they're already along the river. So, George Washington orders his guys to go out weeks in advance and track down all the farmers, all the businesses that own these Durham boats. And first, they need to ask if they can borrow them. If they're not going to let the Continental Army borrow them, they're going to ask them if they can buy them. And if they can't buy them, we're just going to steal that shit. We're going to strategically transfer that shit to our location. Okay, not really that great. It's not good for, you know, the whole hearts and minds, and we want everybody on our side to think we're the good guys thing, but our back is up against the wall. It has to be done. We need these boats. If we can't buy them, and we can't borrow them, we're going to steal them. So, the men go out, they acquire the boats.
Okay, now for the actual plan, how we're going to conduct this battle. We are going to go there. We are going to leave at night. We are going to cross the frozen Delaware River with giant chunks of ice floating down it in these Durham boats in the dark. And then we're going to march 9 miles to Trenton and hopefully get there before the sun is up and we can still attack him at night. And because it's Christmas, hopefully all the Hessians have been partying and drinking and we can catch them when they're drunk off guard and just slaughter everybody. That's the plan. Hey, this is not going to be conventional warfare. We're not going to march to Trenton, then form up in ranks on the outskirts of town in a field and wait for the Hessians to come out and form up their ranks and fight like they do where we all just stand in the field and take shots at each other. No, we are going to rush into the town with our 6-ft tall Kentucky rifles and start doing CQB guerrilla warfare tactics. That's the plan.
I know what you're thinking. If we're just doing a bunch of close quarters combat inside of an urban environment, why are we bothering to bring a bunch of cannons with us? Surely cannons won't be good for CQB, right? Wrong. Because we've got Henry Knox, you know, like Fort Knox where they keep all the gold. Yeah, that guy. He's George Washington's chief of artillery, and he's about to revolutionize how cannons are used in combat. Henry Knox is about to write the playbook for CQB cannon warfare, which shouldn't even be a thing. They made a uh a CQB AT4, which is pretty sweet. Wait, hold on. Time out. THAT'S BULLSHIT. Because usually cannons are just, you know, you put them up on the hill, they shoot at the enemy from far away. That's how they're used. That's what artillery is at this point in time. Henry Knox, however, isn't going to have his one big artillery battery up on the hill. He's going to take his men that man the cannon. He's going to take them and the cannon. He's going to attach them to different infantry units and they are going to roll into town with the infantry. And every time they hit a major crossroads or a choke point, the cannon is going to set up there and they're going to hold that crossroads and that choke point with the cannon and they're going to be using canister shot, which is basically a burlap sack full of a bunch of tiny cannonballs, essentially turning it into a giant shotgun. And we all know shotguns are the best for CQB. Pistols put holes in people. Rifles put holes through people. Shotguns at the right range with the right load will physically remove a chunk of ass off your opponent and throw that shit on the floor. So Henry Knox and his artillery boys are going to be going in attached to the main assault element that is led by George Washington himself.
There's also going to be two other elements of this attack. And the second element is absolutely critical for mission success because there's a Delaware River going down. Trenton is right here. And then there's a little creek that peels off the Delaware River called the Assunpink Creek. Come again. And to answer your question, yes, it is taking an enormous amount of self-control not to make a joke about the name of this creek. Anyways, moving on. In order for this mission to succeed, they need to take control of this bridge immediately and cut it off. Because if the Hessians are able to get all their men and get them across the bridge, they'll be able to form up and then there's one giant choke point and then it's just going to be a slugfest and the Americans are probably not going to win cuz they're going to have to run across a bridge to get to the Hessians. Or the Hessians are just going to retreat, go to the nearest town, and come back with a ton of reinforcements. And the problem George Washington faces with this is there's not a lot of people capable of leading this force that he also actually trusts because the vast majority of high-ranking officers in the Continental Army at this point in time are politically hostile to George Washington and they're running off to Congress trying to steal his job. Really, the only big names that are super loyal to George Washington himself are Henry Knox, who has to be with George Washington, and Nathaniel Greene, the Fighting Quaker, aka his right-hand guy, and he also needs him with the main assault force. So he needs somebody that he can trust that's going to lead these men in combat. So he turns to John Sullivan.
Now John Sullivan and George Washington definitely have their differences. They don't necessarily like each other. They get on each other's nerves. But Sullivan isn't a politicking general. He's not going behind George Washington's back trying to steal his job. His and George Washington's disagreements fall over how to win the battle, not necessarily who should be leading. This guy is a straightup hardcore soldier that just wants to go in there, get the job done as effectively as possible. Once John Sullivan has his orders, he is a guy that just goes out there and gets it done. He can improvise on the fly and he is hyperaggressive. He believes that having an imperfect plan that is executed immediately and violently is better than a perfect plan that takes a little while to figure out. And that is why George Washington comes to him with this mission to take over the bridge over the Assunpink and is like, "Look, I don't care how you do it. Just get it done. Take this bridge."
The third element of this attack wasn't going to be as vital. It was more or less going to be insurance. They were going to cross the Delaware River further south below the Assunpink River on the other side of the bridge from Sullivan. They were then going to occupy the road between Trenton and Bordentown, New Jersey, which was the nearest British outpost, which all the reinforcements would be coming from. And if they ended up coming, their job was going to be to stop him or if they couldn't stop him, at least harass them and give the Washington the time he needed to take over Trenton. And because this was not as vital, he would end up giving this job to General Cadwallader, who while he was loyal to Washington, he also didn't have a great reputation for operating well under pressure, he was too conservative. But he was really the only other loyal guy around that was a general. So Washington basically more or less had to give him the job. So now he's got the leadership that he needs to the best that he could do. Now he's got to improve morale. He's got to get all of his men's hearts into this fight. And he's just brutally honest with him. He straight up just comes out and tells them, "Look, this is going to be victory or death. We're going to win or we're all going to die. Those are the only solutions." And that literally becomes the call phrase for the mission. Like different units operating in the darkness. You hear somebody off in the distance. You yell out a code word and they respond back with the right code word. That way you know it's a friendly. The call sign that you yell out is victory. And the person responds with or death. And everybody's surprised. The men are actually pumped because this is the first time in their entire military career that they are going out on the offensive. They get to be the aggressor. Everything up until this point has just been them hunkering down and waiting for the big bad invincible British military to come get them and kick their ass. And this is the first time ever that they're going to roll up and they're going to do the ass kicking. So this is it. The game is set. It is victory or death. The American Revolution is going to get a win right here, right now, or it is going to die and we're going to stay British forever.
Christmas Day, 6 p.m. 1776. All the head honchos are inside of the house. They're all looking at George Washington, Nathaniel Greene, Henry Knox, John Sullivan, General Cadwallader, all looking at him like, "Are we still going through with this crazy plan?" Because not only is this plan crazy, there's now also a snowstorm outside. And George Washington issues the order. The weather doesn't matter. The clock is still ticking. We're going anyways. And you know what? Finding the silver lining, it probably adds to the element of surprise because now it's not just the Hessians thinking, "Surely the Americans wouldn't cross a frozen river on Christmas to kill us in our sleep." Now it's the Americans surely wouldn't cross a frozen river on Christmas in a snowstorm to kill us in our sleep, right? Wrong. No, that's exactly what we're doing. Board the boats.
7 p.m. They start ferrying guys across the river and the weather just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. It's no longer just snow falling. It is sleet and freezing rain. Visibility is incredibly low and it's getting darker and darker by the minute. And they've got nothing but lamps to light them up while they're crossing a frozen river getting just pissed on by freezing rain. This slows everything down. It takes hours longer than it was supposed to for Washington and Sullivan's men to get across the river. And they are now hours behind schedule. They don't get all their men across the river until 1 in the morning. And as soon as they get all their men across the river, they receive word that Cadwallader's men weren't able to cross it all. So now it's just the two of the three elements that they wanted. The men are already freezing. They're going to have to walk 9 miles through this snowstorm to get to Trenton. They only have 2/3 of the men that they wanted. And two men fell off the boats and froze to death already. And the rest of the men are actively freezing to death. And George Washington considers turning back. But he realizes that under these conditions, it's probably going to take longer to ferry the men back across the river than it is just to march to Trenton. And at least if they're marching, they'll be able to stay warm instead of sitting here waiting for their turn to hop on a boat. So that's it. We've crossed the point of no return. No matter how bad it gets, we have to keep pushing forward. It is quite literally victory or death at this point.
They start marching to Trenton. And this march takes way longer than it's supposed to. The men are still pumped spiritually, but physically they are still starving, freezing. It's a snowstorm, it's dark, and all they have is lanterns leading the way. Obviously, Washington and Sullivan's men split up because they're taking different routes to attack different spots on the town. Sullivan winds up sending a runner over to George Washington and is like, "Hey, our men are completely soaked with this freezing rain. All of our black powder's wet. We're not going to be able to shoot people when we get there." To which Washington replies, "Then use bayonets." John Sullivan, king of just getting the job done anyways, is like, "Okay, Roger, take over the bridge with nothing but pointy sticks. You got it." They don't make it to Trenton until like 7:30 in the morning. The sun's already coming up. Everything is going wrong. They're missing one of their three elements. The black powder's wet. The sun is now up when they were supposed to attack at the dark. And the Hessians didn't go and get drunk the night before. And they're all just sleeping. The perfect plan that we had is crumbled. It no longer exists. The only thing we have now is immediate and violent execution of whatever we've got.
Yeah, let's try some schoolyard bullshit. So, the Americans just attack at 8:00 in the morning. There's very few guards out because again, it's the day after Christmas and a snowstorm just ended. Surely the Americans aren't on their way, right? Wrong. All the guards get killed immediately. Henry Knox and his boys roll in there with cannons, set them up on the street. Everybody in town's been alerted from taking out the guards. Hessians start running out of the buildings in their pajamas with their guns trying to figure out what's going on. They're getting lit up by canister shot from Henry Knox's artillery. So, it's already chaos for the Hessians. And then the American infantry starts doing what the American infantry does and they start deliberately targeting the officers. So, they can't give any of the men any orders. So, it's just mass chaos for the Hessians absolutely everywhere. And then to make things even worse for the Hessians, some of the American civilians inside the town of Trenton start helping in the battle. One soldier had an account that he witnessed a woman from a second story window shoot and kill a Hessian captain. Which is just poetry because American men don't engage in gentlemanly warfare and American women definitely don't. Some of the Hessian troops wind up retreating across the bridge before Sullivan could take it. But ultimately, he does wind up taking control of this bridge at about 8:30. So, we are 30 minutes into this battle. America's already taken the bridge. They're kicking ass and Colonel Rall, the Hessian commander, is just now getting out of his quarters. They they went and woke him up the second the attack started. But, you know, he had to go and get his uniform on and get his powdered wig cuz he's got to go win in style. So, he comes out and it's just complete chaos. Men are scattered everywhere. All of his officers are dead. He hops on his horse and starts rallying his men to this apple orchard right outside of town. So, Colonel Rall out there on horseback yelling orders. He's getting all of his men to this apple orchard. Gets most of them there. Starts getting them formed up and then some random American, some farm kid with a Kentucky rifle notices, oh look, a guy on horseback with a bunch of fancy shit on his outfit and a powdered wig. Shoot that guy. So now, Colonel Rall, fatally wounded, basically orders his men to carry him back to his quarters and tells the rest of his officers like, "Good luck. Figure it out." And by the time that unfolds, Sullivan already has cannons on the other side of the Assunpink River pointed at them on the apple orchard. Henry Knox has all the cannons moved around them on the other side and it's just all the Hessians standing in the middle surrounded by cannons and Americans and they're forced to surrender.
When it was all said and done, 22 Hessians had been killed. 83 had been wounded and they captured 900. The rest of them managed to escape across the bridge before Sullivan took it over. And the Americans, the untrained, undisciplined, inferior fighting force, managed to suffer, let me check my notes, uh, zero casualties. Okay, if you're not picking up what I'm putting down, the Hessian's MVP player was the frozen Delaware River. It's the only thing that took out any Americans in this entire operation. And to most people, that's it. That's the story of the famous painting of Washington standing up on a boat crossing the frozen Delaware River on Christmas to kill his enemies. There's literally an entire like 90-minute movie about this entire battle. It's like my favorite Christmas movie ever. It's called The Crossing. And this is where they end the story. But in reality, this is where the story begins.
So, while most people end the story there and they're like, "Oh, America had their first victory at Trenton. Hooray! The revolution is saved." No, that's not how reality works. Okay? A bunch of Hessians escaped across the bridge and they're going to go tell the British. And now Cornwallis and General Howe aren't going to be able to go home and get laid. They're going to be super pissed off. They're going to come back with a ton of men and crush George Washington. So, while everybody else is celebrating cuz America just got their first victory, George Washington is like, "Grab the supplies, pack your shit up. We're heading back across to Delaware right now." And that's exactly what happens. The men are dog ass tired. They've been up all night. They just want a battle. But hey, George Washington says, "So that's what we're going to do." They get all the supplies that they just captured. They pack all their shit up. They head back across the Delaware. At least now there's not a snowstorm going on. So they get back.
Now Washington has to handle the fact that the clock is still ticking. Like the enlistments still expire on December 31st at midnight. And now it's December 27th. And now Cornwallis, who's pissed off that he didn't get to go home for Britain for the winter and bang his wife, is marching towards them with 8,000 red coats. And he's got like approximately 2,000ish guys and they all get to go home in 3 days. So if Cornwallis shows up and his army just dissolves overnight, he's not going to stand there with 8,000 guys and be like, "Oh, I guess we can all go home now." No, he's going to continue marching down to Philadelphia and squash the entire rebellion. If Washington can't figure out how to put up a defense right here, right now, it's still game over.
So Washington forms up his men and delivers a speech. And he basically lays it out how it is. He's like, "Look, you guys can go home if you want. I can't stop you. But if you guys stay, give me one more month. I will get all of you a $10 bonus from Continental Congress. I will get you paid. And if you give me one more month, we can fight and keep this rebellion alive. Otherwise, we're never going to have another shot like this. They're going to absolutely crush us if you guys quit right now." So they stay. They're freezing. They're starving. They're beat up. They're exhausted. But they stay. And as news spreads that America just actually beat the invincible British military at Trenton, he starts getting some more reinforcements. Some more militias join under Washington. He gets some new recruits. And his troops go from 2,000 to approximately 4,000 men. It is now 4,000 untrained American colonials versus 8,000 red coats under Cornwallis. The odds are getting better, but they're not looking that great. This is looking like America is going to get its ass kicked again. This is quite literally yet again victory or death. They got to figure out how to stop Cornwallis. And yet again, George Washington's back is up against the wall. He cannot decide whether or not he wants to take this fight. He has to take this fight. The only thing he can decide is where and how.
So, he decides they're going to go back to Trenton and they're going to set up all their defenses on the bridge and force the British army to cross that narrow choke point while the American army is firing at them. Okay, strategically, this is brilliant. Funnel your enemies into a narrow choke point, light them up with cannon fire. Okay, that's fantastic. Metaphorically also brilliant because if you're going to make your last stand, fight and die, there's no better place to do it than the Assunpink. Am I right? I I tried so hard not to make that joke. I'm sorry. So that's it. That's the plan. Washington and his men recross the Delaware for a third time. They start digging trenches. They're getting the cannons set up. They are getting ready to make their last stand. And George Washington goes over to John Sullivan and is like, "John, I need you to take your best guys. I need you to go up the road where Cornwallis is coming from and I need you to just harass the fuck out of him and slow him down as long as possible." Okay, on one hand, like why why does that matter? Why are we trying to slow him down? We're making our last stand. Like, we might as well do it during the daylight. I don't want to fight at night. But also, this is John Sullivan, the guy that just takes orders and accomplishes a mission. So, he takes his men and he goes and he does just that. So, Cornwallis is trying to march 8,000 red coats down the road. And John Sullivan and his guys are just in the treeline taking pop shots at him the entire time. They launch an ambush. They dip. The British have to like turn file ranks, go out into the field, they fire back into the trees. Turns into a whole 45-minute thing every time. And by the time they return fire, John Sullivan and his guys are already gone. They harass and delay him forever. Nobody really knows why we're trying to delay him, but you know, fuck it. George Washington said so and he probably has a plan. So that's what we're doing.
So Cornwallis and his men make it to the Assunpink Bridge late afternoon on January 2nd. The Americans are there. They're ready. Cornwallis just launches full-on frontal attack against the bridge and America mows them down. They retreat. He launches another full frontal attack. American cannon fire and musket fire mows them down again. They retreat. Cornwallis does a third attack. They get mowed down again. He lost somewhere between 150 and 365 men. Accounts from that day said the bridge looked like it was painted red with British blood. At this point, it's getting dark. The battle for the day is over. Both sides start getting their camp ready. They're going to camp down for the night, get ready, they're going to duke this out in the morning. That's what they're thinking. George Washington, on the other hand, has other plans in mind. And this is why he sent John Sullivan out to delay Cornwallis because he wanted this battle to get broken up by nightfall so that he could pull off a pro gamer move. Washington takes a couple hundred guys and orders them to just spend the entire night building bonfires and making as much noise as humanly possible. Be loud, have conversations, yell, build a bunch of fires, make it seem like there's 4,000 motherfuckers on this side of the bridge, and the rest of us are all going to take these tiny trails. We're going to go around Cornwallis to the town of Princeton, where he just came from. We're going to fuck up all his reinforcements and steal their supplies.
Okay, that's the American plan. Cut back over to the other side of the bridge. Cornwallis is having a meeting with all of his officers and they're trying to figure out what to do because they still might want to attack at night. And Cornwallis and pretty much all the other officers are on the same page of like, "No, we're just going to we're going to attack in the morning. He's not going to go nowhere. He's trapped. He can't go anywhere. We'll attack him in the morning." But there's one guy in that meeting, Sir Urkshine. He's an officer. And he's like, "No, we need to attack Washington right now. Have you guys not been paying attention? This is Washington's entire MO. He's done this like 15 times. Okay, we had him cornered at Rhode Island and we're like, we're going to crush him in the morning. And then somehow he evacuated 9,000 men overnight and disappeared like a fart in the wind. Okay, then he did the same thing at Fort Lee and then he attacked Trenton out of nowhere. He's a slippery motherfucker." "I have a gun in my room. You give me 5 seconds, I'll get it. Boom. I'll blow their brains out." Scott, you just don't get it, do you? But then Sir Urkshine kind of looks like an asshole because when they look across the river, there's just more and more fireplaces popping up all over the place. And that's when Cornwallis says, "We'll go over and bag him in the morning."
Washington and his men start marching 12 miles around them to head up to Princeton. Yes, like the college. This is where the college is. They're going to attack Princeton University. They march all night long. When the sun's coming up, they're approaching Princeton. Cut back over to the British. Cornwallis and his boys wake up. They go over there and it's just a bunch of dead fire pits everywhere. There's not an American in sight. I knew it. OH. CUTTING BACK OVER TO THE AMERICANS. As they're approaching Princeton, there's two roads going in and out, right? And the Americans are on one road and there's 1,200 British reinforcements on the other road and they're literally passing each other as America's entering Princeton. And they just kind of turn and look and the fight breaks out right there. From here, it just turns into a giant shit show, right? They were marching on a road. They're not in battle formations. You've got John Sullivan and his men and then Cadwallader and his men leading the way up front and then George Washington's behind him. So John Sullivan and Cadwallader's men are the ones that engage first and after a little while the British start getting the better of Cadwallader's men and they're breaking apart the two formations that John Sullivan and Cadwallader had set up. And they're about to split them into break the line and crush the American forces. At this point, George Washington leading from the front rides in on his horse into the break in the American line and starts waving his men into battle to charge. And right as he gets out in the open and everybody sees, holy shit that's George Washington. The British open up with a volley and just cover the entire battlefield in smoke. And George Washington disappears from eye view. And everybody just has this sinking in their stomach feeling of like, fuck George Washington just died. That's it. But as the smoke dissipates, George Washington comes back into eye view, still on his horse, still waving his men into battle, and they follow and proceed to crush the British line. How did you miss?
With the British line fractured, some of the red coats turn, take off towards Trenton so they can reconvene with Cornwallis, and the rest of them are forced to retreat into Princeton University and take up occupation inside of some of the school buildings, and they barricade themselves inside. So, the Americans roll in the cannons and just start lighting up Princeton University with cannon fire. Eventually, the British are forced to wave the white flag out of these school building windows and they are forced to surrender. And from here, George Washington has yet another decision to make because he knows that he is now in between Cornwallis and the Red Coats and their supply depot in New Brunswick, which is the biggest supply depot for the British Empire in this entire area. If he goes into New Brunswick and takes out that supply depot, it would be humongous. But also, that's exactly what Cornwallis is anticipating. And Cornwallis is for sure belining it there as fast as he can cuz he does not want to lose this supply depot. Instead, Washington decides it's finally time to take up Winter Quarters, and he's going to be a dick about it the entire time. He marches his men further into New Jersey into a place called Morristown up in the hills, which is heavily populated by people supporting the Patriot cause. It's also up in the hills. There's high ground all over the place. There's very few roads to get in and out. It is extremely easy for him to defend and the British aren't going to be able to reach him there without taking a humongous amount of losses. More importantly, it's centralized in relation to all the other British outposts. So, he has this impenetrable home base that's centralized. So, from here for the next 2 to 3 weeks, he just sends out raiding parties on all the British outposts and is relentlessly harassing them until they finally say, "Fuck this." And the British pull out of New Jersey altogether for the winter. And when this news spread, thousands upon thousands of young men went and enlisted in the Continental Army. They got a ton of support from civilians. They got more food, more supplies, more everything. The entire revolution was a dying fire down to its last little red ember. And in its last moments, George Washington walked up with a gallon of gasoline and poured it on top and turned it into a massive bonfire.
The Battle of Trenton, Assunpink Creek, and Princeton all happened in the span of 10 days. And in that 10 days, George Washington proved to the entire world that the British military was not only not invincible, but that they could be beat. It is probably the only reason that you're not drinking tea from a kettle right now. And it is probably the most important 10 days in American history. So yeah, that is the full and real story of the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas. He didn't just cross it once, he crossed it three times. He handed out three separate ass whoopons, saved the American Revolution, and changed the world forever. And that is why he is the father of the United States of America. Thank you for watching. Best way to support the channel is go buy some merch, maybe order some Echelon. All that's available at the fatlecturer.com. Quackbang out. And you guys thought Die Hard was a good Christmas story. Don't forget to go check out Supremacy World War II. Unlock your rail gun and go conquer the British. It's what George Washington would have wanted.