Battles of Trenton and Princeton of the American Revolution

The Battles of capital of New Jersey and Princeton were won by the Americans through a combination of safe luck and good planning.

working capital selected Trenton as a target be endeavor of its isolation, except the greater weakness of the site was probably its star topologyer, the Hessian colonel Johann R in all. Although Rall was a veteran leader with an outstanding reputation, he was also a drunkard, not as intelligent as he should encounter been, and he looked down on the American leaders and phalanx as country bumpkins. His arrogance and underestimation of the American military led his to disregard orders to construct fortifications and to send out reconnoitre parties. On Christmas night, 1776, he got drunk and had to be carried to bed (Boatner, 1966, p. 1112).

Washington was personally in charge of the effort to take Trenton and he had at his command about 2,400 veterans and 18 cannon. He planned to cross the Delaware river at McKonkey's Ferry (now called Washington's Crossing) nine miles above Trenton and surprise the village from the north. General Ewing was to cross the Delaware at Trenton Ferry with 1,000 militia members and prevent a sack out by the British precisely he failed to do so. Colonel Cadwalader was to lead 2,000 men across the river and attack the garrison at Bordentown as a diversion. However, while he did manage to make the crossing, he could not set ashore his artillery and he was too late to

It would be broad solar day before the attack could be launched, and that strength make all the difference between victory and defeat, a defeat that might develop into a catastrophe fatal to the American cause (Boatner, 1966, pp. 1113-1114).

The river crossing was began in the afternoon of Dec. 25 and Washington and his military personnel succeeded despite swift currents, floating ice, bitter cold and a storm of wind, hail, rain and show - conditions that prevented the other troops from assisting Washington. The land was to have finished by midnight, just now the poor atmospheric condition slowed the operation down so that the last man did not land util 3 a.m. and the ragged, exhausted soldiers were not ready to pay off marching until 4 a.m.

, ensuring that they could not arrive before morning and so would lose the element of surprise. This knowledge was deeply demoralizing to the soldiers, who were already none too sanguine.

The battle of Princeton proved to Americans - both soldiers and civilians - that Americans could fight, something that had not been wholly believed in before (Hoffman and Albert, 1984, p. 98). The American plurality might have believed before these battles in the cause of freedom, nevertheless they did not know that they had the means to achieve it. These two battles demonstrate to them that their military leaders were capable and their soldiers well enough handy and armed that they had a reasonable chance of both selection and victory. And perhaps just as importantly, these battles showed the fallibility of the British, who would no longer be perceived as omnipotent representatives of a lawful king, but as foreigners who could not get their footing in this land that was determined to be independent.

Having heard the fight start at Princeton, Cornwallis rushed reinforcements from Trenton, but the last of the American troops were already leaving the college town. They might have been able to continue the wear out on Brunswick, which might have considerably shortened the war, but they we
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.