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| The Battle of Trenton by H. Charles McBarron from Wikipedia |
December 26, 1776 the Battle of Trenton.
One of, to me the most fascinating and dramatic battles of the American Revolution. And one which I hope to recreate one day if I build enough houses! But as it is the anniversary and I traditionally stay up reading a book or two about it I thought I might share this quote from the book " The Day is Ours" by Glenn Dwyer about the aftermath. John Greenwood was a fifer in the American Continental army. Originally from Boston he had moved to Portsmouth Maine just before the Revolution. His book, The Revolutionary Services of John Greenwood 1775 -1783 is a most interesting read. Elisha Bostwick served in a Connecticut regiment of the Continental army.
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| Hessian Fusilier cap at the Smithsonian. |
"On the way to the boats, Greenwood continued, "seeing some of our men were much pleased with the brass caps which they had taken from the dead Hessians, our prisoners, who were besides exceedingly frightened, pulled off those they were wearing and, giving them away, put on the hats which they carried tied behind their packs. With these brass caps on, it was laughable to see how our soldiers would strut-fellows with their elbows out and some without a collar to their half-a-shirt, no shoes, etc." It was also laughable, according to Lieutenant Elisha Bostwick, to see some of the Hessians springing up and down in the boats with their long plaits flying. The men poling the boats across the river found the job difficult because of ice forming on the walkways. So, Bostwick noted, "the boatmen, to clear off the ice, pounded the boats and, stamping their feet, beckoned the prisoners to do the same, and they all set to jumping at once with their cues flying up and down . . . sticking straight back like the handle of an iron skillet." Greenwood and the rest of his company crossed the river themselves selves after the Hessians had all been carried over. Most of the company flaunted Hessian swords, headgear, or other mementos of battle, but all of them were without their packs-the ones they had piled by a roadside before entering Trenton. "As we never went back that way," Greenwood would recall, "we all lost our packs. At least I never heard anything of mine, and I had in it a beautiful suit of blue clothes, turned up with white and silver laced." Greenwood and the others in his unit were back at the Newtown encampment late in the afternoon, after being on the move for more than twenty-four hours. Some of Washington's other Continentals would not reach their encampments until late the following day, having been gone for fifty hours or more. Some, upon their return, took time to note the day's doings in a diary. David How, an eighteen-year-old from Massachusetts, summed things up with his usual Yankee succinctness: "This morning at 4 o'clock we set off with our field pieces. Marched 8 miles to Trenton"
