Washington Rallying the Troops at Trenton

By Christmas 1776 the Continental Army had been chased out of New York and across New Jersey, and many of its men's enlistments ran out on December 31. Washington decided to strike while he still had an army to strike with.

The target was Trenton, held by about 1,500 Hessian soldiers under Colonel Johann Rall. Roughly 2,400 Americans crossed the Delaware overnight in driving sleet, marched about nine miles and came into town around daybreak, hours behind schedule. American guns swept the streets from the head of town, Rall was mortally wounded, and the Hessians lost 22 killed, 83 wounded and more than 800 prisoners. No American was killed in the fighting.

Four days later Washington rode out before his regiments and asked the men to stay on for a ten-dollar bounty. At first no one moved. He spoke again, and one man stepped forward, then most of the rest.

The painting puts him in the thick of it on a white horse, cocked hat raised high in his right hand. Continentals in blue and buff push forward with bayonets on the left, Hessians in blue coats with red facings fire from the right, and a wounded officer in gold epaulettes lies propped in the snow. A cupola-topped building rises behind the smoke.