Donop; Putnam did not attempt to leave Philadelphia; and Ewing
made no effort to cross at Trenton. Cadwalader came down from
Bristol, looked at the river and the floating ice, and then gave
it up as desperate. Nothing remained except Washington himself
with the main army, but he neither gave up, nor hesitated, nor
stopped on account of the ice, or the river, or the perils which
lay beyond. On Christmas Eve, when all the Christian world was
feasting and rejoicing, and while the British were enjoying
themselves in their comfortable quarters, Washington set out.
With twentyfour hundred men he crossed the Delaware through the
floating ice, his boats managed and rowed by the sturdy fishermen
of Marblehead from Glover's regiment. The crossing was
successful, and he landed about nine miles from Trenton. It was
bitter cold, and the sleet and snow drove sharply in the faces of
the troops. Sullivan, marching by the river, sent word that the
arms of his soldiers were wet. "Tell your general," was
Washington's reply to the message, "to use the bayonet, for the
town must be taken." When they reached Trenton it was broad
daylight. Washington, at the front and on the right of the line,
swept down the Pennington road, and, as he drove back the Hessian
pickets, he heard the shout of Sullivan's men as, with Stark
leading the van, they charged in from the river. A company of
jaegers and of light dragoons slipped away. There was some
fighting in the streets, but the attack was so strong and well
calculated that resistance was useless. Colonel Rahl, the British
commander, aroused from his revels, was killed as he rushed out
to rally his men, and in a few moments all was over. A thousand
prisoners fell into Washington's hands, and this important
detachment of the enemy was cut off and destroyed.