George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a complex and surprise military maneuver organized by George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, which culminated in their attack on Hessian forces garrisoned at Trenton. Washington and his troops successfully attacked the Hessian forces in the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776.

The military campaign was organized in great secrecy by Washington, who led a column of Continental Army troops from today's Bucks County, Pennsylvania across the icy Delaware River to today's Mercer County, New Jersey in what was one of the Revolutionary War's most logistically challenging and dangerous clandestine operations. Other planned crossings in support of the operation were either called off or ineffective, but this did not prevent Washington from surprising and defeating the Hessian troops encamped in Trenton under the command of Johann Rall. After prevailing in the Battle of Trenton, Washington and his Continental Army troops crossed the Delaware River again, returning to Pennsylvania west-bound with Hessian prisoners and military stores taken in the battle.

Washington's army then crossed the Delaware River a third time at the end of 1776 under difficult circumstances by the uncertain thickness of the ice on the river. They defeated British reinforcements under Lord Cornwallis at Trenton on January 2, 1777, and were also triumphant over his rear guard at Princeton the following day prior to retreating to his winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey. As a celebrated location and development in the ultimately victorious Revolutionary War, the unincorporated communities of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania and Washington Crossing, New Jersey are both named in honor of Washington and the logistically complicated covert crossing of the Delaware River.

Background

Although 1776 started well for Washington and the Continental Army with the evacuation of British troops from Boston in March, attempts to defend New York City from the British were unsuccessful. British General William Howe and his troops landed on Long Island in August and pushed Washington's Continental Army completely out of New York by mid-November, when he captured the remaining troops on Manhattan.