Key Leaders: General George Washington against Colonel Rahl.
Combatants: American Rebels Against German Hessians. 2,400 American troops with 18 guns. 1,400 Hessians with 6 light guns.
The British troops wore red coats and the Hessian troops wore blue coats. The Americans dressed the best they could but many Americans were dressed in there normal everyday clothes. As the war progressed and more professional American regiments were formed they started to try to dress in blue coats.
Prior To the Battle: American side (Kris)
After retreating from New York and ending up on the west bank of the Delaware River with an army of low spirited troops the American army was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. They were being followed by British soldiers and across the river was a camp full of Hessians(German Mercenaries hired by the British.)To top it all off it was almost the New Year which ment that the American troops contracts were up and could go home. Washington knew with the recent losses and hard times that unless they achieved a great victory, his troops would leave him.
Prior To the Battle: Hessian Side (Logan)
Hessians were mercenaries hired from Germany to fight for King George III in the Revolutionary War. In December of 1776, around 1,400 Hessians were stationed at Trenton, New Jersey. On Christmas, 1776 , Hessians were celebrating, drinking. This obviously did not help them when they were attacked by the American troops. They were taken by total surprise and didn't even have enough time to fully regroup before some were killed and the rest taken prisoner.
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Plan of Attack: American Side (Kris)
Washington planned to attack Trenton at three points. He had three forces commanded by, Lt Col Cadwallader, a second force commanded by Brigadier Ewing, and the third commanded by himself. Washington had 2,400 men from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. Washington planned to attack as early in the morning as he could. He wanted to be able to storm the city of Trenton while her defenders were still feeling the effects of their Christmas celebration. This plan was executed a little to slow because of weather and other problems but the Hessians still were not expecting an attack on their camp and they also had a very merry Christmas.
Plan of Attack (defense): Hessian Side (Logan)
The defense plan for the Hessians was that they basically had no defense. They were stationed at trenton to basically train and some other duties, they were NOT expecting an attack from the Americans, and neither was anybody else. The Americans were fighting a defensive war and were not experienced in attacking, but because of shortages on supplies and the enrollments for most of the troops expiring, Washington seemed to have no other choice.
According to some sources, Colonel Raul of the Hessians had knowledge of the American troops attacking but ignored the threat and carried on with his partying. He turned out to be wrong, of course, because at around 7:00 a.m on December 26th 1776, the American Continental Army led by Gen. George Washington attacked the Hessians at Trenton and were highly succesfully in doing so.
The Hessians woke up after a long night of partying to the American Troops raiding there camp. During this madness, they tried grouping together and were routed by raging Americans. The Hessians guns were able to fire but were not very useful compared to the close range fighting tactics that the Americans used, which was basically charging with bayonets, since most of there gunpowder was wet from water and couldnt fire well. At the end of the battle the Hessians managed to kill exactly zero of the American troops while the Americans killed around 22, injured around 85 and took the rest of them (around 900) and their weapons prisoner.
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ATTACK!: American Side(Kris)
As the Continental soldiers approached the shore ready to cross they were already behind schedule. All the soldiers carried around 60 rounds of ammunition and three days of rations.Clouds were forming above their heads. It rained, then hailed, then snowed. Many of the men were poorly dressed and did not have shoes but the thought of freedom kept them on their feet. Durring the crossing of the river General Washington gave his commanding authority to Henry Knox who led the entier fleet across the river. The men travelled in Durham boats. The artillery and horses travelled on large ferries. Many men fell overboard during the crossing but everyone survived and all the artillery made it across the river in good condition.
After the boats landed on the opposite shore two small detachments of men, about 40 each, were sent ahead of the rest of the soldiers to set up roadblocks and take prisoner of any men that were around the town in the early morning. One group covered the road to the north of Trenton and the other group covered River Road the road that travels along the Delaware river to Trenton. The weather conditions caused delayed landing and the army could no longer follow the original plan of landing at 12:00 a.m. and to top it all off the weather caused the groups of men led by Cadwalader and Ewing to not be able to land leaving only the men led my Washington to attack. At 4:00 a.m. ( an hour behind schedule) The troops began to march towards Trenton. On the way they ran into several citizens who offered to fight with them, possibly without any arms. After marching two km they reached Bear Tavern wear they turned right were they soon reached Jacob's Creek. After a long and technical process they successfully got all men and artillery across.The next sugnificant stop in the trip was at the house of Benjamin Moore who offered Washington food and drink but this was the first time (Washington wrote in his journal) that signs of daylight were ween.As the weather got worse the men started to ask Wasington about firing. When gunpowder gets wet it no longer is worth anything. Washington always replied and told the men to use bayonets because he was determined to take Trenton. About two miles outside of the town they ran into a group of fifty soldiers who turned out to be American. They had just killed the four men in the gaurd outpost building and were scolded by Washington for possibly making the rest of the Hessians in Trenton to be on guard, but he ordered his troops forward none the less. Two men died in the March and they were the only two men to die on the American side that day.
There was a small outpost of men stationed in a cooper shop on Pennington road. They were attacked by the Americans led by Washington riding in front of them all and eventually had to retreat. Washington ordered a small group of men to cut them off on there way to warning the town and this order was executed successfully.General John Sulivan was stationed to the north of Trenton on a road which would be the only way out of Trenton and was ordered to send his men to execute any Hessian attempting to escape. After seeing nobody trying to escape for some time, he sent his troops in to the town. They snuck into barracks behind the enemy and caused, with the help of Washington's troops on the other side, the Hessians to retreat to the town square where General Rahl was shot by a rarely found accurate longer range rifle. After that his troops surrendered to the Americans. Rahl demanded he see Washington before he died. Washington came and Rahl told him to treat his soldiers well and dont let such great talent be wasted. Soon after he died. In all the Americans killed 22 Hessians wounded 83 and captured 896.
Influence of The Battle.(Kris&Logan)
The Battle of Trenton was pretty much a last stand for the American Army, a final surge that's outcome was to determine their fate in the war. They were going into attack for the first time and had to go up against some of the greatest soldiers in the world, 1,400 of them. The attack had to possible ways of ending. The first would be a loss for the Americans, this would mean that the Continental Army would be without basic supplies and would eventually be too weak to fight. They would also lose all of the men due to the enlistments coming to an end at the new year.
The other possible outcome was victory, which fortunately did happen.
This battle gave the American Army hope, they now had food, weapons, clothes, and other supplies that were vital for them and were the main point in the attack. Most of the troops enlistment papers were renewed, because of the motivation gained by soldiers after they were victorious. Not to mention that the American Soldiers succesfully defeated a group of some of the best soldiers in the world. This Battle was the exact momentum swing that the Americans needed.
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