Stories tagged “Battle of Trenton”

  • The Coopers shed

    It was nearly eight o’clock when General Washington reigned in his horse a mile outside of Trenton. By the side of the road, a man was chopping wood. He stopped chopping and looked at the tall man in uniform at the head of a column of troops that str...

  • First Blow

    Col. Hand’s men swiftly moved from marching column to line abreast in a motion that did credit to their practice on the parade ground. They fixed bayonets and loaded their muskets. The command came to advance. They were about half way to the shed...

  • Rolling them back

    The Hessians were falling back in good order. They would fire and recover, then retreat a few dozen yards, turn and repeat. Our men reached the coopers shed and kept on advancing. Soon a second group of Hessians sallied forth from the town and joined t...

  • Crossroads

    Below us on the hill, lay the whole of Trenton, between us and the river. Two broad streets rose from the river towards us, ending like the apex of an inverted “V” not more than two dozen yards apart. From our vantage point we saw more Hessians wer...

  • Battle line

    Though running at double timing had caused the column to string out a little, the transition to battle line took less than a minute. The officers stood to the front. Swords drawn, they stood with their arms outstretched directing where we would form th...

  • Volley fire

    Officers on horseback rode to the edge of the orchard and began to shout commands. Hessians ran to them and began to form into lines. Some missing coats or wigs. I heard one officer shouting “Wo ist mein Kannon.” Confusion and uncertainty about wha...

  • On the Firing Line

    “RECOVER” we brought our muskets to a ready position. The smoke of our volley floats away. “HANDLE CARTRIDGE”. Hands reached into our haversacks or cartridge boxes and withdrew a paper cylinder. Gripping the paper tail in our teeth we ripped op...

  • Bayonet Charge

    Three times a minute we fired, until we had no more dry powder. With the command “Charge Bayonet” we leveled our steel at our foes. “Advance” and we started to march. Our drums beat out a steady rhythmic cadance. Hessians were in small knots of...