On December 25-26, 1776, General George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to attack Hessian forces in Trenton, beginning the Ten Crucial Days that culminated in the Battle of Princeton on this site on January 3, 1777. In December 1776, after a disastrous campaign around New York City, the Continental Army was retreating, soldiers were deserting, and enlistments were about to expire, forcing Washington to take decisive action to keep the war for independence alive. After leading about 2,400 soldiers across the Delaware in a perilous crossing, Washington marched them through a blizzard to Trenton, where they defeated the Hessian troops occupying the town in his first significant victory of the war. On New Year’s Eve, he persuaded most of his troops to extend their enlistments. On January 2, 1777, British forces under Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis marched from Princeton to Trenton to trap Washington’s army against the Delaware River, but after a day-long running engagement down the King’s Highway, the Americans held them off at Assunpink Creek in their second major victory. That night, Washington secretly marched the army northeast to attack the British garrison in Princeton while leaving a small group in Trenton to keep the campfires burning as a decoy.
