Retreat and Counterattack – 1776

After losing New York to the British, General George Washington led his rebel army in retreat through New Jersey and on Sunday, December 8, 1776, crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. He commandeered every available boat along the river so that Lord Cornwallis’s army would be unable to pursue him to attack Philadelphia and capture the Continental Congress. Directly across from this point, near the Pennsylvania shore, was the island behind which Washington hid the Durham and ferry boats for his return on Christmas night 1776 to attack the British mercenary Hessian troops in Trenton. His daring victory at Trenton restored the ebbing spirit of the colonies in their struggle for independence from Britain and paved the way for the ultimate victory over Cornwallis five years later at Yorktown, Virginia.

New Jersey · United States