My name is Kimberly Mccarty i am the curator here stuck at the Washington Crossing state park here in pennsylvania. We are doing an reenactment of george Washington Crossing the river from 1970 set 19th 1770. Six what happened here is one of the most unexpected and daring military maneuvers of the American Revolution. And the story is, washington and the Continental Army, after having lost battles in new york and retreating across new jersey, came into bucks county and its getting of december 1776. They encampments ever locations around this area, including the tops in the only house which is also part of our park and things were pretty desperate at this point for washington and the patriots cause. The Continental Army really needed a win. Washington was afraid that the british were going to invade philadelphia and take over the capital and you really knew that what he needed was a bold action and after meeting with his war counsel, they made a decision that on christmas night, they would cross the delaware and march to trenton to attack a post at trenton. As they began to march from the thompson has down here, a snowstorm started and the weather was terrible, there was snow and hail and it was basically a pretty bad noreaster, and all of these men, 2400 of them all, had to cross the delaware and began their march. There were other regiments who are supposed to cross it to other locations, at the trenton ferry and at the bristol ferry, and they were not able to get across for a variety of reasons in a major part of that win make way for the general. General washington, i know it is secret mission, but could you tell us about this operation . This is our final chance, this is our chance to make an impact on this war, the problems we have is our enlistments our expiring, soldiers want to go home, i have ten days, just ten short days in order to make this attack, we feel that what the weather behind us, the element of surprise on our side they will be able to take the city of trying, to raise the morale the troops, and prove to congress but we are viable army they should support and hopefully, and hopefully enlistments will arrive. Have you done an operation like this before . We have not. The only operates weve done where the evacuations from new york, which was very well done and my hat is off to them, when massachusetts, whom in the bodes that remove this from new york and they retreated down from the jerseys to the banks of the delaware. Right now theyre trying to keep river between us and the mercenaries that are now in camp in the town. We are trying to stay between them and the city of philadelphia. Tell us about your forces. What type of men are they . Hopefully you keep this among ourselves, but we do have 3000 troops, of which i have found about 2400 are fit for duty. The remainder have fallen ill from malnutrition and from the weather and we are caring for them further north of the river. We have 2400 troops ready to go. We have three days rations cooked, three runs variation each and we expect to get them a good fight. My name is frank lyons, from hardly just down the street and i am portraying colonel john whoever from marvel head, massachusetts. Colonel glover was the commander of the 14 fundamental regina which was also known as the marble had marinerss. They were marble head is a small town about ten miles north of boston when the American Revolution started. Are the same part of this part of the United States on the east coast. Because of the intolerable acts, all those british enactments that led up to the American Revolution, most of the men at marble head were unemployed and very unhappy and they were happy to join marble head regiment which eventually signed up 550 men. They never expected to find themselves all the way down here in pennsylvania, colonel glover and his marble head regiment saved washington and his army three times, this being the third time. The first time, after the disastrous battle of long island, glover and his men rode 9000 men, horses, cannon, baggage across the lower east river from brooklyn into what is modernday downtown brooklyn into lower manhattan. Saved Washingtons Army is from being encircled by the british. And then it tells coin and then he sailed up the east river, and was planning to march across, and trap washington in manhattan. Glover once again, with 700, men held off 4000 british and hessian troops. The british took between seven and 800 casualties i saw that he wasnt attacked to escape from manhattan and to fight another day. And then we fast forward to washington the section of pennsylvania and around the 22nd of december, glover marches into this area and he camps up the hill near where Washington Headquarters were, and washington calls him to his headquarters and tells him what he wants to do, cross 800 feet of iraqi i strewn river, or under cover of darkness, and by the, way the barometer is falling and we could be looking at some weather, and glover mutters to washington and says, your excellency, it is impossible. Washington says to clever, colonel, glover i did not ask you to assess possibilities, i asked you if you could do it, a colonel weber thanks for a second and says, general washington, we can do it and that is when legend tells us, this legend, it is not written anywhere, but legend tells us that that is when washington made the final decision to go ahead with this bold move which truly did save the American Revolution. You can point to maybe a dozen events that truly change the course of World History forever and one of them took place right on this ground where we are standing here. It is one of the three iconic parts of the. If you ask, anyone even the smallest part of history, theyre going to talk about Washington Crossing the delaware and the battle of york town. Everyone knows the iconic painting which was obviously pointed in the 18 fifties based on the reinke river but everyone knows that painting as Washington Crossing the delaware, and i will tell, you this river does freeze solid. We certainly do not get icebergs. It is thick sheets of ice that go straight across. So, the reenactment part of this. What will take place . We will start by seeing washington and his officers review his troops. We will hear washington give a speech to the troops and then everyone will board the boats, the boats that we have here and cross the delaware. Tell us about the votes. The boats are one of the types of boats that were used during the crossing to get men from pennsylvania to new jersey. What is special about the durham boats is that they are large and they were originally made to haul pick iron from the door and iron works up and down the delaware so they were ideal for putting a lot of guys in and getting them from point a to point b. But they were not the only boats that were used during the crossing. They are the only type of boats you will see used during the reenactment. Washington, when he came to pennsylvania, ordered all the boats that were on the new jersey side of the delaware brought over to pennsylvania, and this slowing down the crossing that the british my due to invade philadelphia so, the durham both were used and in particular, a ferry was used, it is why they came the ferry, so that you could get artillery across, horses across, because obviously you will not be able to get any of that to a durham boat. music music musicc glover, how do the conditions look . My marble headers have just returned from traversing the river. They report to me that the river is swift and the river is strewn with ice. But they are confident, sir, and theyre determined to convey our army across the delaware. Excellent. And remember, its victory or death. We will not fail. Please turn to your troops and prepare them for inspection. Thank you. Dismissed. We have asked congress for many things that were short. Of food, tents, provisions, blankets. We have had citizens of philadelphia coming up to provide us with at least some blankets to keep them warm. It reminds me of the crisis by thomas payne. Your sergeants have read to you. He wrote, these at the times for, the summer soldier and the sunshine patriots will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of men and women. And my troops, you deserve that love and thanks for. You are here with me now and continue our fight. I look forward to seeing you in trenton and remember, victory or death for. Colonel sergeant . Yes, your excellency. Prepare the troops to board. Washington knew they could be valuable for transporting troops, basically ferries to people across the river, not the durham votes, so they dont maneuver while going across the river, and its a real art form. You have to row them up the river and take him to the wind in the courage to get them in positions, they were really meant to flip down the river, and to be pulled down the river and steered with this big sweep or that is in the back end of the vote what you will see out here today so, know they are not real manoeuvrable when youre going across the river, and it takes a little bit of skill for these guys to be able to do it. My name is leon vaughn, and im portraying a member of colonel glovers marble headers. 14th regiment out of marble head, massachusetts, fishermen who help George Washington get across water. How is the crossing today . The crossing today was very easy. Some years it had snowed, some years it is rained, and it has been cold but today perfect weather conditions. Tell me, why do you do this . I do it because it is not in the average American History textbook, about the 40 of colonel office unit because during that time in massachusetts, black men were a large part of the whaling in the fishing industry. It is meant hot caught every day this is a typical dress of a codfish ermine. Fisherman, the trousers, theyre open, so just in case you fall in the water, you wouldnt have any water in your pants, they could drain and you could come up and you would not drown that easy. And the hat, if you got cold, to have a pulled down over your ears, not like the try cohen hats, and everything was practical. Going backwards. Prepare to cast off. But then, here we were here from day one. I had a cousin who did Extensive Research on my fathers mother and he traced her ancestry back to one of the 20 or more africans was on the boat that landed in hamptons virginia, 1619, so i can trace my family back in this country for hundred years. You have to go deep into libraries, you have to go to used bookstores and the internet has helped also. I picked up a book out of a library and in this book, i found, in the painting of george Washington Crossing the river, the man rowing the boat to the right of George Washington, is a black guy. His name was prince whipple. He was the servant of one of George Washingtons aides, and he is a black guy rowing the boat on the painting. We meet all year ian lee or long to plan this. And 1776 they would cross, if you had to wait for 2400 it would take all day. It took washington nine hours. About 300 today and 48 boat crew. The boat crew comes out to practice, they come out on a local lake and they practice on the river. The planning goes on all year. There will be a meeting in january. And then we will start planning for next year. I have advanced training, my father never owned a motor. When we went out fishing, we caught our spots and our fish. We rode into the bay. I started rowing a boat at ten. This is the reflection of my childhood. As a reenactor have been doing George Washington for nine years now. It is a tremendous opportunity, as you look around here and you see hundreds and hundreds of visitors who come to this park just to see this. It is an iconic event. It is not only regionally important but nationally important. If we did not have this victory the army would have collapsed. Why do you do it . As an amateur historian, ive been doing reenacting for 26 years, and over the years when you work your way up from a private to a sergeant to an officer, you look at your predecessors and say, i think i can do a better job horse i can do something different. I have taken on the role for the last nine years and any successful crossings, i like the fact that we educate the public in what took place here. It keeps the site viable. 2013 we have six inches of snow in four hours when i watched my boat to go across, you could not see the shoreline on either side. We had to cancel because it was deemed unsafe to cross anymore boats. It started out as daylight, sunny, a little cool. By the afternoon, by the time we were crossing it, there was six inches of snow on the ground. It certainly didnt feel it was i was here when it rained sleeted and snow on the same day. The troops were grumbling and complaining. I had to look at them and say, these were the conditions that the troops actually had to cross under. Im sure they were complaining as well. If i have a general staff, i also have a commander chief guard. We have our standard bearer. The commander chiefs position flag. That is how you know where the general is on the battlefield. The original is now in the museum. And pull. And paul. And pull, and pull, and pull and pull. The officers were aware of where they were going, and that they were a ten attacking the outpost. The men in the boats did not did not know exactly what their destination was, but clearly they were aware that something significant was about to take place they were cold. Many of them were sick, they were hungry. They did not have the equipment as far as perfect clothing that they needed to protect them from this weather. They did this under great hardship. They were very brave. They accomplished something that i certainly could not do under the circumstances. They marched nine miles after this crossing in the snow storm, they marched nine miles to trenton and attacked, who were not expecting to be attacked for a number of reasons. First of all, because it was just after a major snowstorm. It was also the time of the year, wintertime when most armies went to their winter camps the hush ands had actually been engaged several times by some of the local militias in new jersey and were really on edge. This was not a type of fighting that they were accustomed to. By the time it was christmas and there had been a major snowstorm they were hoping to have an opportunity to rest a little bit and of course that did not have been. They were attacked by the Continental Army who was able to defeat them. The army would have stayed entrant and for short amount of time and then brought prisoners, about 900 or so prisoners back, and crossed again a couple of different varies and officers were kept overnight at mccarthys very eventually the officers were taken just a couple of miles from here. Its always good to know your history, know from where you have come. That way you know where you are going and you try not to repeat some of the same mistakes. When i was in school, i hated history. They would always teach me about with somebody else did, and not what my people did. No i had to join this here to learn what i did not learn in high school nor and college about real American History. An allinclusive American History. One time, i was given elector at an office of homeland security. It was blacken History Month after i gave a short speech on the civil war. One of the white men in the audience stood up and said why are you here teaching us black history . I said sir, i am not touching you black history, i am teaching you American History. It just happens to be about black people. Most people are probably familiar with the emmanuel yes. What do you think of that . I think it is a lovely painting. He was not trying to provide a snapshot of the actual historic event. What saw was telling a story. And in that painting, you see the story of the American Revolution that he was trying to inspire of people in germany at the time and their quest for revolution. So you see washington cross and you see james monroe who ends up being a president. You see a flag, what we now call the bitterest flag what you see in the painting. Thats like was not being used in 1776, so he includes it there. You are seeing two future president s. You see this flag, and you see a variety of different types of people and that boat which was just like the makeup of the army