Attack. At the beginning of the revolutionary war, George Washington relied mainly on tactical strategies. Archives sponsored this hourlong event. For today is George Washingtons surprise attack, a new look at the battle that decided the fate of america by phyllis decided the fate of america, by Philip Thomas tucker. He has authored more than two dozen books in the past two decades and written over 60 scholarly articles. He is recognized for his efforts to unearth and bring to life forgotten events and figures in the annals of American History. Many of his books recount events of the civil war, with others detailing the texas revolutionary period, the revolutionary war, irish history, and the efforts of early African American military regiments. After earning his phd eight st. Louis maneuvers university, dr. Tucker took a position as historian with the department of defense and specialized in air force history. In addition to this book, some of his early books are exodus and kathyamo williams from slave to female buffalo soldier. Lisle join me in welcoming dr. Tucker to the national archives. [applause] thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for that great introduction. Im happy to see everyone has made it out under these cold and snowy conditions. Thatinteresting to mention even today we can understand what a difficult task washington had when you look at the ground and the terrain where all of this took collect, the campaign of trenton, especially the River Crossing the delaware and the march down to trenton. How here inmagine d. C. And everywhere else we complain about the weather the recent st. Patricks day snowfall for good reason, it causes us inconveniences and problems, but if you look at it in perspective ill be honest, i complain more than anybody else if you put it in perspective, its interesting to walk outside and just imagine Washingtons Crossing of the delaware, which everyone knows about. That has really been focused heavily on, but the real trial was even after the River Crossing, which was a ninemile march at night through the snowstorm through new jersey to trenton. If you can just imagine, we go through the ordeal of going to a car to an establishment, experiencing the winter, it is almost inconceivable for us today to imagine what it was like, especially when these men were ill trained and ill clothed and didnt even have protective gear for their flint locks. What really makes this even more impressive is the simple fact that the men who followed washington across the delaware, it was more than a giant leap of faith. Here was commander washington who had not won a single battle up till the time of christmas 1725. Er it was a huge leap of faith that these men, generally young men, but men of all ages, for them to follow this commander who nearly lost the war for america because he fought to conventionally, but yet, there leap of faith was to look at him as a revered leader. He was the leader in terms of strength of character and willpower. What was really amazing was for them to willingly follow him in that great blind leap of faith, not only in crossing the delaware and night, but also the ninemile march to trenton. Again, this was a commander who had never won a battle. If anything goes wrong at trenton, we have a full brigade of elite soldiers under a commander who had never lost a battle. To say the least, it was taking a considerable risk, not to mention a gamble. The reason why i embarked upon this book, i wanted to try to take a new look, as much as possible, at one of the most famous episodes of American History. This isnt easy to do. Its quite challenging. That is one reason why many shy away from the more famous episodes or more famous battles in American History, especially the american revolution, under the assumption that nothing more can be said, and it has already been written about and explored in great detail. Ive kind of learned over the years that if you dig deep enough and going to primary research, you can get a new look on almost any event in American History. Fertile,d is always and its almost a tragedy to think that there is that assumption among a lot of people that its effortless to embark upon a study of a famous episode. Of example, the alamo, a lot historians have shied away from that for that reason. Trenton has kind of fallen in the same category. Luckily, i was able to utilize skills from past books and apply them to the trenton story in order to take a new look and try to get a new perspective about not only the battle of trenton but also about washington and his men. I began the book not with my own words but a great quote that i found during my research looking at the maryland gazette, the newspaper published out of maryland. After washington and the french allies secured victory at yorktown in october 1781, washington came back and passed through annapolis. Him,ity fathers greeted and of course, had a lavish affair for him. A Committee Published words of a presentation to him, and it really put everything in perspective. 1781, ands in october this was quite a few years after the battle of trenton. , they emphasized the successes at trenton and princeton that laid the cornerstone to our freedom and independence. I think those words really put it in perspective, the importance of what washington accomplished. I think what we forget an often overlookeddddddddddddddddd , of course, we celebrate every fourth of july, the declaration of independence for good reason, but we also fail to understand the declaration of independence meant nothing if you couldnt back it up with battlefield victories. The words were just hollow. That was the importance of trenton. Basically, by the victory he ,ecured, saving the revolution and in essence, saving the declaration of independence. Again, the words meant nothing if america was going to go down in defeat militarily. To be honest with you, when i embarked upon the book, i didnt have the highest opinion of George Washington as a military commander. It is pretty wellknown and established fact that he relied much on conventional tactics, which is what the other side used. Werent in harmony with the soldiers that he had. They werent properly trained or equipped. He would inevitably run into defeats simply because he was emulating the ways of the British Military commanders, which was a mistake. Abouts what is unique trenton. He had suffered so many defeats in the new York Campaign in the summer and fall of 1776, and after learning again and again that these conventional tactics were obsolete and not working, he became a lot more openminded out of desperation about what was needed, a new way of fighting a conventional opponents. Of course, the obvious answer what we see with trenton is your irregularrfare warfare. This was perfectly in keeping with the quality and makeup of the men that served under him. That style of combat was more in keeping with their past experiences, especially westerners from pennsylvania and maryland who are veterans of indian warfare. All in all, the tactical plan that washington utilized was nothing short of brilliant and saved the revolution and reversed the tide. He was able to develop this plan in part because of the lessons warfare. Lar one shining example was the raid on an indian encampment north of todays pittsburgh on the allegheny river. This was a brilliant strike in 1756. It bestowed quite a few tactical lessons about the importance of and hitting the opponent when they least expect it, which of course was the exact scenario at trenton. The greatest challenge to do work like this again, i was very fortunate to find a very good publisher, and we were able to come out with a very good the greatest challenge was how to present one of the most famous episodes in a newan history in perspective. How can we look at it in a new way . Everybody knows the traditional story of the battle of trenton and Washingtons Crossing. Every school child in america knows it. With thel brought up traditional story that involves a lot of stereotypes. One way to try to present a new look was to look at different perspectives. This is toy to do primary evidence. Thats like newspapers, like the maryland gazette. They became so valuable. Accounts areldier published in some of these colonial newspapers. As a rule, historians have not tapped into these. They remain a very good resource. Way to look at Washingtons Army and the battle of trenton in a new perspective is by looking at another aspect that is seldom looked at, which is the ethnic perspective. We are all brought up to believe the tradition that Washingtons Army was made up of the typical , basicallyer army anglosaxon, soldiers of british descent, but when you look closer, you learned that it is a much different story. One of the most surprising largetions is such a percentage of Washingtons Army consisted of irish and scots irish. When i mentioned irish, i mean irish catholics, and scots irish are from northern ireland, protestants. Foundationhe steady of the revolutionary army from beginning to end. Such was the case at trenton. Economic factors that deemed the situation inevitable. The irish were some of the most impoverished sellers in america. A great many were indentured servants. That is how they came to america in the first place. They attained free passage from ireland under the condition, of course, that you had to work off the cost of passage in america. A lot of them were indentured servants. One way to aspire higher in American Life when you are at the very bottom was to join the military. We had a very large percentage of irish and scots irish up to his high as 40 , maybe even more. Another angle i tried to use was to take a new look at the hessian soldier. There are more stereotypes than probably any other fighting men in america during the revolution. Of course, the typical stereotype is the evil monsters, the nazis of that day. In truth, this was the product of a lot of colonial propaganda. It was a good way to get recruits into the army, to embellish the evilness of your enemy, but when you look more closely at the hessians at trenton, they were basically farm boys, very religious, a lotnist. Of them were from the peasant class. Ironically, they were not that much different from basically the class of most of washingtons men. If you look at some of the evidence, they are not quite the monsters that america propaganda made them out to be. What is most revealing, if you look into hessian diaries and letters, its amazing how they are appalled by what they see in america in terms of slavery. Of course, that is something they didnt have in germany. Its amazing how totally appalled they are with the mere concept of one human being owning another. Inanted to put the hessians a proper perspective on a lot of different levels. That required that is part of the new look. Another way by which to take a new look at trenton was to explore the tactical roots and evolution of washingtons battle plan, which was one of the most brilliant of the american revolution. What is interesting is to see that if you look back, it is a mixture of guerrilla warfare and where he isre watching this strike, this raid therenton i pointed to example of this raid on kittanning in which some of his cers, andanking offi what was important about that was showing the wisdom of catching your enemy by surprise, striking, marching to their and can mentor village at night or village atnt night. This was the key to success on the western frontier. Useington wisely decided to that same plan for the strike on trenton. Another way i presented a new view ive done this with other works it is essential, when you are a historian, we are armchair historians, if you will , but you have to go to the place where these events occurred. You can read all of the books in the world about the battle of trenton, and you can think that you know it alld or you have a good understanding of what reallyd and why, but you dont get a real good understanding until you go to literallylace and you walked the ground is much as you can. That includes the ninemile route after crossing the delaware and going down to trenton. It helped immeasurably to get into trenton itself, the town, and to walk around and measure things off and to get an idea exactly what was happening and why. Trenton, the capital is overgrown and congested and even has some precarious areas. I almost became the battle of trentons last casualty one late saturday night in my research, but that is a whole other story or another book perhaps. Its essential to walk the ground and to see it. Then you can get an understanding of what really happened. To really put the battle of trenton in perspective, you have to look at the overall war at the time, which was disastrous for america. America was actually at its lowest ebb. It almost look like the resistance effort was actually over. One of washingtons ideas was in the new yorkrom city area down to new jersey, he was hoping the people of new jersey would rally to his army. Unfortunately, to his shock, they did not. Before that, the real blow came with the loss of new york city in september 1776. This was crucial because it was americas most vital port. It was also the key to british strategy. They had to have new york city, and then from there, they could bring in their supplies and reinforcements and deliver a death blow to the resistance effort. Washington basically retreats all the way to the eastside of the delaware, and that is the last natural barrier before the british advance. The commanderm, to the how decided to go Winter Quarters, and that gave washington a new opportunity and lease on life, if you will. He was fortunate to have some very good marine years. Mariners. Most of these gentlemen were from marblehead, massachusetts, and they were experienced fishermen, watermen, and experts at withdrawing the army, as they had done from long island to Manhattan Island in the summer of 1776. These gentlemen were the key players that washington depended on to get his army on the other side of the delaware for the strike on trenton. What washington envisioned basically was another battle of b. C. ,uh, which was 216 hannibals greatest victory over the roman legion. Romans,d nearly 50,000 and he threatened the very gates of rome. He did this with the classic pincer movement, two arms of his army basically crushing the enemy in between. This was very much on washingtons mind, and at kittanning, there was also a pincher movement involved in striking and overwhelming the indian and cap meant enc ampment. Of course, nothing was going to be realized until you had to get across the delaware. What compensated that was this that was theed stormy weather, rainy weather. It had warmed up previously, which caused ice and snow up north to melt, which meant the river was overflowing by the evening of december 25. We have quite a few myths about the crossing, of course, and a lot of that comes from the famous painting done in 1851. The model was the rhine river rather than the delaware, which is considerably wider than the delaware. However, the delaware at that time was roughly about 800 feet in width. He was very fortunate on two accounts and logistic terms. One was having the sturdy durham boats, which hauled freight up and down the river for years, and they could take around 50 men across. Even more important than that was the flat boats and ferry boats they had commandeered. Those were large enough and stable enough and sturdy enough for artillery. Washington made the bold decision, which is more than a audacious, than which was to take his artillery across the river. Henry knox was an amazing man. He was the son of scots irish immigrants. Onlys the key player not commanding artillery but also in orchestrating the crossing along with john glover. What made getting the 18 guns across so important was that annonse of the weather, c are virtually weather resistant compared to flintlock muskets. The powder easily becomes damp, and quite a few were unable to fire. You always had a reliable source of firepower. For his pincher movement, after crossing the delaware, washington relied on two divisions. He divided his army in half. He stayed with the second division, with henry knox and John Sullivan who commanded the first division. Sullivan was an interesting character. He was the son of poor scots irish immigrants. With the two divisions, the goal was for them to strike simultaneously with a pincher movement to catch the entire hessian brigade in between the two arms of the pincher movement for a conecuhlike victory. Get a very simplistic view of the battle of trenton from a lot of historians that presented it in a very basic areat the hessians surprised, overpowered, and they surrender. I tried to really devote a lot of time and effort into really understanding the complexity of reallytle from what happened and also from the point of view of the terrain, and also from a couple newly discovered german accounts, hessian acco unts. Job was made easier because of the harsh weather, of wet quite a few of the muskets of the hessians. s artilleryn, knox was roaring and played a key part in winning the day, especially when he placed on the guns placed the guns on the high ground just north of trenton. This high ground perch overlooked the entire town, which is basically in the valley of the delaware river. What has been forgotten about the battle of trenton was that it was never as simple or as easy as it seemed. The commander of the hessian brigade, hehessian led a daring counterattack after they left the village into an apple orchard. He led this daring counterattack back into king street and regained his headquarters and even captured two pieces of artillery he had lost earlier briefly and nearly won the day. The turning of the tide, in large part, was the lack of the hessians even being able to fire their muskets. This daring counterattack is often overlooked. It was in this counterattack where he received his mortal wound. Hes killed by probably a pennsylvania musketman. I also found a very good account that we had one of the women of trenton who was obviously very irritated that there was a battle roaring around her house. She decided to pick up a musket and take some potshots at the hessians. One was effective. Unfortunately, she shut down one captain. Fortunately, we dont know her name, but it is a great account. I try to give her as much recognition as we can. The information is very sketchy. Again, trenton was not just