Washington Crossing the Delaware

This map shows where Washington's troops crossed the Delaware River and marched to Trenton.

This map shows the location where Washington crossed the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. There, Washington's troops marched south to Trenton.http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/washingtondelaware.htm

The Event: Washington Crossing the Delaware

excerpts from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h48.html

The painting commemorates a somewhat minor event that nevertheless had tremendous morale value for the Continental army. In December 1776, after Washington's troops were routed in New York and New Jersey, forcing them to flee into Pennsylvania, a British victory seemed certain. Convinced that the colonials would pose no threat, Sir William Howe, commander of the British forces, settled into New York for the winter.

In a bold move on that bitterly cold Christmas Eve, Washington had his men ferried across the Delaware River, made dangerous and barely navigable by huge chunks of ice. Once on the other side, in Trenton, New Jersey, the patriot army surprised Britain's Hessian mercenaries, capturing 900 of them.