The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-02-04
HOW WASHINGTON CELEBRATED
ONE CHRISTMAS.
BY J. w. oUfGLY.

feats on the part Of the army, ant
when Gen. Washington was com
PEELED to evacuate New York anC
withdraw his shattered force to
ward the Highlands, his condition
was desperate in the extreme. Ht
had but few thousand men, many
of whom were raw militia, wholly
unused to military duties, and dai
ly deserving from cause that seem
ed utterly hopeless. They had
been unpaid for months, were al.
most destitute of food, and in rags;
yet with this ragged, ,famished shad
ow of our army he bravely strug-
gled on, threw up strong breast.
works at Harlem Heights to check
the advancing foe, met him in
bloody engagement at White Plains,
marched and countermarched, dis
putting every foot of the ground
that lay between him and the Hud-
son, which he was finally obliged to
cross on the 18th of November.
Fort Washington, with more than
two thousand men, fell into the
hands of the British. Then pris
oners we're taken to New York and
suffered all the horrors of the noto-
rious prison ships, during the war
of the revolution, eleven thousand d
victims were carried out to their
graves on the sandy shore of what
is now the Brooklyn navy yard.
Two days after Washington
crossed the Hudson, Lord Cornwall
lis followed him with six Thousand
men, and so rapid was his ap-
proach that the Americans were
obliged to leave all their baggage
and stores behind them and fly for
their lives: and now commenced a
scene of unparalleled hardship and
suffering. The rain fell almost in
necessarily. The roads were near
ly impossible. The soldiers desig-
mated those dreary marches the
mud rounds" and always spoke of
them with shudder. For three
weeks, Washington with his rapidly
diminishing army fed before the
vigorous and exulting enemy. So
closely was he pursued that his
rear guard, employed in pulling up
the bridges, was constantly within
sight and shot OF. the British.
During all this time of misery,
Washington, what he may have felt
at heart, appeared serene and
cheerful before his men, as if he
were a conquerer instead of defeat
ed and hunted fugitive. aHis
faith in the justice of his cause was
perfect, and he never for moment
distrusted the final result; yet when
his weary and suffering army cross.
ed the Delaware and sat down on
the Pennsylvania shore, on the 8th
of December, it was almost in de-
spair that he surveyed it's forlorn
and wretched condition. Without
tents to shelter them from the keen,
wintry air, or even. blankets to COW
er them, their feet naked and bleed
ing, half famished, that handful OF
despai4ing but resolute men waited
in .sullen silence the approach OF
the British army.
Gen. Howe, the British command
er, did not Immediately follow up
success as he might have done, but
ordered Cornwaliis to wait till he
could cross on the ice He placed
large detachments along the Jersey
shore of. the river to watch the
Americans. The British officers
welcomed everywhere by the tory
Inhabitants, remitted their vigilance
and spent their time in feasting
and dancing, till the ice, which was
floating in great masses down the
river, should become firm enough
to give them safe passage to the
other side.
As the Christmas season ap-
preached, the sagacious mind OF
Washington perceived the opportu-
nifty for striking an effective blow
at the enemy. Fifteen hundred
Hessians were stationed at Trenton.
The name Hessian has become a
synonym IN our language for cruel
ty and rapacity. They were Ger
man soldiers whom King George
had sent over to help sHbdue his
native born subjects. Their ex-
cesses were frightful. They preyed
upon friend and foe alike, and were
a terror to the neighborhooa where
they were stationed. Washington
guessed rightly in supposing the
Hessians would spend Christmas
in drinking and sporting, and
planned to attack them when they
were wrapped in the heavy slumbeI
that would follow their day and
night of carousal,
The 25th day of December, 1776
passed slowly away to the hungry
ragged and shiverlng patriots, who
INDUCED in no Christmas festivities
but impatiently waited tor nightfall
to embark upon their hazardous en-
terprise. Darkness came on early
and was almost impenetrable. An
icy rain, accompanied by piercing
wind, swept through the shiverins
ranks and lashed into fury the ice.
charged waters of the river. Amid
the Egyptian darkness and raging
tempest Washington embarked
his little band to make the passage
of the Delaware. The crossing O.
the Delaware on that memoria
occasion has been celebrated by the
artist, poet and historian. 1t wa;
one of the most heroic deeds eyel
recorded in the pages of history
The place selected for crossing was
at McConkey's ferry, nine mile:
above Trenton. The river at tha
place is six hundred feet wide, anC
the current awift ana strong.
The passage was made will
great difficulty, and Git was near
Iy four o'clock in the morning be
fore Washington succeeded in land
ing twenty-four hundred men ant
six cannon on the Jersey shore. II
had yet nine miles to marcl
through heavy snow storm over al
most impossible roads. Tw,
men were frozen to death. 1t wa
| after sunrise when he arrived a
Trenton. Rail, the Hessian com
| mander. had speLt the night i