By early winter of 1776 the new American nation had been through a brutal test. None more than the ragged troops of the Continental Army. As Christmas approached, the army, and with it the revolution, was on the verge of collapse.
After the early success of driving the British out of Boston, George Washington’s army had suffered through one defeat after another. In July the Continental Congress had approved The Declaration of Independence. This had given the army something to fight for but not the means to fight with. They had escaped Manhattan island only by a brilliantly staged retreat, Divine Providence in the form of weather, and the skill of a regiment of fishermen from Marblehead, Massachusetts. It was their skill in handling boats that enabled the Continental Army to evacuate Manhattan across the river and escape the British.
By late December the army was in sorry shape. They had retreated continually before the British until they had come to winter encampment a few miles from Trenton, New Jersey on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware river. On paper, Washington’s army numbered about 7,500 but less than 6,000 were fit for duty. Hundreds of these men were sick and suffering from the cold. The army lacked food, medicine, uniforms, shot, and powder all the basic supplies that keep an army fit and effective in the field. So severe was the situation that men wrapped rags around their feet for want of shoes. General Heath would write in his diary after observing General Lee’s men arrive “so destitute of shoes that the blood left on the frozen ground, in many places, marked the route they had taken.” To add to the army’s discomfort, the winter was miserably hard. http://rightviewpoint.com/?p=540
After the early success of driving the British out of Boston, George Washington’s army had suffered through one defeat after another. In July the Continental Congress had approved The Declaration of Independence. This had given the army something to fight for but not the means to fight with. They had escaped Manhattan island only by a brilliantly staged retreat, Divine Providence in the form of weather, and the skill of a regiment of fishermen from Marblehead, Massachusetts. It was their skill in handling boats that enabled the Continental Army to evacuate Manhattan across the river and escape the British.
By late December the army was in sorry shape. They had retreated continually before the British until they had come to winter encampment a few miles from Trenton, New Jersey on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware river. On paper, Washington’s army numbered about 7,500 but less than 6,000 were fit for duty. Hundreds of these men were sick and suffering from the cold. The army lacked food, medicine, uniforms, shot, and powder all the basic supplies that keep an army fit and effective in the field. So severe was the situation that men wrapped rags around their feet for want of shoes. General Heath would write in his diary after observing General Lee’s men arrive “so destitute of shoes that the blood left on the frozen ground, in many places, marked the route they had taken.” To add to the army’s discomfort, the winter was miserably hard. http://rightviewpoint.com/?p=540
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