A Christmas miracle

How a few determined men saved America

The Rocky

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

"I agree with you that it is vain to ruminate upon, or even reflect upon the authors of our present misfortunes. We should rather exert ourselves, and look forward with hopes, that some lucky chance may yet turn up in our favor."

- Gen. George Washington, letter to Robert Morris, Christmas Day, 1776

To the more than 2 billion Christians around the globe, most of whom will gather today in everything from cathedrals to mud huts to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Christmas has always stood for hope amid despair - a miracle of light out of the darkness and a promise of liberation from the bondage of sin.

To Americans - of every stripe, not just Christians - Christmas should also forever be celebrated as a beacon of hope and liberty. For it was on this day 231 years ago that a small band of Americans, against all odds, turned the tide of history and saved this republic in its darkest hour.

As familiar to generations of American schoolchildren as their own names, the story of that glorious Christmas 1776 is not often told these days. So we pause to recount the tale:

For nearly six months in the latter half of 1776, Gen. George Washington's ragtag Continental Army had been chased from bruising defeats at the hands of the British and their German (Hessian) mercenaries in New York and Long Island across the breadth of New Jersey toward Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, the capital of the fledgling United States.

Battling a paucity of supplies and a force that dwindled day by day as it fled before pursuing Hessians and redcoats under Gens. William Howe and Charles Cornwallis, Washington was finally forced to move his little army on Dec. 8 (down from 20,000 in August to about 3,500 reliable men) across the Delaware River at Trenton to the relative safety of Pennsylvania.

Howe, contemptuous of the scattered and battered American forces and facing the quickly approaching rigors of winter, decided to suspend fighting until the spring. Returning to the comforts of New York, he left garrisons at various points throughout New Jersey, including one of about 1,500 Hessians at Trenton, opposite Washington's beleaguered troops.

Washington was unaware of Howe's decision to stop and worried that the hard frost that had set in would soon freeze the Delaware enough to allow the enemy to cross and attack. Still, the indominatible commander had reason to hope. Another 3,000 troops and Pennsylvania volunteer militia rallied to him, and he found himself at the head of an army of 5,000 to 6,000 men on Christmas Eve 1776.

But enthusiasm for the conflict among the general populace was steadily eroding, and those under his command were suffering terrible privations. Despite all risks, he had to act decisively - and soon.

So it was that on Christmas Day 1776, Washington led about half his tattered army - many with only rags on their feet, and some barefoot - in bitter cold and wet weather across the ice-choked Delaware north of Trenton to do battle with the Hessians. (The other half, sent to cross below Trenton, was stymied by the weather and was forced back.)

David McCullough, in his stirring account of that fateful year, 1776, relates the recollections of fifer John Greenwood, who marched with Washington that night:

"I sat down on the stump of a tree and was so be-numbed with cold that I wanted to go to sleep. Had I been passed unnoticed, I should have frozen to death without knowing it."

But Greenwood and the rest pressed on, and the very storm through which they struggled concealed their movements from the enemy, providing some of the luck Washington had so often looked for. Another stroke of luck came from the Hessian commander, Johann Rall. Warned of an impending assault by the rebels, Rall mistook a brief Christmas Day skirmish with an American patrol for the attack he'd been warned about. A second warning received later he apparently pocketed without reading.

A few miles short of the town, the American force split in two, with Washington taking one half inland for an attack from that direction. The other half, under Gen. John Sullivan, followed the river road.

Arriving an hour after daybreak on Dec. 26, Sullivan's troops quickly engaged an enemy outpost and the battle was joined. Hessians attempting to rally and form in ranks along the town's two main roads were mowed down by artillery fire from Washington's group now closing in from the east. For an hour, the fighting was fierce, but the Hessians suffered horribly in comparison to the Americans. Eventually most of the Hessians, some of whom had managed to escape, surrendered to Washington and the great feat so long hoped for was accomplished.

The effect on patriot morale is difficult to overstate. After so many dispiriting defeats, and with the cause of liberty hanging in the balance, this one audacious stroke - combined with another startling victory about a week later at Princeton - turned everything around.

There would be another six-and-a-half years of brutal fighting before the revolution would be complete, but it seems unlikely any of it - or any of the ensuing achievements of a free and great people - could have happened without the miracle of Christmas Day 1776. As good a reason as any for national holiday, we'd say.

• December 25, 2007

  2:58 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Faux_Noise writes:

  Weather, luck, and strategy play roles in the outcome of all battles. Miracles involve intervention of the supernatural.

  Two groups of mostly Christians did battle (on 12/26 mind you), yet because we descend from the victors of that battle, Jesus Freak Vince Carroll and his editorial trolls call it a Christmas miracle. They say the victors write history.

  Hopefully not, but perhaps centuries from now Muslims will recall the miracle of 9/11 when 19 Mujahedeen were able to bring a great nation to its knees armed only with boxcutters, when from this perspective it looks a lot like mere human incompetence.

  Faith requires seeing miracles where alternate explanations may be more valid.

• December 25, 2007

  6:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  kathyM writes:

  Miracles are such when alternate explanations are NOT "more valid".

• December 26, 2007

  7:11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  Great story,but this is not what our children learn in school.It would be nice if U.S. History was taught ,not just touched upon, in school. Most of the history taught is the same old Pilgrim History every year.

  Last summer I started getting books for my children to read on the History of our country.You can't grasp the greatness and the sadness of this country's History without understanding there is more to it than , The Pilgrims and the Indians.

  Our schools are failing to teach our children actual History.In effect are doing them a disservice, especially when they want to have well rounded children and one of their credos is good citizenship.Our schools are failing our children by not teaching U.S. History in all it's glory and in all it's mistakes to children starting at a young age.

• December 26, 2007

  8:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Faux_Noise writes:

  I won't deny it at all.

  You choose faith, I choose reason, which you are clearly beyond.

• December 31, 2007

  3:49 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  hakj writes:

  Yes the schools do need to teach more real American history as apposed to the standard cut & paste history they teach now that has no substance.

  History is most often written by the victor or in todays society by the nation in which one lives.

  "Weather, luck, and strategy play roles in the outcome of all battles." You can call it luck, fate, or miracle if you wish. It all boils down to some unknown variable, or a set of variables that went right for the victors.