Bold, desperate and inspired on a fateful Christmas Day

In the final days leading to Christmas 238 years ago, George Washington put the last pieces in place for a desperate plan to save American independence from annihilation at the hands of the world’s mightiest military.

A great many in the colonies had doubts, and almost no one elsewhere in the world gave the upstart rebels any chance of succeeding in throwing off the yoke of oppression under the rein of Great Britain’s King George III.

British statesman and author George Trevelyan explained the king’s determination to punish the stubborn, contemptuous disobedience to his authority “by the indefinite prolongation of a war which promised to be eternal.”

The King wanted to “keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, discontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse.”

So when Gen. Washington staged his ragtag army along the shores of the Delaware River to attack the enemy in what some considered a fool’s errand, he did so realizing that failure might consign the American Declaration of Independence to the dustbin of history.

Next would come the hangings of its authors — we know them as our founding fathers — but had it not been for the audacity of Washington, we very likely would not have known them at all.

In my annual reminders of the events of Christmas Day, 1776, I’ve previously described the role of journalist Thomas Paine, who penned the inspirational entreaty that Washington used to motivate his troops.

Among his challenge were these words: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

But Washington would need more if his planned attack against the forces at Trenton, New Jersey, was to succeed.

He hoped for decent weather and placed a good deal of dependence on his strategy that included three detachments of his fledgling army all crossing the river to descend upon and defeat the opposing forces.

He was destined to get neither.

Two of his units never made it to Trenton. The impossible blizzard conditions may best be described by one of Washington’s teenaged soldiers, John Greenwood, who crossed in one of the first boats, “After a while it rained, hailed, snowed, and froze and at the same time blew a perfect hurricane…”

The only two men Washington lost that day were not in battle — they froze to death.

Victory on that fateful Christmas Day ensured that the Revolutionary War would continue and eventually succeed, with a new nation taking its place on the world’s stage.

American historian David McCullough describes in his book 1776 how John Hancock said the victory at Trenton was all the more extraordinary given that it had been achieved by men “broken by fatigue and ill-fortune.”

His tribute to Washington was thus: “But troops properly inspired, and animated by a just confidence in their leader will often exceed expectation, or the limits of probability. As it is entirely to your wisdom and conduct, the United States are indebted for the late success of your arms.”

“His Excellency,” as Washington’s troops called him, is today known as the Father of Our Country.

His skillful and cunning leadership on the field of battle all those years ago is why.

We celebrate the birth of Christ this week.

Perhaps it’s entirely appropriate that we are reminded, at the same time, of that Delaware crossing.

It seems to have confirmed how a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” was the perfect final line in the Declaration.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This story was originally published December 21, 2014 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Bold, desperate and inspired on a fateful Christmas Day."