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Understanding 9/11tv Crossroads of the Revolution CSPAN May 20, 2017 5:29pm-5:46pm EDT
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historic buildings and i would like to see more and more of those great historic buildings. [inaudible] >> well, john, this has been great, i think we have seen a lot of trenton, i really appreciate you showing us around today. >> absolutely. >> i'm standing on the grounds of new jersey state capital trenton. up next, we speak with author larry to learn more about the city's role during the american revolution. >> trenton is
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he would fight but he never wanted to be captured like cornwallis was at yorktown or. in was in saratoga. he wanted to avoid that kind of disaster. that would have ended the revolution. so he would always want to live to fight another day in his
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battles and the important thing was to keep the revolution going and keep the army in the field and i believe new jersey and general entrance and in particular was very instrumental in helping him accomplish that goal. it served the continental army as a hospital right where we are standing here to barracks. the barracks was an army hospital during the revolution. it's where washington made one of his major sort of innovations at that time i inoculating all of his troops against smallpox and saved his army which might have been wiped out in 1776, not by the british but by the smallpox. he played a role in that. in addition trenton because of his location between new york and philadelphia, was a major supply depot and the army needed
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food and trenton became, because of its geographic location it was used as a supply depot before the battle of trenton all the way through 1783 and the army going. one of new jersey's main contributions to the revolution in this area was the organization of its militia. militia was a state function not a continental congress function and new jersey required the units to be in it however new jersey because of washington's army being here and because of the british being constantly in new york and for a year in philadelphia the militiamen were killed -- called out very frequently. it was virtually every other month or every third month sometimes.
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if they were lucky every fourth month that a man might get called up. this was very very strenuous on trying to keep the local economy going. one thing that we don't normally think about with a militia is as part-time soldiers they were full-time civilians with jobs and they had to leave in order to go on militia duty. militia duty was always considered to be kind of a last resort defense, not a first resort that during the revolution it almost became a first resort and men were taken away from home, taken away from their farms, their crafts whatever it might be in order to go against the british and prevent the british from making attacks in new jersey. it got so bad that washington either described and used the
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phrase, when people complained that the new jersey militia was not always coming out and not always being vigorous he said well it's no wonder, there are people harassed and exhausted and one of the first books that i wrote about the revolution in new jersey, that is the title people harassed and exhausted. washington complained about the new jersey militia but deep down inside he knew that they had sacrificed a great deal. the first time he came to new jersey was on his way to cambridge to be commander of the continental army and passed right through town on his way there. in terms of bringing his troops here it was after the new york campaign after the battles of long island and white plains and those were all pretty bad issues
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for the continental army. they were in definite defeats. he brings his army to new jersey in order to keep it between the british army and philadelphia and he winds up retreating across new jersey, 80 miles or so across new jersey. he gets to trenton about december 1 or 2nd of 1776 and he had been in new jersey from us to month before that. then he crosses over into pennsylvania in order to keep between the british and philadelphia. the big concern was that the british were going to try to take philadelphia before the end of the campaign season and the armies generally didn't fight in the winter. they were generally in their winter quarters but even know was december they thought maybe
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they would try to push it a few more weeks and take philadelphia. so that was the main concern but he did go to pennsylvania and the british took over all of central new jersey including trenton and established their winter quarters here. they decided not to go on to philadelphia until the spring but they establish their winter quarters here and of course banned its washington coming back and attacking those winter quarters that gave trenton its place in history in december, late december. king george and lord norris and lord germane and the british hierarchy had wanted to finish the war and i had anticipated at january 11777 this was going to be they are not going to have to worry about it anymore. and they were a little bit unhappy with general howe and
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his other generals for not having finished the war off but in the spring, no problem. it was going to take more than one more year but washington was looking at the end of the road rather than the beginning of the road like the british were and he decided he had to make some kind of the move. he had been retreating ever since the battle of long island in august of 76 and he needed to come up with something that would not only encourage his reenlisting or extending reenlisting but also encouraging new men to join the army who hadn't been in yet. they were having trouble getting recruits because things were just going so badly. he needed to do something to
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stimulate recruitment for the continental army as well as keep the men already in it agreeing tuesday. that's when he decided to go across and attack trenton. the troops were a little overextended but the hessians of trenton were some of the the troops that the british had. people always asked why were the hessians in trenton and not the british troops? why the contracted troops rather than the home troops were here and it was actually a reward and an honor for those hessians to be here. they had done so well in the attacks that the british had carried out in new york that lord howe thought okay these are good guys and trenton also the
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military tactics were on the left side of the line and the hessians in the normal form of battle were on the west so to move them to another location would have been an insult. the left was in a position of honor anyway so he didn't want to insult these guys and any wanted to let them know they had done a good job so that's why they put them in trenton. the fact that the hessians were somewhat unprepared but also exhausted kind of set up washington's success if you will and so that was added the weather. the storm on the night of the crossing while it delayed him from getting to trenton when he wanted to and the surprise before just a dog that he wanted to have even though he was late getting to trenton the storm was
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also part of the camouflage that kept the hessians from knowing he was coming. the hessians didn't send out their patrols quite as far as they normally would have that morning because of the weather and the other fact there's that made the hessians sure that they weren't going to be attacked, and it wasn't just because they felt that american troops were not capable. there was the weather as much as anything and the fact that they had been attacked so frequently with small groups that any intelligence they had in washington was under attack, the small attack and not the big attack that they eventually came with. so trenton became for many reasons a very short quick action in which washington was able to capture two-thirds,
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three-quarters of the hessians that were in trenton. a few had escaped but almost 900 or so were captured. the main thing that we remember the battle of trenton for in terms of the outcome and the influence on the rest of the world is that gave the men in washington's army something to feel good about. they didn't feel good about freezing and all of the suffering that they had to go through but you know that's 900 haitian prisoners across the pennsylvania had to feel good particularly since they took almost no casualties. the hessians had many more casualties than the americans did in the battle. there were two famous wounded americans one being captain william washington who was the
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distant cousin of george washington and the other was the future president of the united states, james monroe who was under captain washington. those were the two men who were wounded by gunfire. munro almost died from his wounds but survived and most of the primary casualties on the american side, couple froze to death on the march to trenton but in the battle itself there were few american casualties. the americans really felt good about what they had accomplished their and washington was then able to get a lot of the men to reenlist, excuse me not to reenlist but to extend for several weeks which allowed them to be around for the battle of princeton on january 3 and it did encourage him to join the
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continental army with the new regiment and it just gave everybody on the rebel side and the patriot side a breath of fresh air that well maybe we can deal with this thing now. once the battle of trenton was over the war were certainly not anywhere over. the war would continue until 1783, about six and a half years after the battle of trenton and princeton before the war is actually over. there were people who felt after the battle of trenton somewhat of a foregone conclusion that eventually the americans would win. there was certainly more hope that the americans would win but it was still going to be along for it. trenton i believe is not understood by people as much as it should be. and i think if everybody understood the full role of trenton during the war far more
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people would want to come and visit trenton visit the barracks and see the places where so much was found. always doesn't make it into the history books but it was vital to the survival of the continental army and to the ability of americans to carry out that war for six and a half years after the battle of trenton. it took to me and having researched it, i can't understand why more hasn't been made of the contribution of trenton, why there aren't more signs around telling people where something happened in trenton. there are some but not as many as i would have thought there would the. i think that trenton represents what everybody was going through
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in the revolution, not just the continental army, not just the leaders but the ordinary people, the people who were the support for everything that was going on support people in never make it into the history of veaux but without them the guys making the history really could have done their jobs and that's one of the big stories of trenton during the revolution could tell. it's not just heroes that make the history books, but it's the combined effort of the whole population that leads to their success. behind me is the new jersey state library located in the capital city of trenton tied up next day are going to show us some of their rare books featured in their collection. >> the library was founded in 1796 when the legislature assigned responsibility for the collection of
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