Washington Crosses the Delaware

On the night of December 25-26, 1776, Washington led approximately 2,400 soldiers across the ice-choked Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. The crossing, conducted in a nor'easter with sleet and snow, was the opening move of the Ten Crucial Days campaign that would culminate at Princeton. The army crossed at McConkey's Ferry (now Washington Crossing) and marched nine miles south to Trenton, where they surprised and defeated the Hessian garrison on the morning of December 26. While this event did not occur in Princeton, it set in motion the chain of events that led directly to the Battle of Princeton eight days later.