Trenton, NJ
Stories
6 first-person accounts from the Revolutionary era.
Historical Voices
Thunder on King Street
I was in the cellar when the shooting started. The sound of muskets woke us before dawn on December 26 — sharp cracks in the cold air, then the deeper boom of cannon. My mother pulled me and my brothe...
John Glover
Ice, Wind, and the Delaware
The river was a nightmare. I had seen heavy seas off the Grand Banks and ice in Marblehead Harbor in the worst winters, but the Delaware on Christmas night 1776 was something else entirely. The curren...
Phillis
Liberty for Whom?
The soldiers came and the soldiers went, and through it all we worked. We hauled water and split wood and cleaned hearths and cooked food, for the Hessians first and then for the Americans, and the wo...
Alexander Hamilton
The Guns at the Crossroads
I was twenty-one years old and commanding two six-pound cannons at the junction of King and Queen Streets in Trenton, New Jersey. It was the morning of December 26, 1776, and my guns were the hinge on...
Johann Rall
The Morning Everything Fell Apart
Johann Rall was not a careless officer. He had fought with distinction at White Plains and Fort Washington, where his regiment had led the assault up the cliffs. He was brave, experienced, and respect...
Modern Voices