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1

Jan

1758

Old Barracks Built for French and Indian War

Trenton, NJ· year date

1Person Involved
55Significance

The Story

The Old Barracks in Trenton were constructed in 1758 to house British soldiers during the French and Indian War, after New Jersey colonists protested the Quartering Act's requirement to house troops in private homes. The stone barracks could accommodate roughly 300 soldiers.

During the Revolution, the barracks housed Hessian troops of Rall's garrison and were central to the Battle of Trenton. The building survived the war and subsequent centuries, making it one of the few surviving colonial military barracks in the United States. Today it operates as a museum that interprets both its French and Indian War origins and its Revolutionary War significance.

People Involved

J

Johann Rall

Hessian Colonel

Hessian colonel commanding the Trenton garrison when Washington attacked on December 26, 1776. Rall was mortally wounded in the battle and died the following day. His failure to fortify the town contributed to the Hessian defeat.

Sources for Trenton

1776
Simon & Schuster (David McCullough)
Continental Army Orderly Books: New Jersey Campaign, December 1776
National Archives and Records Administration
Hessian Colonel Rall's Papers and Battle of Trenton German Accounts
Staatsarchiv Marburg (German State Archives)
The American Crisis, No. 1 (Thomas Paine)
Philadelphia (self-published)
The Battle of Trenton (The American Revolution)
Philip Freneau Press (Samuel Stelle Smith)
Washington Crossing Historic Park: Official Site
Pennsylvania/New Jersey State Parks
Washington's Crossing
Oxford University Press (David Hackett Fischer)
Washington's Orders for the Crossing of the Delaware and Attack on Trenton
Library of Congress, George Washington Papers
Diary of Johann Heinrich Baurmeister, 1776-1780
Rutgers University Press (Bernhard Uhlendorf, trans.)
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/trenton
www.battlefields.org
https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/washingtons-revolutionary-war-battles/the-trenton-princeton-campaign/10-facts-about-washingtons-crossing-of-the-delaware-river
www.mountvernon.org
https://www.nps.gov/people/henry-knox.htm
www.nps.gov
New Jersey State Archives: Revolutionary War Era Records
New Jersey State Archives
Old Barracks Museum: Revolutionary War Collections
Old Barracks Museum
Ten Crucial Days: Washington's Vision for Victory Unfolds
Knox Press (William L. Kidder)
The Battles of Trenton and Princeton
Houghton Mifflin (William S. Stryker)
Trenton City Museum: American Revolution Interpretive Collection
Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie
Battle of Trenton -- Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Capital City: Trenton's History as State Capital
City of Trenton
Visit New Jersey: Trenton Revolutionary War Heritage
New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism
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