6. Crossing the Delaware
In the famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware, painted in 1851, the General stands near the prow of the boat, a cloak around him, gazing determinedly ahead. The painting is certainly a romanticized image of the event. Washington undoubtedly sat, head bent to the wind-driven sleet, as the Marblehead seamen dealt with the dangerous ice floes in the racing river current. Many of the men took with them new blankets which had providentially arrived on Christmas Eve. Old blankets were cut up and wrapped around the tatters of their footwear. The boats in which they rode were large, flatbottomed freight boats, some as much as sixty feet in length, and about eight feet in beam. They were propelled by pushing poles against the river bottom and walking the length of the boat. Typically three or four men served that purpose. Others fended off the dangerous ice floes.
The temperature dropped as the operation ran on, the wind-driven sleet creating ice-slicked wooden decks. The Marblehead men weren’t the only men operating the boats. Other men who made their living on the Delaware River joined them. There were three crossing points and the entire command failed to cross the river, including a detachment commanded by Colonel John Cadwalader. General James Ewing was to ferry across and hold the bridge across Assunpink Creek, denying it to the enemy as an escape group. His crossing also failed. John Sullivan commanded the detachment accompanied by Washington and his staff. Although several men received a dunking in the frigid Delaware, none were lost during the crossing, which included 18 pieces of artillery and the horses to drag them. By the time the army was assembled and ready to march on Trenton, the sleet had changed to snow.