The Victory at Trenton: Cornwallis and Princeton

The events that succeeded this important victory may be briefly stated. Washington's good fortune having brought him in reinforcements of militia, and induced some of his men whose term was about expiring to remain six weeks longer, he recrossed to Trenton on December 28. The British were now in force at Princeton. On January 2, Cornwallis reached Trenton with a strong army. Washington lay intrenched on the east side of the creek, with about five thousand men. The British threatened an attack the next day, in which defeat would have been ruinous to the Americans, since the ice in the Delaware rendered it nearly impassable in the face of an active foe. Washington accordingly devised a stratagem which proved highly successful. Kindling his camp-fires, and leaving guards and sentinels, he decamped that night with his whole army, and reached Princeton the next morning, about the time that Cornwallis discovered his disappearance. Here he met and defeated a body of soldiers, but, finding that Cornwallis was marching hastily back, and fearing to be caught between two fires with a worn-out army, he abruptly left that locality, and marched towards Morristown, while the British hastened to New Brunswick, to save their stores. Washington soon took the field again, and overran all northern New Jersey, while Howe's army became confined to the two posts of Amboy and New Brunswick. The people of New Jersey, who had been cruelly abused by the invaders, now retaliated by a guerilla warfare, cutting off outposts, attacking stragglers, and so annoying the British that they hardly dared venture beyond their lines.