Merry Christmas!
This rendering of George Washington Crossing the Delaware is from the imagination of the artist. It is his fantasy of what it looked like. There was no cable news in the 1850s when this painting was created by German-American artist Emanuel Leutze. It is a political statement.
Here are some Christmas Day trivia questions for you (no Googling!):
George Washington is not the only president in this painting. Who is the other president? Hint: He was the only founding father to oppose the US Constitution.
How old was the other president in the painting?
What does that president share with two other presidents?
What attire was this president to last regularly wear?
What was his nickname at the end of his life?
Christmas Day 2022 is a frigid one across most of America. Here is a story about the first Christmas in the United States of America.
The hour was desperate. July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence that severed the allegiance of the 13 colonies to the British Crown was 174 long nights ago.
The American army was on the edge of defeat. It was camped on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, frozen, shoeless, hungry and pursued. Enlistments were ending, while Congress had failed to adequately fund, provision and arm the untrained farmers who George Washington commanded.
He wrote his brother on December 18th, and shared the desperation of his position. He said the game was up.
“If every nerve is not strained to recruit the new army with all possible expedition, I think the game is pretty nearly up . . .You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means to extricate himself from them.”
George Washington had a decision to make. His back was against the wall. He decided to attack. The password was “victory or death.”
George Washington, referred to as “His Excellency,” was in personal command of the 2,400 men who crossed the ice clogged Delaware River to surprise and destroy the British garrison manned by Hessian Mercenaries at Trenton, New Jersey. The attack was his plan. It was his gamble to survive. George Washington was all in.
The weather worsened throughout the day on December 25, 1776. The American forces were hours behind schedule by midnight on the 26th. The sleet and rain cut into the frozen faces of the American army that crossed in three columns. The winds screamed and the snow fell non-stop throughout the night. The weather got worse with each hour, but the army crossed the river undetected and without casualties. Two hundred horses and 18 canon were carried across the fast-moving river under the watch of Washington, who was mounted and covered under a cloak.
With the American army across the river, Washington led the army in a nine-mile march through snow and freezing rain. Many in the American army were barefoot. They marched in silence. Multiple accounts depict Washington moving up and down the line with words of encouragement.
The American victories at Trenton and Princeton would save the “cause.”
Independence was won with decisiveness, guts and courage. It was won with the integrity of conviction and belief that America was worth dying for on a frozen night when there was no reason to believe in the possibility of victory. American independence was won by daring and risk.
It was won by George Washington and 2,400 men who did the impossible on a long ago Christmas Day.
It was a day that made America and is a day that should be remembered as such by every American.
“Victory or death.”
I can’t comprehend how Washington and these men kept going. I live not too far from Valley Forge. This morning I stood in front of my sliding glass door and put jackets on my dogs because it’s too cold to go out without them. How does a person cross an icy river, march 9 miles without shoes and win a battle? I would cry if I had to walk across my back yard with no shoes! It just boggles the mind.
Thank you, Santa Steve, for such a lovely gift. It was the first I received this frosty Christmas morning and husband is still sleeping. Outdoors it is now 17 degrees where I live north of Atlanta. I was surprised to learn in my elder years that an ancestor had served during the Revolutionary War. (He was the first of my Webb family, born 1753 in this country.) This news sparked my interest in tracking his service, which I was able to do with Fold3. What a history lesson I had, learning about Valley Forge. I had assumed that Valley Forge was a battle, but learned it was a struggle for survival during a winter encampment. Those who did survive the disease and harsh conditions received appropriate military training, so they were better able to fight the British. I read about relatives and citizens from what later was known as Portland, Maine gathering much needed clothing for their men at Valley Forge. There are millions of Americans who can boast of their ancestors, if they want, but really this goes far beyond pride. It took real guts to march away from their families and homes to defend, and what I feel is gratitude. That and a spark of fury, given what we have faced and are facing these days. But this is Christmas Day and I will finish wrapping presents and create a meal to be remembered. We are blessed.