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Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History) First Edition
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Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.
Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.
- ISBN-100195170342
- ISBN-13978-0195170344
- EditionFirst Edition
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateFebruary 12, 2004
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions9.86 x 1.68 x 6.13 inches
- Print length564 pages
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Book Description
A dramatic and colorful narrative of a pivotal moment in American history--George Washington crossing the Delaware
About the Author
From The Washington Post
The past few years saw a flurry of books on Benjamin Franklin. Now, it seems, attention is shifting to George Washington. Henry Wiencek's An Imperfect God, on Washington and his slaves, heralded the change. Now David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing continues the trend, and there's more to come.
Fischer, a historian at Brandeis University whose previous books include Albion's Seed and Paul Revere's Ride, describes in moving detail the military campaign of 1776-1777 and the British, German and American soldiers who fought it. As in the familiar 1850 painting by Emmanuel Leutze that inspired Fischer's title, Washington stands firmly at the book's center. His actions as commander of the American army were pivotal for both his future and that of the fledgling American republic. At first, their futures looked unpromising.
In the summer of 1776, the British Army began a massive campaign to smash the colonists' "rebellion" once and for all. The 33,000 British and German soldiers sent to New York constituted, Fischer says, a "modern professional army" commanded by generals with three decades of military experience. Even privates had on average nine years of service. By contrast, the American army was substantially smaller and pathetically inexperienced: Most soldiers had been on active duty only a few months, and even Washington had relatively little combat experience. The British, moreover, had 70 warships in America. The United States had none.
A predictable disaster followed. The American army barely escaped capture after losing the battle of Long Island in August of 1776, and it failed to hold Manhattan. Washington moved his men north onto the mainland in October, briefly engaged the British at White Plains, and then, in early November, crossed to the western side of the Hudson. Soon the British seized the American Forts Washington and Lee on the opposite sides of that river, and began invading New Jersey. As a dwindling American army retreated south, more than 3,000 people in that state signed loyalty oaths to the Crown.
Washington was near despair. He had lost substantial territory and most of his army. Rivals vied to replace him, and the revolution itself seemed on the verge of failure. But after he led his army across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania in early December, his fortunes took a turn for the better. New recruits began joining the American army, and Thomas Paine's The American Crisis, with its moving reference to the "times that try men's souls," rallied further support. Meanwhile, militiamen from New Jersey and Pennsylvania gradually retook the Jersey countryside.
Washington suddenly saw an opportunity for a "counterstroke." On Christmas night, he again crossed the half-frozen Delaware River -- the event Leutze's painting recalled -- and on Dec. 26 won a stunning victory over Hessians at Trenton. After returning to Pennsylvania, Washington again crossed the Delaware, defeated British and Hessian forces in a second battle of Trenton on Jan. 2, 1777, and the next day, in a brilliant maneuver, marched his men behind the lines of an advancing British army and took the British base at Princeton.
The fighting continued even after Washington led his exhausted men to winter quarters at Morristown. Groups of militiamen repeatedly attacked British soldiers seeking feed for their horses. That "forage war" compelled the King's army to further concentrate its forces, abandoning Loyalist supporters dependent on its protection. By the spring Howe had lost more than half his army and was on the defensive. American morale surged; Washington became a hero with some job security; and in London commentators began to question the wisdom of continuing a war that it suddenly seemed the British might lose.
Why the change? Washington had learned a lot fast. Fischer also emphasizes the spirit of the 13 major figures in Leutze's "Washington's Crossing." That painting, he concedes, is inaccurate in certain details: The crossing occurred, for example, at night during a fierce nor'easter, not in clear daylight. (The men were, however, standing up: The boats had no benches and several inches of slush in their bottoms.) But the soldiers' heroic determination, which the artist hoped would inspire 19th-century European revolutionaries, is for Fischer historically correct. Success depended on the commitment of Americans who "were fighting on their own ground, in defense of homes and families, for ideas of liberty and freedom."
Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to win the victory dimly glimpsed in early 1777, as Washington understood. Militiamen who defended their homes and families against the wholesale plunder, rapes and other atrocities committed by the British and their allies in New Jersey were fine for short-term campaigns such as those of the "forage war," but they could not hold the field against British regulars. That demanded what Washington called a "respectable army," with trained officers and men who agreed to serve on a permanent basis, not the short-term recruits of 1776. The only way to get such an army, Washington told Congress, was by offering material incentives.
His proposal went against American fears of "standing armies." But in late 1776 and early 1777, Congress let Washington recruit men -- who were drawn disproportionately from the poor -- for three years or the duration of the war with bounties and other incentives, and it endorsed harsher punishments for infractions of military discipline. That newly formed Continental Army was more like a European "army of order" than Fischer seems prepared to admit.
In fact, the "new kind of war" that emerged from the trials of 1776-77 was remarkably conventional, unlike the petit guerre of irregular bands that Washington's rival Charles Lee favored and Fischer celebrates. In October 1777, this new Continental Army -- albeit with the help of local militiamen -- won the battle of Saratoga, which led to the French alliance. Four years later, that same Continental Army defeated the British at Yorktown with a standard siege operation, which depended on the protection of the French navy and both manpower and technical advice from the French army.
Fischer ends his book, as Leutze designed his canvas, with a lesson for today. "The story of Washington's Crossing," he says, "tells us that Americans in an earlier generation were capable of acting in a higher spirit, and so are we." True. But to win independence, the Americans also needed a trained professional army and the help of the French. That, too, has meaning for our time.
Reviewed by Pauline Maier
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
Product details
- Publisher : Oxford University Press; First Edition (February 12, 2004)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 564 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0195170342
- ISBN-13 : 978-0195170344
- Item Weight : 2.11 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.86 x 1.68 x 6.13 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #291,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #214 in American Revolution Biographies (Books)
- #546 in U.S. Revolution & Founding History
- #3,576 in U.S. State & Local History
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About the author

David Hackett Fischer is University Professor and Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. The recipient of many prizes and awards for his teaching and writing, he is the author of numerous books, including Washington's Crossing, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history.
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Perhaps the best way I can describe it is that Mr Fischer has written this book in such a manner that avid readers who dream they will get their hands on that rare kind of book(s) that "take you there", well, they will have their dream fulfilled here......& if it could be made into a movie and made exactly the way this story is told, it would be a blockbuster never forgotten...and be a great contribution to our history. I have bought and given out copies of this book and I had to go back and re-read it a few months later for it stuck so in my mind. I simple cannot say enough about this story of the times when things were so bad for us, it appearing that General Howe would soon be wrapping up a victory for King George...but all at once, in the dead of winter, an exceptionally horribly cold winters night in December of 1776, Fischer tells in detail the whole story and paints a picture in the minds eye of all that transpired in the preparation and the step by step of these amazing men who slogged through the cold, across the Deleware in those huge cumbersome boats with animals and weaponry while ice flows begin to make it near impossible for them to ever get across....and then nearly impossible for any reader to conceive of this happening...they do get across, unload, every minute so crucial before daylight or there will be no surprise attack...then they surprise the Hessians and capture all the men, the big stores of food, ammunition, weapons, etc. So effectively is this whole story told from first to last that I "felt the cold,"
I am with the men and can imagine what they felt as best as I could...they are cold, bone tired, some with rags wrapped around their feet for often they did not have proper clothing and their weapons were wet and unable to fire if needed.
Comrades in arms would try and keep their fellow soldiers awake, some were so tired and just for a few minutes of rest some did lie down, only to never get up...exhausted they died in the cold.
The book has near exhausted me at this point, especially "going with the soldiers over the river, mentally it is so moving and one feels as if you even want to have been there and be awake and alert and help that soldier who needed rest but death was the consequence of not staying awake....for in a while they will be where it is warm, there is food, drink, rest!
I should be better prepared for this review, I am not a writer though I wished I would have been, esp one like Mr David Hacket Fischer. All I can say is get a copy of this book that reads similar to Philbricks "Mayflower" story or Captain Cooks stories of exploration. You will NOT be disappointed with this book, one of the very best I ever read.
There is so much you will think of re our country then just after declaring independence from the "mother country."
You will think of something that was happening back in the 18th century that is lost now, ie, people helping people, more then than now I think, a lot of hard work and people happy to be just safe, have a decent place for family to live in, food and clothing, a few good books (or more books so to learn and have some education.) I am sure that after Teddy Roosevelts time is when the real push of greed and big business and the rich/poor gap came on and now has built up so much that the ones you read of...leaders and/or the common man then...if here now seeing how America is, they would be shocked to say the least and some sort of revolution would come I suppose.
Even before Teddy R, things were getting bad...always the wealthy cannot be wealthy enough and many who have much do not even give thought of the common person, the poor or middle class person. This book, after reading all that it is about has a lot more to say to us because of who we are reading about and how they treated one another...so this is not just the best and most exciting and enlightening thing I ever read on Washinton's crossing the Deleware alone......it is about what Americans were like and what they were about...I hope, pray that our greed and power will not take us down one day and that when we see what America was back then, all they held dear and strived for (decent and fair shake, etc)...I hope it is not too late and now that we are for some time the "American Empire" just as the U.K. once was and we the ones working with (or at times alone as well) to dominate or take over other nations...that it is not too late to stop that course we are on.
I simply end by saying there is the main story here but whether on purpose or not, Mr Fischer has given me much knowledge of how different America was then in all her ways and the goals to build a nation for all the people was held by most...we have deviated from that now by both national parties. In the 1970's or late 70's I believe is when the Democratic Party merged with the Republicans and the current Democrats are in a moderate to right place and the Republicans are gone...or simply off the map to the right...soon the small amount of moderates will be gone unless true Progressives can ban together and change things....it is not anywhere near David H Fischer's America, nothing like it at all.
Washington's Crossing is devoted to an in-depth look at the New Jersey campaign of the winter of 1776-1777. However, Fischer doesn't just dump you into the icy Delaware River without some background. He starts off by examining each of the three armies involved, the American, British, and Hessian, looking at where they came from, how they viewed the Revolution, how they operated, and what their goals were. This section is extremely interesting, and did a lot to enhance my understandings of all sides.
The challenges Washington faced with Continental troops from all over the colonies and militia only vaguely under his command, the plans of British commanders Admiral and General Howe to pacify the countryside and aide the surely-numerous Loyalists in keeping the colonies under the King, and the economic and historical reasons Hessians became excellent mercenaries, and more - all of this was illuminating. Finally, Fischer gives an overview of the disastrous routing of the Continental Army during the New York campaign, which lead to the dire straights the Cause found itself in by November 1776.
Once he turns to the New Jersey campaign, Fischer breaks the action down into four main parts - the Battle of Trenton, the Battle of Assunpink Creek, the Battle of Princeton, and the Forage Wars. The Battle of Trenton, of course, is where the title of the book - and the famous painting - comes from, and was the initial shock that stunned the British and Hessians. Fischer does a great job of setting the scene for just how big a gamble this was for Washington. He also dispels the common myth about the Hessians being drunk on Christmas, as instead explaining how their openness to attack was a combination of fatigue from being on watch for days on end for militia who had been harassing them and an assumption that no one could be crazy enough to attack in the intense blizzard that, in fact, served the American purpose excellently by covering their approach.
My favorite part of the book, in fact, may be the part detailing the Battle of Assunpink Creek (also known as the Second Battle of Trenton). I hadn't even heard of this battle before. It was the British counterstrike after their loss at Trenton, and the Americans were forced into defending the indefensible city they had just taken from the Hessians days before. Through a combination of bravery from the men, ingenious generalship from Washington, and a willingness to fight the way that worked, instead of the way the British expected them to, the Americans not only won the battle, they were able to slip away from under the British's very noses in the middle of the night and make their way to Princeton, surprising the British once again with the American ability to show up where they weren't expected.
What followed was the Battle of Princeton, where the Americans ran into reinforcements headed to Trenton and defeated the British in a pitched battle on open field - a first. In less than two weeks, the Americans had run up several victories against the British, and rallied a Cause they seemed nearly dead only a month before. But they weren't done yet. The rest of the winter was consumed by the Forage War, in which the Americans - mostly militia - harassed the British in their winter quarters and while they attempted to supply their army from the countryside. By the spring of 1777, the British had gone from assuming the war was nearly over to, among some major leaders and many of the men, believing it could not be won.
Fischer covers all the bases in Washington's Crossing. He explains the motivations of the people and forces involved, he compellingly describes the battles with a novelist's flair, and he clearly lays out the effect the events of this book had on the Revolution as it continued. He really leaves no angle unexplored in this thorough effort, and is entertaining all the while.
One detail that aided the book greatly was the care given to the visual aspect of history. Maps of all the major encounters are plentiful, as are portraits of the major players, and they all appear in the text when the person is introduced, and not sequestered in a glossy break in the narrative midway though the pages of the book. This may not seem a big deal, but so many histories and biographies manage to mess it up that it's refreshing when it's handled well as it is in Washington's Crossing.
Finally, a comparison, since I mentioned it at the beginning, to David McCullough's 1776. There is certainly overlap between the two books. 1776 mainly covers between the Siege of Boston and the Battle of Princeton. It does so quite well, and is fantastic at covering the American side of the story. Washington's Crossing covers from the Battle of Long Island to the Forage Wars, and gives more attention to the British and Hessian side of the story than does 1776. Both are excellent and I recommend them to any fan of American history. If I had to pick one, it would probably be Washington's Crossing, by the narrowest of margins.
British General Lord Cornwallis, known to Americans as the loser at Yorktown in 1781, was also involved in the New Jersey campaign, and told Washington after Yorktown, "When the illustrious part that your Excellency has borne in this long and arduous contest becomes a matter of history, fame will gather your brightest laurels rather from the banks of the Delaware than from those of the Chesapeake." Cornwallis was right - as important as the later battles of the war were, Washington saved the Revolution with the Continental victories in the New Jersey campaign. Washington's Crossing will show you why.
I highly recommend David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing to any fan of American or military history. Fishcer's work is compelling, thorough, well-researched, and most of all enjoyable. History fans will not be disappointed.
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In 1776, following the Declaration of Independence, three armies converged in New York: the British, the Hessians and the Continental Army. In the first part of the book, Fischer introduces us to all of them. We learn who they are, from privates to generals, where they come from, who their leaders are and how well trained and equipped they are. All have different styles of fighting, strategizing and understanding of the rules of war. When they meet in New York and the Continentals are driven out, it appears a foregone conclusion that the insurrection will be short-lived and that the stronger, professional armies from Europe will prevail. As the Continentals retreat into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, all appears lost for them, with declines prevalent in morale, recruitment and confidence in their leadership.
A series of bold moves on the part of the Continentals bring about a reversal of their fortunes, with a bold attack on the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey under formidable logistical conditions. Fischer tells the story of the first and second Battles of Trenton, the Battle of Princeton and the "Forage War", all of which ultimately undermine the confidence of the Europeans and embolden the Americans.
Fischer writes on every aspect of this conflict, including the conditions which the soldiers endured, their clothing, weapons, food, supplies, marches, and morale. He also tells of such things as care of the wounded, the atrocities of war, soldiers endurance on little sleep in cold conditions with poor footwear, the role of loyalists, oaths of allegiance demanded by both sides, how civilians were affected, how armies moved and numerous other details. He does so in a manner that is interesting, and never tedious. It is as if the reader is present observing these events in real time.
Most fascinating to me was the story of the leaders of both sides and the differing councils of war. The European meetings were very much a top down affair, offering little input from subordinates. Conversely, Fischer describes George Washington's practice of listening and learning, of getting input from all before deciding. A picture of Washington emerges as someone who had multiple strengths. He is what professional baseball analysts would call "a five tool player". Washington was a brilliant military tactician, a masterful politician, an inspirational motivator, personally courageous in battle and someone who was able to establish a personal connection with his soldiers. He made mistakes, as evidenced by his military losses in New York, but he was able to learn from those mistakes and grow personally and professionally.
Fischer writes an excellent account of a critical period, covering a wide variety of aspects and subjects superbly. His analysis at the end of the book of this crucial period and of its importance not only at the time, but today as well, is brilliant. This is history written at its finest by an author possessed of great intellectual insight, coupled with a wonderful ability to communicate it to the reader.











