Washington's Crossing 2014

I attended the annual reenactment of the 238th anniversary of General George Washington' Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware River, which preceded the 9 mile march south to Trenton and the victory over the Hessian garrison there.  Here is one image of one of the Durham boats being ferried across, filled with soldiers, and oared by the Colonel John Glover's Marbleheaders (in the red caps).

The narrator's concluding remarks stated that with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, the war ended in 1781.  This, of course, was not quite correct; the war continued until 1783 and Washington remained concerned that it might still be lost.  People who think the entire British army surrendered at Yorktown forget that New York, Charleston and Savannah were still occupied by significant numbers of British troops.  While the British loss at Yorktown caused the downfall of the North government and seriously hurt the British army, both sides had lost significant armies to surrender earlier in the war--the Americans at Forth Washington (New York) and at Charleston, and the British at Saratoga.  I do not raise all this to quibble as such; Yorktown was a decisive victory and led to the political will on the British side towards peace.  But the headline style way that history is presented, and the less than superficial understanding of Americans, is problematic, even in casual contexts.  These things have a way of sticking.

The reenactors deserve great credit for making history accessible and visible.  Still, there remains no substitute for presentation of history with integrity and attention to facts.  I saw a trailer playing in the movie theater this week that highlighted the History Channel's forthcoming series that basically casts Revolutionary leaders as moving from rogues to rebels to heroes.  Perhaps good marketing strategy, but this constant recasting of historical figures to make them fit contemporary "understandings" or notions of "narrative" and "political correctness" is disturbing.  A photographer is always safest returning to the negative; when they work off prints they are working off edited information.  The more we move from fact to narrative, the more we lose history.  Like a jpeg file that ultimately loses information if it is opened too many times, so, too, does our understanding dissipate if we try to "retell" what happened on the basis of preset dispositions.

Second Battle of Trenton

So today was the reenactment of both the first and second battles at Trenton; I attended the second.  The actual battle occurred January 2, 1777, with the British essentially charging three times the bridge across the Assunpink Creek, and being repelled three times by the Continental forces.  In this interpretation, the British and Hessians battle the American forces on what is now called Broad Street (then, Queen Street).  I managed to get "flash" as they fired.

Here are the Americans:

And facing them, the British:

Mill Hill Park is where the main British assaults occurred; here is a representation of the British artillery firing on the American position:

The yellow house is the Douglas House.  It was originally on Queen Street south of the creek, and was eventually moved to its present location after other moves.  Washington held a council of war in this house on January 2.

Kudos to the reenactors; watching them and listening to the officers bark commands (in German, for the Hessians), and watching the process of loading and firing, in such close proximity, drives home just how personal this war was.  Unlike the drone operator moving around a joystick, these men looked, quite literally, into each other's eyes as they fired.

The Obscure Confluence of Place

One of the most intriguing places I have found in my exploration of place, history and the Revolution is Proprietors' Park in Gloucester City, NJ.  It was once known as Gloucester Point Park.  A lot of activity seemed to occur in what is now a relatively obscure spot, though one with outstanding views of the Delaware River, the Walt Whitman Bridge and Philadelphia's distant skyline.

We are looking at a marker that identifies the spot on which stood Huggs Tavern, where Betsy Ross was married.  We are looking at the Delaware River; David C. Munn, in Battles and Skirmishes in New Jersey of the American Revolution, notes several events in this area.  On December 31, 1777, Americans stripped and burned two British ships between here and Philaelphia, just to the north.  Also in this park is a plaque identifying the courthouse's site, and another spot where the proprietors met, and apparently still meet, once a year.  Munn notes that on November 25, 1777, a reconnaissance force under Lafayette exchanged fire with a small British force in Gloucester; some sources refer to this as the Battle of Gloucester. On November 27, having cleared this area of American forces, Cornwallis returned to Philadelphia.

Standing here, we are reminded of the many small cities of New Jersey and paths that crossed--here Betsy Ross and Cornwallis, separated briefly by time.