* Explanation of the plan.—This map shows the country around Trenton, and the military operations there at the close of 1776 and commencement of 1777. h shows the position of Hand's rifle corps on the 26th of December, where they stopped the retreat of the Hessians; i, the Virginia troops; k, the Hessians; wi, m, m, skirmishes, January 2d; n, a, Cornwallis, January 3d.
** The warmest of the conflict took place near the junction of Warren and Perry Streets, and the Presbyterian church in Second Street. The enemy laid down their arms on the field between the Presbyterian church and Park Place, then called the Old Iron-works.
*** This is a frame building standing upon Warren Street, opposite Perry, near the corner of Bank Alley. The buildings on the left are also of ante-Revolutionary origin. This house was a tavern at the time, kept by Stacey Potts, the grandfather of Stacey G. and Joseph C. Potts, Esqrs., of Trenton. In a pane of glass, in the front window on the left of the front door, lower story, may be seen a hole made by a bullet, shot during the battle. Colonel Rall died in the front room in the second story, immediately over this window. It is related that a daughter of Mr. Potts, who was at a neighbor's when the firing commenced, was running toward her father's house, when a musket-ball struck her comb from her head and slightly injured her scalp.
Complete Victory of the Americans.—Washington's Visit to the dying Rall.—Parole of Honor signed by the Hessian Officers.
ice and high wind prevented General James Ewing * from crossing the Delaware at Trenton as previously arranged. The troops at Bordentown, under Donop, might also have been captured if Cadwallader could have crossed, with his force, at Bristol. He succeeded in landing a battalion of infantry, but the ice on the margin of the river was in such a condition that it was impossible to get the artillery across. The infantry were ordered back, and the design was abandoned.
The victory of the Americans at Trenton was complete. They lost in the engagement only two privates killed, and two others who were frozen to death. The enemy lost six officers and between twenty and thirty men killed, and twenty-three officers and eight hundred and eighty-six non-commissioned officers and privates made prisoners. In addition to these, many others were found concealed in houses and secured, making the whole number of prisoners about one thousand. The trophies were six brass field-pieces, a thousand stand of arms, twelve drums, and four colors. Among the latter was the splendid flag of the Anspachers. **
As the enemy were in the vicinity in greatly superior numbers and appointments, Washington thought it prudent to recross the Delaware, with his prisoners and spoils, into Pennsylvania. At evening they all marched to M'Conkey's Ferry, and reached the place of the American encampment on the other side before midnight of the day of victory. *** Just before leaving Trenton, Washington and Greene visited the dying Hessian commander at his quarters, and, with a heart overflowing with generous emotions in that hour of splendid triumph, the American chief offered the brave Rall those consolations which a soldier and a Christian can bestow. This kindness and attention from his conqueror soothed the agonies of the expiring hero. The remembrance of the deed seems to play like an electric spark around the pen of the historian while recording it.
Well-attested tradition says that Colonel Rall and his troops were, as Washington supposed they would be, yet under the influence of a night's carousal after the Christmas holiday. On the morning of the battle, Rall was at the house of Abraham Hunt, who traded with friend and foe. Hunt was sometimes suspected of being a Tory, but never of being a
* The name of this officer is variously given. Washington in his dispatch to the President of Congress, wrote it Ewing; Marshall, in his Life of Washington, spells it Irvine; Wilkinson, In his Memoirs, has it Irvin; Botta, Irvin; and Gordon, Erwing. Ewing is the correct name. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1736. He commenced his military career under Braddock in 1755, and was with that general when he was slain. He was a brigadier general of the Pennsylvania militia at the commencement of the Revolution, but did not enter the regular army. He was vice-president of the commonwealth, under President Dickinson, in 1782, and was several times member of the State Legislature. He died at his country-seat, in Hellam township in March, 1806, aged seventy years.
** The regiments which surrendered were those of Anspach, Knyphausen, and Rall. The flag here alluded to is in the possession of George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia, who has deposited it, with the flag surrendered at Yorktown, and other relics, in the museum at Alexandria, Virginia. Drawings, with descriptions of these flags, will be found in another part of this work.