George Washington's Christmas

So at this time 241 years ago George Washington was gathering the remains of the Continental Army and marching them back across the Delaware.

As is well known, Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night and caught the Hessian in a drunken stupor after a dat of Christmas Revelry.

Over the course of the war Washington won few battles. Trenton was his most important victory.

Christmas came after six months of bloody defeat at Brooklyn Heights, Manhattan, Fort Washington, White Plains...The Redcoats had chased Washington up the Hudson River Valley and into Pennsylvania. The Continental Army was on the verge of disintegration.

Washington's masterstroke at Trenton was a desperate gamble to reverse the tide of the war, and it worked.

This clip from the 1984 miniseries captures the scene and the stakes: