Victory or Death

Jill's Journal: On Christmas Day, 1776, George Washington scrawled three simple but fierce words onto a scrap of paper: “Victory or Death.” The words were the “password” or command used to push his men forward for the unbelievable battle that followed.

After we crossed the massive Delaware River a little over a week ago and I mentioned here how it really made me think of Washington’s brave crossing so long ago, I learned while researching things to do in New Jersey that the site where Washington actually crossed is clearly marked (and much narrower than down south). Former NJ/PA girl Bonnie confirmed it. What better way to reinforce this important history lesson to the girls than to actually visit the site?


So, today the girls and I went to Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville, New Jersey. We started with the museum on the site, where the girls got to see artifacts ranging from an actual letter from Washington about the attack to Benjamin Franklin’s glasses to authentic Revolutionary War artifacts like cooking utensils, guns, swords, uniforms, and so much more.


We made a stop at the Johnson Ferry house, built in 1740 by Dutchman Rutger Jansen (last name Americanized to Johnson), where a family operated a ferry service across the Delaware to Pennsylvania. Washington and his staff used this house to finalize their plans of attack.


And finally, we took about a mile hike round-trip to the banks of the Delaware and to the actual spot it is believed Washington and his troops landed. It brought history alive for the girls. They learned how Washington moved under cover of darkness, but didn’t anticipate the horrific winter storm that moved in that same night. They learned how he had two other regiments who were supposed to cross at different points of the river but turned back because the weather was so punishing. They learned it took 10 hours to move Washington’s 2400 men, 100 horses, and 18 cannons across the river in hail, sleet, snow, and ice. And then, after lesser men would have called off any other movement until the weather broke, Washington marched his men almost nine miles to Trenton where he attacked the British’s hired German mercenaries, Hessians, just after daybreak.

Two of his men froze to death on the way. The Continental army’s guns and powder were so cold and wet that they wouldn’t fire. But Washington and his men attacked anyway, bayonets drawn. The enemy was so surprised by the attack in the ferocious weather that they surrendered after only an hour of battle. Then, Washington immediately marched his men, plus 918 prisoners of war, back to Titusville, back over the river, and back to his camp in Pennsylvania. By the time they arrived, he and his men had gone nearly 48 hours without sleep or much nourishment, many without even shoes, in the most perilous weather imaginable, but they had turned the Revolution.

It sort of gives one a whole new respect for the founding of our country. WOW.