This book had a lot of interesting facts but it was poorly organized. This is the authors last book so maybe that is to be expected. Hi book about Champlain and the one about Puritan culture in new England are very long but good.

This book examines one specific event in American history. It is one in a series of books with the same approach -- discuss events leading up to the event, the event itself and the resulting changes and impact. The author uses several primary sources to tell his story and carefully document where the information or comment originated. He makes extensive use of soldiers' personal diary comments about specific battles, military strategies and daily life in camp. Several maps, illustrations and copies of paintings help illustrate the discussion. The author traces very well the roots of the American Revolution and its major players and issues. His description of the fall of New York to the British in 1776 is especially vivid and compelling. This would be an excellent book for someone interesting in U.S. history during the colonial period, military history and the patriotic character of George Washington and his staff.

”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 from the banks of the Delaware than from those of the Chesapeake.”
- Lord Cornwallis’ toast to General Washington, Dinner after signing Articles of Capitulation, 1781

It is a common trope to claim a great work of biography or historical non-fiction reads “like a novel”. I won’t go so far as to make that claim with Washington’s Crossing, but Fischer does tie together many little vignettes so adroitly that they lead the imagination to run, each page containing what could be the seed of a beautiful novel or film in their own right. The sacrifice of the 1st Maryland Regiment—henceforth known as Washington’s Immortals—to cover the army’s retreat in the battle of Long Island; The charming Van Horne family that managed to maintain an amicable neutrality with both the Americans and British throughout the revolutionary war, playing hospitable hosts and, through their five daughters, matchmakers to both sides; the mysterious Widow of Mount Holly, who seduced Hessian Colonel Carl von Donrop just long enough to ensure he couldn’t lend support to the battle of Trenton; Major General John Stark, who was captured by Native American warriors and then adopted into the tribe, spending a winter with them (this may sound familiar to fans of Game of Thrones) before leading men in the battles of Trenton and Princeton; James Rivington’s rabidly pro-Tory Rivington Gazette, and how his political opinions were likely a cover to enable him to more ably perform his duties as part of an American spy ring; the book is littered with magnificent details like this that send you, hungry for more, to the appendix.

In 2000, Jeff Daniels starred as George Washington in a made for TV film about the event called The Crossing. At the films conclusion, the viewers see Washington receive a ludicrous report of the battle’s success: no American’s dead or injured. However, Fischer shows us this actually wasn’t a ludicrous portrayal of the battles outcome. Under Washington’s direct command there were only four injured, two officers and two privates. In the whole American force there were only four killed and eight wounded. It really was a miraculously successful battle for Washington. The vignettes weaved together here lay out the amazing series of choices and contingencies that led to that miraculous success in war.

Also shown are the beginnings of a distinct American approach to war. Washington was required to lead an army that included both Virginia slaveholders and Massachusetts freed men, as well as slaves serving on their owner’s behalf. It included “regulars” and “militia”. Managing such a diverse crowd of mostly volunteer soldiers required a new kind of leadership. Washington found it benefitted him to present ideas of how to prosecute the war as being generated bottoms-up, and it was typical of his “style of leadership to present a promising proposal as someone else’s idea, rather than his own”. Sometimes this was substantial, and some decisions were made with not only the input of top lieutenants but even local townspeople. One style of fighting that became commonly known as “petite guerre”, a sort of precursor to guerrilla warfare. It brings to mind the comment from Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto that “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass”. The frequent harassment of the British and Hessian troops proved effective in battle-readying the Americans and disheartening their opponents.

In the response to victory we see the beginnings of an American psychology as well. The soldiers exhibited “an extraordinary optimism, even an optimistic fatalism”. This is the same psychology of America that Peter Thiel called “indefinite optimism” and what the generation following the revolutionary war would call manifest destiny. It is all of it here in the first battle that turned the tides of history towards independence.

”This book is mainly about contingency, in the sense of people making choices, and choices making a difference in the world. It is not primarily a story of accidents, though there were many along the way. It is not about what might have been, though that question is always in the background. This is a story of real choices that living people actually made. To study an event in these terms is to discover a dense web of contingency, in which many people made choices within a structure of relationships. Washington’s Crossing is a case in point.”

This is an outstanding history. It accurately and fairly discusses all the major players in this limited piece of history. It is interesting, well written and and the prose is enhanced with numerous maps, portraits and colonial scenes. Facts abound, but so do unusual and amusing quips, stories and myths regarding this campaign. If all history books were written this well and if all history classes were taught in this manner, we would all want to be historians.

The author does an outstanding job of summarizing his work and putting the Delaware/NJ campaign in perspective in the last chapter of this book. If you don't have the time or inclination to read the entire book, you will benefit from reading the last chapter.

I do not normally read the historiographies and footnotes in non fiction books. Take the time to peruse these. You will not be disappointed. Once again, they are filled with interesting tidbits of history and lore that you will find in the average history book.

I only read this book because I had to. George Washington kinda was annoying IMO.

Washington’s Crossing is an extraordinary read by David Hackett Fischer. A vivid history of 6 months of the Revolutionary War that took place in New Jersey from late 1776 to early 1777 and changed the tide of the Revolutionary War. In many ways this book is complementary to McCullough’s masterful 1776 which focuses more heavily on Boston and New York during this period. In short Washington’s Crossing is a thrilling and extensively referenced homage to the troops and citizens of New Jersey (including the Continental Army led by Washington and the local New Jersey militias) during this critical period of the Revolutionary War.

To give you some idea of the level of research that Fischer employed, the narrative is over 500 pages and the reference page material is also nearly as long. The maps provided in the book are concisely drawn and a very helpful aide to the narrative. The contemporary battlefield sketches are really quite helpful and novel.

The book starts out in early 1776 summarizing the situation in Boston and the British invasion of Long Island and after a few chapters progresses to The Continental Army’s devastating retreat to New Jersey in the late summer of 1776. The important point though is that as desperate as the situation surrounding the retreats was and how low the morale was, the Continental Army was largely in tact. This is where the master storytelling begins. Fischer does an excellent job of logistically describing how these victories were organized and the importance of the citizenry.

The book details the planning and execution of the Continental Army’s re-crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day and the subsequent victory at Trenton. A week later comes the 2nd Battle of Trenton where Washington leads a successful defensive campaign against a superior and newly re-enforced British and Hessian Army led by Cornwallis. Seemingly hemmed in across Assunpink Creek near Trenton, Washington leads the Continental Army away in the middle of the night and marches nearly 20 miles to attack an unsuspecting British rear guard in Princeton the next morning, ostensibly another American victory. Then the book chronicles Washington and his exhausted troops and the several days making their way to winter quarters in Morristown with the larger British force in Trenton unable to react in time.

The book finally goes on to describe in fascinating detail the Forager War, essentially scores of skirmishes that take place over the next two months across northern New Jersey. The British were struggling mightily in keeping troops, livestock and horses fed. The guerrilla attacks by the Americans were largely led by local New Jersey militia and were devastating to the British who by spring abandoned New Jersey in all but a few coastal towns. Although still larger than the American forces in numbers, the British troop strength had been reduced by half since the previous summer, some 30,000 to disease, casualties and capture. There was little accountability among British leaders. The American victories were also enormously helpful to the Continental Army recruitment efforts as loyalists began to leave New Jersey and the citizenry no longer thought the prospect of independence unlikely.

If you like the writing in Washington’s Crossing or think you would, Fischer also wrote an extraordinary biography called Champlain’s Dream about the early 17th century settlement of Canada. The subject has nothing to do with the Revolutionary War but is one of the best biographies out there and I wouldn’t want you to miss it. Paul Revere’s Ride is a third Hackett history that is quite good but does not measure up to either Washington’s Crossing or Champlain’s Dream, his masterpieces.

Thinking about the criteria for a perfect historiographical work addressing both an academic and a broader audience, these three aspects came to my mind:
1. erudition
2. the ability to bring the events to life
3. the demonstration of the relevance of the topic for the course of history.
This monograph fulfils all three criteria.

Fischer shows how Washington reorganized the warfare of the Continental Army after the devastating defeat at New York in August 1776, leading to the crossing of the Delaware and the battle at Trenton in the last days of the same year. This victory paved the way for the advances through the rest of the winter and the final defeat of the British Army and its Hessian auxiliaries.
He shows that the lack of systematic training was compensated by commitment for a common cause and knowledge of local circumstances, an enabled the Continental Army to defeat their better trained opponents. This reflects the high educational standard and the wealth of the settlers in the colonies, perhaps the World's first middle class society. Hence these battles, not those of the French Revolutionary wars were the death bell of the military system of the ancien régime.
Fischer provides ample information on the leading figures involved in the events he deals with and describes the battles in great detail: Technical aspects, itineraries, topography and the fighting positions. And also in gruesome detail, as the warfare in winter took a high toll on the soldiers on both sides. Fischer does not spare the reader, the description of amputations and the low survival rates.
I also tagged this book as #germany-history-politics for two reasons. First, Fischer pays much attention to the background of the recruitment of soldiers from Kurhessen and some other minor German principalities. He stresses the role this deal played for the delegitimization of the ancien régime in Europe. Second, as might be expected Emmanuel Leutze's iconic painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" was chosen as motive for the cover.* But the author actually starts the book with a discussion of this work by the "48er" from Schwäbisch Gmünd, who painted it after his return from the US to Germany as the vision of a future democratic world, not least by including an African-American on the boat.

The book has two long appendices, one dedicated to the data (regiments, commanders etc.) of the relevant battles, which I skipped, although acknowledge the importance for the military historian or military history nerd. As opposed on that I was very interested in the appendix on the reception history of the Delaware/ Trenton campaign. Fischer deals with academic and popular historiography, including German works on the Hessian troops, but also with pictorial representations. Remarkably the African-American figure was often retouched from reproductions.

* The first large scale version was destroyed in the Kunsthalle Bremen during British bombardment.

After moving to New Jersey and visiting Washington Crossing State Park on the border with Pennsylvania, I was looking for a book to understand more context on the significant events that took place in my adopted home in the last days of 1776 and first days of 1777. David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing does this masterfully, and then some.

While the main focus of the book is those two weeks between Christmas 1776 and the battles in Princeton and Trenton in the first week of 1777, Fischer sets the table with superb overviews of the three main armies involved in these events: the Continental, British, and Hessian armies. I had learned a bit about each through history classes and museums, but learned so much more through Fischer's empathetic analysis. He delves into great detail about each army's traditions, worldviews, and significance in the broader struggle of ideas and military might of the time. This first section never feels weighed down by mundane trivia, but rather enlightens the reader with important context for how each of the three units react during the fateful days around Washington's Crossing. Of particular note is his dissection of the Continental Army - far from being a uniform army by that time, it was actually a very loose coalition of several regional militias, each with their own conception of freedom. That Washington was able to mold these disparate groups into one cohesive army was an achievement unto itself.

The main part of the narrative provides a very richly-researched account of the deliberations, preparatory moves, and battles that eventually took place in Trenton and Princeton, NJ, in early 1777. Here again, we get superb storytelling from the perspective of both high-ranking officers and the rank-and-file in each army - Fischer must have read through so many journals and letters from the time period while compiling this account. My favourite parts of the book are the contrasts he draws between Washington's decision-making process, and that of Generals Cornwallis and Howe on the British side. Perhaps contrary to popular myth, Washington was not at all a confident, swaggering general during this time, but rather plagued with self-doubt. As Fischer demonstrates, this ended up being one of his greatest strengths, allowing him to seek feedback and information from a wide variety of sources, which ultimately informed several unorthodox and genius moves that surprised his opponents and turned the war in the Americans' favour.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a combination of an enjoyable, fast-paced read with well-researched context into the broader forces at play during the American Revolution - this is a true masterpiece.

An exciting description of one of the main reasons we are no longer part of the British Empire. Page-turning history.

You don't have to be especially patriotic to appreciate the awesome odds that the Continental Army under George Washington faced in the fall and winter of 1776. Ill-clad, ill-fed and ill-equipped, with desertions and the ends of enlistments looming every day, the Americans had hastily and embarrassingly retreated to Pennsylvania across the Delaware River after a disastrous set of losses and retreats through Long Island and Manhattan.

In hot pursuit of this army of ragtag soldiers, many of whom had only the other day been carpenters and locksmiths and who had seen action for only a few months for the first time in their lives, was the best-equipped and most experienced army and navy in the world. Led by the Howe brothers, William and Richard, and the experienced Cornwallis, the British army of regulars had seen combat for decades, their officers had been drawn from the upper crust of English society, and they were not lacking in men and material. Supporting them were the Hessians, about 30,000 mercenaries recruited principally from the German states of Hesse-Cassel. With Teutonic discipline and a take-no-prisoners attitude oozing from their very fiber, it seemed like the combination of the Hessian killing machine and British might and experience would annihilate Washington's army for good in a few short weeks and nip the American Revolution in the bud.

Except, it didn't. How and why are the subjects of David Hackett Fischer's first-rate and often rousing account of the battles of Trenton and Princeton which turned the tide of the war. Not only did they demonstrate to the British that they were up against a much more dogged and capable force than they had imagined, but more importantly, Trenton and Princeton were the battles that won over the hearts and minds of Americans and turned them against the British in all their patriotic fervor. These were the first battles that George Washington, a man known more for brilliant tactical retreats than outright victories, actually won.

The title of Fischer's book, "Washington's Crossing", refers to the fateful, surprise crossing of the frozen Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776, made in the middle of a highly inclement snowstorm and followed by a miserable trek of several miles in similar weather. The crossing has been immortalized in Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting, a painting that has been mythologized and romanticized to no small extent. Reality was both more mundane and more inspiring. There are vivid moments dotting the story here: Thomas Paine writing pages of "The American Crisis" by candlelight during the retreat across New Jersey and lighting men and women's hearts on fire ("These are the times that try men's souls."); Washington writing a code phrase on pieces of paper after the crossing of the Delaware to ensure secrecy ("Victory or Death"); an unnamed undergraduate at Princeton whose identity is still not known providing details of British positions with so much clarity and intelligence that their fate was all but sealed. But while there is no dearth of inspiring moments in the story, inspiration often emerges in hindsight. As it turned out, the story hinged as much on desperation as on grand providential strategy.

Washington realized in those bleak last days of 1776 that the only chance he had to beat the British was to engage them in a surprise attack. This was what he did with the crossing. At Trenton in the middle of the night, the Continentals ambushed a solid phalanx of Hessians led by Colonel Rall and Lieutenant Weiderholdt who lost many men and had to beat a hasty retreat. Not only were they impressed by the quality of the American artillery (thanks to Henry Knox) and sharpshooters but they were impressed by the sheer gall and resourcefulness displayed by what they considered an army of amateurs. But this was only the first Battle of Trenton. The Second Battle of Trenton in which the Americans stalled a counterattack by the British and Hessians at Assunpink Creek was equally consequential. Reminiscent of the infamous stone wall at Fredericksburg during the Civil War, the attackers were steadily met with a volley of muskets until the creek and the bridge ran red with blood. Finally, in the third act of the drama, the Americans beat back the rest of the British in Princeton.

Many of these scenes - the blow by blow accounts of the action, the desperate physical condition of the soldiers in ice and rain, their cries and falls and triumphs - are described with so much verve and vividness by Fischer, especially in the last third of the book, that you feel you are there. If that is the hallmark of good history, then it is not hard to understand why the book was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
Fischer brings a tremendous sense of place and urgency to bear on these moments. But in some sense the military action is only the most visible part of what were much more important changes. Fischer reminds us how diverse Washington's army was - it consisted of Puritan-descended Massachusetts men, independent-minded rough and ready militia men from the Virginia backcountry and a small group of especially audacious militia from the Philadelphia Associators who answered to no man and were not above conducting their own raids on the enemy and frustrating Washington - a patrician Virginian who was accustomed to his orders being obeyed by people he knew - to no end. But at the core was Washington's ability to bring these diverse groups together, to build consensus and, more importantly, to involve all of them in decision-making. Two able lieutenants, Nathanael Greene from Rhode Island and John Sullivan from Massachusetts, worked harmoniously to rally the men.

The Americans therefore had a fundamental advantage over their British counterparts: they arose from a still-not-formed nation that looked down on the rank, privilege and class consciousness that was an essential part of the British hierarchy. While the Howes and Cornwallis made decisions with a small group of elite officers who were drawn from the same cream of British nobility as they were and then simply delegated those orders down the rank and file, the Americans had little conception of class, partly by necessity and partly because of the spirit of the times. In this story you also see the key importance of state militia, including the New Jersey militia that gave tremendous aid to Washington's army by essentially tiring the enemy down through guerilla attacks in which small groups of men suddenly came together, attacked British infantry parties and then melted into the fields and countryside as quickly as they had formed. It also did not help that Trenton and Princeton made loyalists both afraid and much more willing to change sides and made the general population positively hostile (until then, the Howe brothers had been making offers of leniency and pardons to common folk who had aided the cause). After a few months following Princeton, the British realized that it was simply not possible to sustain both the goodwill of the population and the military advantage they had enjoyed so far.

Fischer tells us how this breakdown of barriers between the men on Washington's staff portended a greater democratic revolution in American affairs that had been lit on fire a few month before, in July, 1776. Other formal structures that Washington and his associated developed during the Trenton and Princeton campaign also endured and became part of the core of America's military-political complex; among them was civilian strategic command of the military with tactical command delegated to the commander-in-chief, and an acute understanding of logistics, in this particular case made possible by the resourcefulness of Robert Morris. In ways small and big decisions made by Washington and Congress during this time were far-reaching, and the modern American army which did not exist by the end of 1776 did exist at the beginning of 1777.

It's always convenient to identify pivotal moments in military history in hindsight, and even then, social and political reasons privilege certain moments over another; how many of us would remember Vicksburg rather than Gettysburg if the true strategic importance of Vicksburg were known? And yet in Fischer's telling, Trenton and Princeton do seem to occupy a privileged place in the Revolutionary War, if for no other reason than for the counterfactual; while they greatly helped the American cause by convincing the enemy of the Continental Army's competence and doggedness and winning hearts and minds, there is little doubt that had it not been for these two battles, the American crisis would almost certainly have come to a speedy end in the winter of 1776. Sometimes it's easy to judge the importance of an event by realizing what would have happened otherwise.

The late, great Peter DeNeeve made American history come alive for otherwise-restive junior high schoolers in Waipahu, Hawaii back in the day. I still miss that guy. I am certain he would have approved of this book by David Hackett Fischer, which manages to be both comprehensive and smoothly written.

In a fascinating introduction, Fischer explains why the iconic painting by Emmanuel Leutz of Washington crossing the Delaware got more right than snobbish art critics often suppose. He then explains the before, during, and after of that event, while marshalling an impressive array of facts that never become dry. I also noticed that Fischer takes pains to write fairly about all the parties involved in this conflict -- American, British, and Hessian (German). He succeeds brilliantly. This is high octane stuff. After reading it, I have even more respect for George Washington and his contributions to what Fischer calls "The American way of war."

The hardback is hefty, but fear not. Fischer knows how to start telling a story, and also how to stop telling a story. There are good reasons why this book won a Pulitzer Prize in History. In the edition I read, the narrative comes to an inspiring close on page 380. Another 184 pages are devoted to appendices and endnotes, in case readers want to see how much homework Fischer actually did.

I was at Washington's Crossing State Park in NJ for a staff meeting, and we were treated to a musket firing demo by one of the historians on staff, dressed up in period appropriate clothing. He debunked some of the common misconceptions surrounding the crossing and the battle at Trenton, and suggested this book. I don't generally read history books, but that piqued my interest. I work in Trenton and have seen the annual reenactment of the crossing on Christmas Day a number of times. I've been to Monmouth Battlefield (where we were treated to an interesting lecture on how they used metal detectors to locate ordnance and from that determine the exact position of the various troops during that battle), and I've driven past the Princeton Battlefield often. I know that the region where I live and work is full of important Revolutionary War sites, but I only have a superficial knowledge of the events of the war.

This book did not disappoint. It explained the key details in a way that was easy to understand, and included a lot of quotes from letters, journals and news stories from the period. I enjoyed the older style of English and the varying levels of mastery over the language depending on the education level of the writer.

This book is not just about the crossing of the Delaware. It starts with a thorough description of the armies in play: the American rebels (including the army and the various independent militias), the British Regulars, and the hired Hessians. The commanders of each and other notable persons were described, including their leadership style and approach to the war.

It then goes into the events leading up to crossing, from the disastrous defeat at New York (in which Washington and the American forces seemed to be completely disorganized and unable to defend against the more professional and larger British and Hessian forces) to the retreat across New Jersey. This was a dark time for the rebellion and the cause looked almost lost. The American forces were in tatters and the British and Hessians were in positions of relative strength.

But things were building to turn the tide. The occupation of New Jersey (and New York) wasn't winning over the local population despite orders from on high because the armies had to "forage", which often meant pillaging and raping. Thomas Paine published The American Crisis, which reignited support for independence. Washington's army, mainly camped in Pennsylvania, received some much needed supplies.

There was concern that the British would make it to Philadelphia. The crossing itself was concocted as a way to stop this advance. Washington's plan involved 3 separate crossings late on Christmas Day under the cover of night: the one we know was successful, but also one at Trenton itself (to seize a bridge at the Assunpink and prevent the Hessians in Trenton from retreating to the south; and one farther south to engage enemy troops garrisoned in Burlington and Mt. Holly, preventing them from coming to the aid of Trenton. Those other crossings failed due to river conditions.

The book describes the difficulty of a night crossing in the middle of winter. To make things worse, a Nor'Easter developed just as this was taking place. While that made the crossing more dangerous, it served as cover and allowed Washington's army to get across the river and almost all the way to Trenton unnoticed. The storm was probably one of the biggest contributors to the success of the Americans.

The first and second battles of Trenton were described in detail (and I now want to explore some of the sites in Trenton that were critical in these battles). The book debunks the idea that the Hessians were partying on Christmas, leading to their defeat. The Hessians had been harried by the militia under the command of James Ewing, were ordered to sleep in their clothing and be on alert at all times, and were even warned that an attack was imminent. They were not drunk, but they were exhausted. They responded quickly to the advance of the American army but were overwhelmed and outwitted by superior tactics.

I knew very little about the Trenton battles and the Princeton battle, so it was interesting to learn that at the second battle of Trenton, American forces held Trenton against a larger army (the British response to the fall of Trenton was to send the bulk of their force at Princeton to retake Trenton) by carefully choosing their location - they held the high ground on the southern side of the Assunpink and made sure the few crossing points were well defended. They also had superior artillery. This was only for a day. Had they fought a second day, they may have lost. But Washington, after a council with the various other leaders, decided to withdraw under the cover of night, circumvent the British forces at Trenton, and strike directly at the relatively unguarded Princeton. They hoped to capture much of the British army's supplies, but they were spotted by a group of British soldiers who were on their way to reinforce the troops at Trenton. Orders were sent back to Princeton quickly to evacuate the stores to a safer location. Still, the battle at Princeton was another win. The British lost much of the ground they had gained early in the war. Public support for the rebellion was reignited, and the British were put on the defensive. After Princeton, the various militias were inspired to spend the rest of the winter months harrying the British and Hessian troops throughout New Jersey in a series of small opportunistic skirmishes. The enemy suffered many losses during these months.

This book also starts and even ends with a discussion of the various ideas of liberty held by the colonists, and how American ideals such as the policy of humanity in war were formed and how they continue to shape our approach even to this day. It ended on a positive note about American values and how revisionists have tried to make our past seem darker than it is. That may be true when you are talking about "We the people" as free white men, but when you look at the treatment of the natives, the slaves, women, etc., it's fair to point out the problems. That said, another interesting tidbit I learned is that African slaves did serve in the army (both sides), mostly under the promise of earning their freedom. I also learned that a reason the American troops were in tatters compared to the British and Hessians is that, at least in the beginning, women were discouraged from service. The British and Hessian camps had many women and children who cooked and kept the camps and clothing mended.