Washington crosses the Delaware

Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army troops faced freezing rain, snow, and high winds when they crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776, but reenactors found fair weather on Christmas Day this year. The event celebrating a turning point in the American Revolution drew an estimated 5,000 people to the river’s banks in Washington Crossing, Pa., and Titusville, N.J., after organizers canceled the crossing the previous two years because of bad weather.

How authentic is the reenactment? Several hundred reenactors don Continental Army uniforms, and after they listen to an inspiring speech from their general, they board replica Durham boats to cross the river. After a series of defeats, Washington used the flat-bottom boats to ferry 2,400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 18 cannons across the frigid river to stage a successful surprise attack against Hessian troops on Dec. 26 in Trenton, N.J.

Dig deeper: Read about George Washington’s moral leadership in a chapter from Marvin Olasky’s The American Leadership Tradition and Marvin’s WORLD Magazine feature on how the nation’s first president fought against his impulses during the war.