What a great Christmas gift...

Washington's troops were devastated after the series of battles they fought and failed, so this were desperate times. But Washington was ready he had his plans set and was ready to execute them, he needed to counterattack and win this battle. He was a really clever man, on December, 26 1776;, Washington led his Continental Army across the icy and cold roads of Delaware about 9 miles north of Trenton. The weather was terrible and the river was pretty tricky. Huge winds combined with snow, and rain produced impossible conditions. Another of the difficulties, a big number of Washington's troops marched through the snow without shoes and warm clothing.

The next morning they attacked the south, giving the Hessian garrison a surprise and invading the town. After the intense fighting, and the terrible loss of the commander, the Hessians gave up. This became known as the Battle of Trenton, and gave the Patriots and supporters a huge moral boost, this was a great victory and became widely know and remembered as the Crossing of Delaware.

Famous painting of the Delaware Cros

For Washington's luck, he began 1777 with another victory. While he was moving his troops at the middle of the night, he encountered General Charle Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton(January 3, 1777), this battle was fought on Princeton, New Jersey. There's ot much to say about this war, but what you need to know is that it gave a great victory to the Patriots and gave them a fresh new start. 

ng
However, he's luck didn't lasted long, in the fall of 1777 he lost his beloved Philadelphia to Howe's army, so now it was under British control. After this General John Burgoyne's army marched from Canada, ready to capture New York Hudson Valley. But to his fortune he fell into a Patriots' troop at Saratoga(September 19 and October 7, 1777) this consisted of several battles, and it was definitely a turning point in the war. Why? Well it made this whole situation popular, making the Continental Army gain support. France recognized American independence, and began helping the Colonials secretely, they saw this as a great opportunity to defeat their biggest enemy: Britain. Altough the French were afraid of making their alliance public, but they still sent shipments to the Patriots, and this kept the army going. French were really generous, for example Marquis de Lafayette provided military experts. After Saratoga, France decided to make their alliance public and they negotiated in February 1778, and this made the diplomatic genius Benjamin Franklin to come up to scene, he was an exceptional and simple American. It seems a great future was planned for the perseverant colonials, wanna know more about it? Wait for the next posts :)

fun huh?