You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

Today episode one twenty three the first Battle of Trenton.

Last week we left General Washington with his army of about 2,400

continental's having just crossed the Delaware River. This was less than half the force that he had planned for the overall campaign.

Other crossings down river failed because of the weather.

Washington's own force was hours behind schedule, making a dawn

attack on Trenton impossible. Washington sent two advanced parties to move ahead of

the main columns and set up roadblocks about three miles outside of Trenton.

Each party had about 40 men with orders to keep anyone from entering or leaving Trenton who might warn the enemy of the Continental

Army's approach. Captain William Washington, a distant cousin of the General,

led one of these advanced parties

assisted by his lieutenant James Monroe. The future president was a veteran of the

New York campaign but had been a college sophomore a year earlier.

As the company blockaded the roads, the dogs from a nearby home alerted and began to bark.

The owner, Dr. James Reicher, heard his dogs and assumed the men on the road were

hessians. Reicher came out to cuss the men and tell them to leave. I always kind of picture Dr. Reicher as being some cranky old man yelling get off my lawn, but he really was only in his late 30s.

Dr. Reicher soon discovered that the men on the road were continental soldiers and not

Heshians.

As a loyal Whig, Reicher then volunteered to join the company for the evening.

He figured there would soon be a fight and that his medical services would be needed.

Meanwhile, General Washington was trying to get his main force deployed in order to prepare for the morning attack.

Because General Ewing's forces had failed to cross at Trenton Falls,

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