Episode 126 The Battle of Princeton

American Revolution Podcast

Michael Troy

History, Education

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2019

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Continentals surprise the British by pulling out of Trenton on the night of January 2, 1777 and marching up a back road to attack the British rear at Princeton the next morning. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this topic. Book Recommendation of the Week: Second to No Man but the Commander in Chief, Hugh Mercer: American Patriot by Michael Cecere Online Recommendation of the Week: The Life of General Hugh Mercer, by John Goolrick https://archive.org/details/lifeofgeneralhug00gool Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.
0:19.0	Today episode 126 the Battle of Princeton.
0:24.0	Over the last few weeks, we covered General Washington's raid on Trenton.
0:28.6	Then, in response, General Cornwallis brought an army of over 5,000 regulars and Heshins down into New Jersey to restore British
0:36.7	control. The Continental Army had pulled back to Pennsylvania, but once again returned to Trenton a few days later.
0:44.6	The Americans had bloody Cornwallis's advance on Trenton and slowed the column so that they
0:50.3	did not reach the town until a few hours before nightfall.
0:54.7	Now the British and Heshins combined actually had fewer soldiers in the Trenton area than
0:59.7	did the Continental's and Militia. Cornwallis had about 5,000 men, while Washington commanded
1:06.2	nearly 7,000. Washington also had the better defenses. Cornwallis, however, had the best regiments in the army with him, while Washington
1:16.8	was relying on relatively untested militia for more than half of his force. Cornwallis also had more artillery.
1:25.6	Now as I said the Continental's had a good defensive position on Assenpink Creek
1:31.6	and had held off several British attempts to take the bridge over the
1:35.1	creek on the evening of January 2nd 1777.
1:40.4	Even so, both sides expected that the British would be able to force their way across the creek the next morning and take the battlefield.
1:48.5	If they did that, the Continental's had a difficult line of retreat and would have no easy way to get back
1:55.1	across the Delaware River if they were in the face of the enemy. This was a huge risk for the
2:01.1	Continental's. It gave Cornwallis the chance to capture the entire Continental
2:06.4	Army once and for all. General Cornwallis held a Council of War with his top generals on the evening of January 2nd.
2:15.4	Many of them had urged a night raid to prevent the continentals from slipping away at night,
2:20.7	like they had at the Battle of Long Island and again at Harlem Heights.
2:25.0	Cornwallis, however, did not want to launch a night attack on unfamiliar ground without good enemy intelligence.
	...

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