pearing and dispirited army. Yet
on the upper Delaware, amid all the encircling gloom, God's precious
Providence and love was at no time during the Revolution more strikingly
manifested. All seemed lost this bleak December, 1776. The hour of
defeat, dismay and destruction seemed about to strike. The timid, the
faint-hearted, the treacherous were fast accepting British allegiance.
Even heretofore stalwart hearts wavered in the cause of Liberty. The
newly proclaimed Independence of hot July, the threat and defiance of
the Colonies to England's tyranny, was now in the chill December, like
the earth, about to be sheathed in the coldness of death.

The alarm came to Philadelphia. Shops were shut, schools closed and the
inhabitants engaged solely in providing for the defense of the City, now
the aim of the enemy. But out of all this gloom and alarm came the
victory at Trenton.

Captain John Barry organized a company of volunteers and went to
Washington's assistance. In cooperation with the marines under Captain
William Brown, he lent efficient service in transporting Washington's
army across the Delaware prior to the Battle of Trenton. Captain Barry
acted as an aide to General Cadwallader, and on one occasion, of which
there is record, as an aide to Washington in the safe conduct to
Philadelphia of the baggage of the captured Hessians and also of the
surgeons and physicians to Princeton.

After the Trenton campaign and its consequent successful results,
Captain Barry returned to Philadelphia and engaged in naval preparations
for the defense of the city. He was the Senior Commander of the Navy in
the Port of Philadelphia.

In July, 1777, twelve of the lieutenants of the fleet under Barry struck
for an increase of pay and allowances. They notified Captain Barry they
would not act on board any vessel until their grievances were redressed.
Barry informed the Marine Committee. It reported the affair to Congress,
saying that such a combination of officers was of the "most dangerous
tendency." Whereupon the Congress dismissed all of the lieutenants and
declared their commissions "void and of no effect." The offenders were
declared incapable of holding any commission under the United States and
recommending the several States not to employ any in offices civil or
military. This brought the lieutenants to "acknowledge in the most
explicit manner that the offense for which they were dismissed is highly
reprehensible and could not b