the river
from time to time, or looked anxiously at the troops, clustered about
the fires, or tramping restlessly up and down in their places to ward
off the deadly attack of the awful winter night, while some of them
sought shelter, behind trees and hillocks, from the fury of the storm.
Filled with his own pregnant thoughts, and speaking to no one, he
waited, and no man ventured to break his silence. At half after three
General Knox, whose resolute will and iron strength had been exerted to
the full, and whose mighty voice had been heard from time to time above
the shriek of the fierce wind, was able to report that he had got all
the artillery over without the loss of a man, a horse, or a gun, and
was ready to proceed. The men were hastily assembled, and, leaving a
strong detail to guard the boats, at four o'clock in the morning the
long and awful march to Trenton was begun, the general and his staff,
escorted by the Philadelphia City Troop, in the lead. The storm was at
its height. All hopes of a night attack and surprise had necessarily
to be abandoned. Still the general pressed on, determined to abide the
issue, and make the attack as soon as he reached the enemy. It was the
last effort of liberty, conceived in desperation and born in the throes
of hunger and cold! What would the bringing forth be?

CHAPTER XXV

_Trenton--The Lion Strikes_

The route, for the first mile and a half, lay up a steep hill, where
the men were much exposed and suffered terribly; after that, for three
miles or so, it wound in and out between the hills, and through forests
of ash and black oak, which afforded some little shelter. The storm
raged with unabated fury, and the progress of the little army was very
slow. The men were in good spirits, however, and they cheerfully
toiled on over the roads covered with deep drifts, bearing as best they
might the driving tempest. It was six in the morning when they reached
the little village of Birmingham, where the two columns divided:
General Greene's column, accompanied by Washington, taking the longer
or inland road, called the Pennington road, which entered the town from
the northeast; while Sullivan's column followed the lower road, which
entered the town from the west, by way of a bridge over the Assunpink
Creek. As Greene had a long detour to make, Sullivan had orders to
wait where the cross-road from Rowland's Ferry intersected his line of
march, until the first column h