last hope
of the Republic lay in the might of his own good right arm.

Did we need any further proof of the desperate nature of these
undertakings, it is found in the matchless group of officers that now
gathered round the commander-in-chief to stand or fall with him. With
such chiefs and such soldiers the fight was sure to be conducted with
skill and energy.

[Sidenote: Strong array of officers.]

Greene, Sullivan, St. Clair, Sterling, Knox, Mercer, Stephen, Glover,
Hand, Stark, Poor, and Patterson were there to lead these slender
columns to victory. Among the subordinates who were treading this rugged
pathway to renown were Hull, Monroe, Hamilton, and Wilkinson. Rank
disappeared in the soldier. Major-generals commanded weak brigades,
brigadiers, half battalions, colonels, broken companies. Some sudden
inspiration must have nerved these men to face the dangers of that
terrible night. History fails to show a more sublime devotion to an
apparently lost cause.

[Sidenote: The Delaware crossed.]

Boats being held in readiness the troops began their memorable crossing.
Its difficulties and dangers may be estimated by the failure of the two
cooeperating; corps to surmount them. Of this part of the work Glover[5]
took charge. Again his Marblehead men manned the boats, as they had done
at Long Island; and though it was necessary to force a passage by main
strength through the floating ice, which the strong current and high
wind steadily drove against them, the transfer from the friendly to the
hostile shore slowly went on in the thickening darkness and gloom of the
waiting hours.

Little by little the group on the eastern shore began to grow larger as
the hours wore on. Washington was there wrapped in his cloak, and in
that inscrutable silence denoting the crisis of a lifetime. Did his
thoughts go back to that eventful hour when he was guiding a frail raft
through the surging ice of the Monongahela? Knox was there animating the
utterly cheerless scene by his loud commands to the men in charge of his
precious artillery, for which the shivering troops were impatiently
waiting. At three o'clock the last gun was landed. The crossing had
required three hours more than had been allowed for it. Nearly another
hour was used up in forming the troops for the march of nine miles to
Trenton, which could hardly be reached over such a wretched road, and in
such weather, in less than from three to four hours more. To make
matters wo