Afternoon Reenactment Second Battle of Trenton

The reenactment of the Second Battle of Trenton is staged in the afternoon on this sunny 45 degree day. On Jan 2 1777 Washington's army has returned from taking the captured Hessians across the river to Pennsylvania.  Gen. Cornwallis has now heard about the defeat on Dec 26 so leaves 1400 men in Princeton and marches 5000 including the 300 Hessians who had escaped to face another battle in Trenton.

Cornwallis is slowed in his march and his advance guard doesn't reach Trenton until twilight. This gives Washington the chance to move his men across the Assunpink Creek, which runs through Trenton. In 1777, there was a real hill on the other side, giving Washington the high ground for his artillery. Now this is a small rise where condos have been built, so it is hard to see that the Patriots had the real advantage. 

In the reenactment, Before the armies reach the creek they all stop at the Presbyterian Church  and cemetery where both American and Hessian soldiers are buried. All reenactors line up in front of the cemetery as the Hessian reenactors are given the opportunity to honor their dead. The commander even gives the orders in German. 

It is an odd scene. In this neighborhood, people of all races and nationalities are shopping, going about their business. Some stop to take pictures. And then the reenactors line up, shoot their muskets in unison, a well known ritual when honoring fallen soldiers.

 A block away, men on the corner laugh and remark about the sound of gunshots. I imagine that the sound of 2019 gunshots is often more deadly in their world.

The armies then march to the grassy area along the creek where they skirmish back and forth across the bridge. In 1777  it became too dark to continue. So, Washington's men  protected by the moat of the creek are saved from Cornwallis' army as he prepares for a continuation of the battle in the morning.

What happens next is what I was looking for. Proof that that Washington and his men are brilliant strategists. They devise a plan to leave a small cadre of men at Trenton with the fires burning as a decoy. Meanwhile, the NJ militiamen  alert Washington to a back route that they can take to up Princeton. So at night, these men who had only recently reenlisted, had marched 10 miles from the river, had fought off the British are now about to march another 12 miles.

Cornwallis is fooled and will only learn this until early the next morning

Patriots 2 British/Hessians 0