Crucial moments in the American Revolution are told through artifacts and interpretive text.
Of particular interestto us as people living in New Jersey was glossary/the-section/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="9e8b88ad55df80fd13615872a9436022" target="_blank" >the section documenting Washington’s retreatfrom November 1776. Washington wrote that he had “not above 3,000 men, and they very much broken and dispirted.” The numbers continued to dwindly with desertions and expiring enlistments. By early December, Washington’s beleaguered troops still remained only a few steps ahead of pursuing enemy forces under British General Charles Cornwallis.
In this, the darkest moment of the war so far, the ragged veterans of the New York Campaign finally got some good news. While stationed on the banks of the Delaware River, reinforcements began to arrive from Pennsylvania.
Across the Delaware River from his army, a small garrison of Hessians had taken up winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. These Hessians were the British Army’s shock troops, the Germans hired by King George III to defeat the Revolutionaries. They were considered some of the best soldiers in the world. Their tall brasscaps and sharp uniforms contrasted with the American soldiers’ rags. The Hessians expected little threat from Washington’s beleaguered army. They would pay dearly for underestimating the Revolutionaries.
General Washington’s “Ten Crucial Days” lasted from December 25, 1776 to January 4, 1777. In that shortperiod, Washington and his army saved the Revolutionary War effort and perhaps the cause of American independence itself. With a force of only 4000-6000 men, Washington twice attacked the enemy. On Christmasnight and the following morning, December 25-26, 1776, he crossed the Delaware River into New JErsey and captured the garrison of 1,500 Hessians at Trenton.
On January 2nd, 5,000 British troops under General Cornwallis counter-attacked. Washington’s force fought until dark, and then quietly marched around Cornwallis’s troops. At dawn, the Americans attacked the British outpost at Princeton. If Washington had lost either battle, he would probably have lost the war. But he won them, and preserved the American Army to fight another day.
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James Moore commissioned this silver-hilted dog’s head hunting sword sometime in 1775 for himself as a symbol of his new rank. In August, just after the Battle of Long ISland, he was made a lieutenant in the Princeton, New Jersey, militia and stationed along the defensive lines that separated New Jersey from British-held New York City. In December 1776, his militia forces joined the Continental Army and fled across New Jersey into Pennsylvania.
Private Johannes Reuber was just a boy of 17 when he arrived in America in 1776. He had little time for training before landing in New York and fighting in the Battles of Brooklyn Heights, White Plains, and Fort Washington. On the day after Christmas, 1776, he later recalled, “The rebels attacked us ferociously.” By the end of the day, he was a prisoner of war.
General Mercer, as he lay dying at the Battle of Princeton, gave this sword to another veteran of Princeton, his friend Jacob Morgan. It then passed on to the saint-andrew/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="a7a37989955c93988fe430647e199b8b" target="_blank" >Saint Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia in 1841. IT may have been used at the Battle of Princeton, perhaps captured during the Revolution.
Ayear later on September 26, 1777, the British Army captured Philadelphia. General William Howe’s forces, having defeated General Washington at Brandywine, marked into the Revolutionary capital. In December, the Continental Army encamped at Valley Forge, west of Philadelphia. There, winter patriots warmed with anger, fired by stories of their lost capital. Their determination grew as news spread of American POWs suffering from the most “inhumane treatments that barbarians are capable of inflicting,” as one officer put it.
The encampment at Valley Forge joint/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="5b1c7f9433ab3acde4f92e434e9e4079" target="_blank" >blocked the British from controlling Pennsylvania’s interior. On June 18, 1778, Howe’s forces abandoned Philadelphia to rejoin the main British Army in New York City, with Washington’s army in close pursuit. At the June 28th Battle of Monmouth, Washington’s army nearly defeated Howe. It was the last major battle of the war in the North.
Wait Monument marked the path of the Boston Road through Springfield, Massachusetts. Twenty-five years before Shays rebellion, a traveller named Joseph Wait erected it. A Freemason, he designed it to bear symbols of his fraternity. On the afternoon of January 25, 1787, 1400 rebels marched eight abreast toward the Boston road to attack the Springfield arsenal. The militia in the Arsenal fired their cannon. Grapeshot tore through the rebels and killed three of them as they approached the marker. Some of the iron balls hit the monument and left inch-wide craters over the masonic symbols on its surface. Its pockmarked surface stands a silent testament to the violence between Americans in the mid-1780s.
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The Pennsylvania Assembly purchased an elaborately carved chair in 1779 to replace one destroyed during the British occupation of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) during the winter of 1777-1778. George Washington sat in the chair when he was President of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The original is on display in Independence Hall. It is known as the “Rising Sun” chair because of Benjamin Franklin’s hopeful observation about the symbol carved on the headrest. As the Convention’s workclosed, Franklin announced:
“I have… often in the course of the session… looked at that [sun] behind the president without being able to tell whether it was risingorsetting: but now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising sun and not a setting sun.”
The replica of a sailing vessel brings to life the maritime aspects of the war. Many African Americans served as sailors on privateers. James Forten was born free in Philadelphia, and served as a boy aboard several American privateers. Although he was never a slave, he wanted public recognition of his political rights as a citizen. He hoped military service would help gain him that recognition. He obtained great wealth and became a pipe/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="eccf0651a9ff255bbd955765c75b2801" target="_blank" >downspout/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="9a2461220475957b5549bff17379675f" target="_blank" >leader in Philadelphia’s abolition movement.
Near the end of the exhibits is a section on “Unfinished Victories.” Once the Revolutionary War was over, the fruits remained out of reach for many Americans. Families struggled to pay off their debts. The Continental Congress and the state government owed huge sums to foreign powers. Congress had no power to tax the American people. In the years immediately following the war, Americans looked for new solutions. Women were enfranchised to vote in the 1790 and 1797 elections. Later that right was appealed until suffragettes fought and won the right to vote (again).
As we left the museum this raised reliefpanel of Washington crossing the Delaware caught our attention.
Just a few blocks from the museum is Sonny’s Famous Cheesesteaks. Seating is limited and tables are family style, so unless you have a big group, prepare to share with others. While we didn’t visit, Kick Axe Throwing looked fun. While not evident, Market St and 2nd St was also the location of the court-house-2/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="7f53d7bb700bf277a4f3b114792604e4" target="_blank" >court-house-philadelphia-pennsylvania/">Old Court House and a once active outdoor market.
element-caption">Historic District Wayfinding, Philadelphia. Follow the signs to other nearby destinations.
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin.
Carpenter’s Hall. Meeting place for delegates from the First Continental Congress in 1774. They sought to resolve grievances with Great Britain. Escalating differences between the colonies and King George III led to the American Revolution. Built between 1770 and 1774 to showcase skilled craftsmen, this original building is still owned and operated by The Carpenters’ Company. The floor/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="b6bf6802b9fc0cb592e3ddaa55a8ccc0" target="_blank" >first floor exhibits feature 18th century building techniques and original chairs used by the Continental Congress.
18th Century Garden. The re-created garden you see here incorporates many features of formalgardens in the 1700s. Neat pathways, geometricflower beds, small orchards, and gazebos are characteristic of early Philadelphia gardens. Merchant Exchange Building. A revival/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="d848f2a224334bf198f7ce38b2727fb6" target="_blank" >GreekRevivalmasterpiece by William Strickland. Became Philadelphia’s financial ceiling-medallion/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="557374c3eebbede5d82414433d1f21e7" target="_blank" >center in the 1800s.City Tavern.
Slate Roof Housesite where Hannah Callowhill Penn and William Penn lived between 1699-1701.
