Here’s what happened after Washington crossed the Delaware — with Black patriots on board

It’s a longstanding Christmas Day custom to re-enact Common George Washington’s in a single day crossing of the Delaware River on Dec. 25 and 26, 1776, when the long run first president led a flotilla of two,400 Continental Military troops from the Pennsylvania facet to New Jersey.

However including to that custom for the primary time this yr — on the identical day as a apply crossing — Backyard State preservationists and re-enactors staged what they hope will develop into an annual occasion Sunday often known as Washington’s Touchdown in New Jersey, meant to recall two key factors typically overshadowed by the dramatic, although apocryphal, picture of Washington standing on the bow of a wood boat, gazing valiantly forward.

First, as tactically daring and good because the crossing proved to be, it was just one leg of an extended journey, instantly adopted by a march on the Jersey facet of the river eight miles south, to victories within the first and second Battle of Trenton, on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2. The Battle of Princeton adopted on Jan. 3, 1777.

The three clashes turned the tide of the battle from the British colonizers to the American colonists preventing for independence.

“Either side just about thought the battle was over, the rebel crushed,” stated Mark Sirak, a historian with the New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety’s State Park Service at Washington Crossing State Park. “That is that second once we had been capable of remodel the perspective of many People and get them behind the trigger.”

The battle resulted in 1783, six years earlier than Washington was elected president.

The opposite fundamental level of Sunday’s occasion was to remind or inform New Jerseyans and different People that, as in lots of key moments of the American Revolution, Black patriots performed a job, crossing the river, marching down the previous River Highway (now often known as Bear Tavern Highway) and preventing with Washington and generals Nathanael Greene and John Sullivan in these pivotal battles.

“We’re right here to let individuals know we had been there,” stated Algernon Ward, commander of the First Rhode Island Regiment, a Black re-enactment group based mostly in Trenton however named for the predominantly Black real-life army unit from the Ocean State. “We weren’t observers of historical past, we had been individuals.”

Ward, 69, a retired state analysis scientist and Trenton native, stated the Rhode Island First Regiment was fashioned after the Delaware crossing and New Jersey battles. However he stated that particular person Black troopers did participate in them as members of different regiments, earlier than the Rhode Island First was fashioned and educated at Valley Forge.

Ward stated the crossing’s individuals included Black Joe Brown, amongst a bunch of oarsmen from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who powered troops throughout the river in a fleet of what’s thought to have been 15 to twenty Durham boats that blizzardy December night time.

On Sunday, the 18 African People from the Trenton and Philadelphia areas who make up the reenactment regiment arrange an encampment on the New Jersey facet of the river depicting dwelling situations and different elements of Colonial army life.

Ward famous that different Black Revolutionary Warfare heroes included Crispus Attucks, a Massachusetts seaman of African- and Native-American descent, who was among the many six individuals fatally shot by British troops within the Boston Bloodbath on March 5, 1770, and is extensively considered the primary individual killed within the battle.

“He was often known as the primary casualty of the Revolution,” stated Ward, who started reenacting 20 years in the past on the urging of a buddy, after he had little curiosity in historical past in class thanks its dry curriculum and lack of hands-on actions. “We had been there from the start to the tip of the American Revolution.”

The world across the river the place the crossing occurred consists of New Jersey and Pennsylvania state parks, which comprise a location recognized collectively because the Washington’s Crossing Nationwide Historic Landmark. Washington Crossing Bridge hyperlinks the 2 sides.

A non-public Pennsylvania group often known as the Buddies of Washington Crossing Park have organized the Christmas Day crossing for the previous seven a long time, an occasion that can happen as traditional this yr.

Amie Rukenstein, a trustee of the group’s New Jersey counterpart, the Washington Crossing Park Affiliation, stated she and others had been desirous to honor the occasions within the Backyard State following the crossing, and got here up with the thought for Sunday’s touchdown occasion along side the state park service and the First Rhode Island Regiment.

Rukenstein stated they intentionally scheduled the occasion for a similar day as a rehearsal for the Christmas Day crossing to provide attendees of the touchdown extra to see. She and Sirak stated greater than 2,000 spectators had been readily available Sunday on each side of the river.

“It’s not as a substitute of what Pennsylvania does,” Rukenstein stated of the New Jersey occasion. Somewhat, she added, “the query got here up, ‘As soon as they cross into New Jersey, what occurred subsequent?’”

No person is aware of Jersey higher than N.J.com. Signal as much as get breaking information alerts straight to your inbox.

Steve Strunsky could also be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com