George Washington led his battered army across the icy Delaware River in a surprise attack on Hessian soldiers in Trenton, New Jersey on December 26, 1776. After capturing nearly 1,000 Hessian soldiers in under an hour, it was the first victory for the Continental Army. The document discusses the famous painting by Emmanuel Leutze depicting Washington standing in the boat crossing the river, though it was unlikely he would have actually stood that way given the dangerous conditions.

1. Crossing the Delaware River Coloring Sheet
In the bitter cold of December 1776, George Washington’s battered army launched a
surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. His troops crossed the
ice-choked Delaware River and ambushed the encampment on December 26th, when the
soldiers were still recovering from their Christmas festivities. Washington’s forces took
the town and captured nearly a thousand Hessian soldiers, less than an hour after they
first attacked. At last, the Continental Army had won a victory. Here we see
Washington as he appeared in the famous but fanciful painting by Emmanuel Leutze,
done many years after the event it portrays. It is unlikely that Washington, a prudent
commander, would have stood up in the bows of a boat being maneuvered across an
ice-filled river. This is, however, certainly one of the most well-known depictions of
Washington- accurate or not. The coloring sheet is on the next page.
Painting: Emmanuel Leutze, “George Washington Crossing the Delaware,” 1851,
Metropolitan Museum of Art.