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Emanuel Leutze painted this in 1851 in Düsseldorf, and painted it incorrectly in most of the details: the flag shown was not adopted until 1777, the boats are wrong for the Durham boats we actually used, the ice is not right for the Delaware that night.

The spirit is accurate. The night of 25–26 December 1776 was the worst moment of the revolution. We had lost New York, retreated across New Jersey, and the army was melting away as enlistments expired. Thomas Paine had written 'These are the times that try men's souls' marching with us through the retreat. He was correct.

I crossed nine miles of ice-filled river in the dark with twenty-four hundred men and surprised the Hessian garrison at Trenton at eight in the morning. Nine hundred prisoners; no American fatalities from combat. The revolution survived. Congress, which had fled Philadelphia, took some confidence from this and re-opened sessions.

We did not win that night. We simply did not lose, which at that point was sufficient.