Reminder that this night 249 years ago, Washington had just been thoroughly beaten for months. New York had fallen without a fight. Thousands of men lot at Long Island. New York City is abandoned. Three thousand captured at Fort Washington. They are forced to retreat hundreds of miles in complete shambles, having lost or abandoned much of their supplies, a fraction of their forces left after the dead, captured, missing, and desertions. 

On December 31st, the enlistments are set to end for much of the army, and it’s unlikely many will rejoin what appears an utterly defeated cause. One win is needed, and it’s needed now. Washington takes his utterly beaten forces, crosses the Delaware at night on Christmas, and catches a completely unaware and unready Hessian force and all their supplies with hardly any casualties, a thousand defeated in one stroke. It’s a much needed victory in the face of utter defeat that keeps the dream of our nation alive.

Our ancestors have faced vastly worse, and far more grim times than these. And they endured them for your sake, their posterity, that they may have a sovereign nation. Never despair, never give up. Victory or death. By God, we can have our home again.

By God, there’re miracles, this was one of his Christmas gifts.