Summer had begun with strong declarations of noble ideals, but
by winter the cause of liberty seemed to be at low ebb. Having
suffered defeat after defeat, many had all but given up hope. It
looked like freedom would succumb yet again, as it had
throughout history, to the forces of authoritarianism and
tyranny. Then, on Christmas Day, 1776, a small band of colonial
forces under the command of Gen. George Washington, having
retreated all the way from New York, again crossed the Delaware
River and brought battle at Trenton, New Jersey. Washington not
only won the battle but regained the initiative and turned the
war in the patriots’ favor. One week later, Washington defeated
the British at Princeton and forced the enemy to withdraw,
preventing its advance on Philadelphia, seat of the Continental
Congress. When it announced itself to the world in 1776, the
United States of America was little more than an alliance of 13
small colonies on a barren continent, thousands of miles from
their ancestral homeland, surrou