Life of Washington Tour - Day 3

Posted by Gabrielle

Our first stop on Day 3 of the Washington Tour was Washington's Crossing. 

This was where Washington crossed in the middle of the night to attack the Hessians camped at Trenton before they could attack him. The troops crossed the Delaware River with Henry Knox in charge of the crossing and successfully surprised the Hessians as they were not expecting him to attack. This was the victory that the young officer Washington needed to establish his military renown.

 

Washington's Crossing

 Young men at one of the canons at Washington's Crossing

Our next stop of the day was at Trenton Battlefield, the site of the attack on the Hessians after Washington crossed the Delaware. We had lunch at the monument.

Examining more closely the entrance to the monument

It was a long ways up!!!

Our next stop was Princeton Battlefield.

This was a crucial battle in the war; one, which if Washington had not fought it, we would not have won the war.

Mr. Horn brought out several crucial points that Washington accomplished in winning this battle:

• The British were not allowed to capture Philadelphia. In spite of this, they later captured it in 1777.
• The ragtag continental army gained more experience and prowess in fighting.
• This improved Washington's military reputation as he had won three battles by now.
• This improved the general morale of the soldiers and made them more willing to fight.

Playing frisbee on Princeton Battlefield

From Princeton Battlefield, we went on to Princeton University where Mr. Horn gave a talk about how this college was founded.

Princeton University was a split from Christ Presbyterian Church during the Great Awakening. At this point, pastors who did not have a degree, namely pastors of the Great Awakening called New Lights, such as George Whitefield, were not allowed to preach in the pulpit. Princeton University, which had a predecessor called Low College, was founded as a conservative university to give New Light pastors a degree so they could preach from the pulpit again.

 

Timothy reading the plaque before one of the two great lions guarding the entrance to the university hall.

From Princeton University, we walked to Princeton Chapel and visited two highlights:

A statue of John Witherspoon in the chapel courtyard, and

The Princeton chapel. It had gorgeous stained glass windows on all three walls as you walked in. The dimly-lighted interior enhanced the solemnly majestic effect as the organ-player played.


Some of the quaint shops along the streets of Princeton

From Princeton Chapel, we walked to Princeton Cemetery where Mr. Brown gave a brief talk on the Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, whose graves we stopped at.

As our last stop of the day, we headed to the Spaghetti Warehouse in Philadelphia. There, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and time of singing and reading the Declaration of Independence with Charlie Zahm.