For what it's worth, the annual attempt to re-enact Washington Crossing the Delaware actually occurred this past Sunday for the first time since 2001. Safety concerns about abnormally high water and fast currents have prevented the reenactors from rowing across the Delaware above Trenton for several years in a row.

These days, the reenactment (or attempt thereupon) takes place in daylight on Christmas afternoon, in two bulkly longboats built with an eye to historical accuracy. The actual crossing took place after dark on Christmas night in miserable weather, undoubtedly much nastier than the conditions that caused the recent ceremonial crossings to be scrubbed. And large numbers of boats were involved in the actual campaign, so many that it required several hours ~ all night, essentially ~ to get all the troops across.

I visited Washington Crossing State Park (on the New Jersey side) as a young schoolboy, and learned the then-current version of history wherein the no-good Hessian mercenaries were described as dead drunk. More recently, I read David McCullough's (sp?) 1776, which seemed to provide a much more nuanced interpretation; at least, as a reader I had become more mature and better able to appreciate how it was the element of surprise that was critical, and that the Hessians were simply caught badly off-guard, regardless of how much they may have had to drink.

Hell, they could have been relatively incapacitated simply by having eaten too bountiful a Christmas dinner, with no alcohol at all (unlikely as that would have been at that time and place). It's probably just as unlikely that the Hessians were cold sober and totally alert as that they were, to a man, dead drunk and totally defenseless.

The victory at Trenton was the result of near-perfect timing, for which Washington certainly deserves more credit than does Demon Rum. Of course, his junior officers may well deserve more credit than generally acknowledged, for instigating the strategy and pressing their boss to make the move...