On January 3, 1777, George Washington’s lethargic Continental Army of 5,000 men was pursued by General Charles Cornwallis and his army of 8,000 men.

After a humiliating defeat for the British army at the Battle of Trenton, it was a fight that would show the Americans and the rest of the world that this grassroots rebellion was able to take on the greatly feared German mercenaries known as the Hessians, Cornwallis wished to undermine this morality boost.

Washington, as Cornwallis expected, knew that fighting this force head on would end in a terrible defeat and the possible end of the American Revolution. Thus, Cornwallis sent troops to defend the Delaware River, in case he would backtrack and follow the same route as he did after a series of losses in New York and Pennsylvania.

While Cornwallis’s troops waited at the river, he never came.

Instead, he led his men past Cornwallis’s troops, reached his back-line, and outnumbered the rear guard five to one. The British were defeated, suffering 275 deaths while the Americans lost forty men. This series of victories for the American Revolution would allow for a better grip on New Jersey, since the British made the decision to not attempt to take the colony back.

Credit is due to the battles of New Jersey, because without them, the Revolution may have never succeeded.