Washington Crosses the Delaware
Are you working toward one of your athletic stretch goals and encountering hardship and struggle? Are you getting frustrated as a result of it? If so, take heart, most of the successful people you see in the media and history books encountered struggles and hardships just as difficult, or even more challenging, than what you are going through now. Unfortunately, we rarely hear about the hardships and only see the glory of their successes. This can be frustrating for us, as we may mistakenly believe that success comes easy for most everyone but us.
The story of Washington crossing the Delaware is a great example. What you may have learned in school is that on Christmas night 1776, George Washington and his troops sailed across an icy Delaware river, surprised a group of German Hessians who had been partying all night and won a convincing victory. Doesn’t sound too difficult, does it?
Well, here are some facts that you may not have known:
To ensure the attack would be a surprise, the army set out at 2pm on Christmas Day and marched nine miles upstream
The army, along with their horses, cannons, ammunition, etc. began to cross an ice-filled river that evening
At 11pm a storm struck, a full-blown northeaster. One of the men who was first to cross later wrote, “After a while it rained, hailed, snowed, and froze, and at the same time blew a perfect hurricane, so much so that I perfectly recollect, after putting the rails (of a fence) on to burn, the wind and fire would cut them in two in a moment, and when I turned my face to the fire, my back would be freezing. However…by turning myself round and round I kept myself from perishing.”
The river was so difficult to cross due to the storm and the ice that the two other divisions of Washington’s army, crossing at different locations on the river, had to turn back and never made it across to provide the reinforcements Washington would be expecting that morning when he arrived in Trenton.
Washington’s full division finally finished crossing at 3am, a full three hours behind schedule.
As the army began marching the nine miles back downstream, “the storm grew worse, with cold driving rain, sleet, snow, and violent hail..Men and horses kept slipping and skidding in the dark.”
Washington’s men arrived and began the attack at 8am as, “the storm continued with great violence.” Many of the men found their guns too wet to fire but they fought bravely in hand-to-hand combat and in 45 minutes the Hessians had surrendered.
Only two Americans died, and it wasn’t from the battle. They both froze to death during the march that night.
Wow! The courage, fortitude and determination of these troops is amazing!
This is such a great metaphor for the hardship and struggle you may have to endure to achieve victory.
So, keep this story in mind the next time you are frustrated as you encounter obstacles on your way to your goals. Remember, just about everyone who achieves great success will confront hardships along the way. Don’t give up, continue marching forward through the storm and victory will be yours.
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(Reference: 1776 by David McCullough)