To Try Men's Souls - George Washington 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

losing courage, their situation reduced to this last, desperate lunge. He had promised to write her on the morrow and reminded her of the love he felt in the depths of his being. He had said winning this war was vital to him, not only for America and freedom, but because it would let him go back home to the cherished companionship of the one whom he loved more than life itself. He thought briefly of Martha by the fire down in Virginia and shook his head. Time now only to decide, act, lead, arouse, and impose. Time now to show the Hessians and the British what kind of people they were trying to enslave.
    Another gust of wind roared in across the river, coming more from the northeast, driving a gale of frozen rain. The moon was up,visible in the gaps that momentarily appeared in the scudding clouds. But the western horizon beyond the hills bordering the river was now obscured as well, and what little light there was seemed to be extinguished, like a candle snuffed out, and the world went dark.
    The far bank disappeared from sight. The wind howling across the river now was a steady blow, treetops swaying and crackling as the icy rain froze to branches and then shattered.
    Damn, it was so damned cold.
    He pulled his cape in tighter and turned to face Knox.
    “Start them across,” he announced.
    He could barely make out the features of his chief of artillery, who was tasked this night with commanding the crossing of the river.
    Knox was one of the few men in this world whom he actually had to look up to.
    For a few seconds, Knox looked into his trusted friend’s eyes. Nothing needed to be said; the time to debate was over. Knox saluted, turned, and started down to the ferry dock.
    “We’re going!” he bellowed. “Start loading up.”
    No one moved. He could sense their disbelief that he was pressing forward in an enterprise that most all of them believed to be a forlorn hope.
    Washington forced a smile. “Just keep telling them the Hessians will be asleep. What awaits them in Trenton will be warm shelter, hot food, and dry boots for the taking.”
    Even the words sounded wooden to him. Merciful God, are we so pathetic in this endeavor that I must motivate men by the promise of dry shoes taken from the enemy?
    He could see the response in their eyes as they circled around him. Knox was aflame, as was Greene, but the others?
    They would be facing the Hessians come dawn, and nearly all in the rank and file feared them.
    “It is time to pay them back, gentlemen. Pay them back for the humiliations dealt to us. Tonight will be our night. Now to your duties.”
    The group slowly began to break up except for Knox, who stormedoff, shouting orders, his voice booming above the thunder of the storm.
    The Hessians. Mercenaries. My God, how could those who were once our own countrymen do this, hire a foreign army to trample down our liberties? Yes, they had aroused the ire of his army, when first sighted, but now all they did was arouse fear. For they were the best disciplined infantry in the world and the most relentless on the battlefield.
    His spies had told him whom he would face. A Colonel Rall. He had glimpsed him on the battlefields at Fort Washington and White Plains. Fearless, and rumor was, one of their best.
    Am I a fool to think that these frozen men around me, ragged, barefoot, already soaked through, will face and defeat Rall in the morning?
    Or was all hope of surprise already lost? Rall was a professional, his intelligence reports saying he was a man with thirty years’ experience in war. And at this moment he and his men were warm, well fed, and resting.
    He felt a dark premonition and pushed it aside. By dawn, he would face Rall, and it would be the German commander who would take the sword from his dying hand.
    He turned back to watch the men beginning to file past.
    “Close up the ranks, boys, and keep moving. Remember, it is victory or death.”

 
     

CHAPTER TWO

     
     
    Trenton, New Jersey
6:00 P.M. ,