Kimberly McCarty, Curator, Washington Crossing State Park, provides background on events that led Washington and the Continental Army to the Bucks County, PA area in December 1776.

Emanuel Leutze’s enormous 1851 painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” depicts the general’s journey on Dec. 25, 1776, as he launched a surprise attack on hundreds of Hessian troops ...

The morning of December 26, 1776, did not start according ... and his victory saved the Patriot cause. Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River was a desperate act. As 1776 drew to a close ...