River Of Victory: The Delaware Crossings That Saved The American Revolution

River of Victory is a detailed, day-by-day account that reinterprets the famous Christmas-night crossing of December 25 26, 1776, as just one event within a month-long series of nearly daily (and often multiple) crossings of the Delaware River by the Continental Army and militia. The author's main argument is that these repeated crossings-starting with Washington's retreat from Trenton to Bucks County on December 1 8, then through multiple rounds of harassment crossings (December 9 24), the well-known crossing on Christmas night, and returning to Trenton on December 29 31-collectively kept the Continental Army together, stopped British pursuit, supplied Washington's forces, harassed Hessian outposts, and set the stage for the Ten Crucial Days (December 25, 1776 January 3, 1777), which revitalized the struggling Revolution. The book opens with an introduction that analyzes Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting with its artistic license rather than documentary accuracy. The structure of the chronological narrative delivers both social and military history. Throughout, Kidder weaves in the experiences of diverse participants-free and enslaved Black crewmen and soldiers, women (including camp followers and Loyalist refugees), Indigenous people, white militiamen, and Continentals-emphasizing that the Revolution was never solely a white-male story. The narrative ends with Washington's troops back in Trenton on December 31, poised for the next phase of the offensive. AUTHOR: William Kidder received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and is a retired high school history teacher who taught for forty years in both public and private schools, including 32 years at the Hun School of Princeton. He served four years on active duty in the US Navy and was assigned to the US Navy Research and Development Unit, Vietnam and then the destroyer USS Brownson (DD868). In the 1980s he was the lead researcher and writer for the creation of the Admiral Arleigh Burke National Destroyer Museum. He is active in historical societies in Ewing, Hopewell, and Lawrence township and an avid member of the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), engaged in various projects for local historical sites. He has also worked with the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area. 6 images, 6 maps