Talk:George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

The Crisis
Thomas Paine's The Crisis was read at dusk on the 25th of December. When forces including Paine arrived at Washington’s camp, senior officers told the writer that the country needed him publishing, not fighting. Agreeing with this logic, Paine walked thirty-five miles to Philadelphia, expecting to be captured at any moment, and arrived home to find the city in chaos. News of defeat after defeat had triggered the vast majority of Philadelphia residents to flee, with Congress withdrawing to the backwater hamlet of Baltimore, and Tory loyalists preparing a grand welcome for the imminent and victorious arrival of the British army. Paine frantically began writing the first of what he envisioned as a series of thirteen essays, one in honor of each colony. The Pennsylvania Journal published it the week before Christmas; printers Melchior Steiner and Carl Cist rushed 18,000 copies into the streets; other publishers immediately sent their own pirate editions across the continent. One version made its way back to the very source of Paine’s inspiration — the banks of the Delaware River. At dusk on Christmas Day, 1776, Washington ordered his officers to gather their men into small squads, and read aloud The American Crisis. 

--Sparkhurst 19:05, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Merge with Battle of Trenton
It's pretty silly to have an article about the crossing of the Delaware in order to attack Trenton, and another article about the attack on Trenton. Vidor 09:23, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Two separate events. The crossing was essentially an invasion of New Jersey from Pennsylvania, as the Continentals has previously retreated from NY/NJ. The Battles of Trenton and Princeton happened a day after the crossing/successful invasion. Compare D-Day to the subsequent battles in France (those battles have their own separate articles). Wl219 09:47, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, no. The crossing of the Delaware was part of the attack plan for the battle of Trenton, which took place a few hours later.  Not at all comparable to the weeks of combat in France after D-Day.  The battle of Princeton was a separate event happening eight days later, after the Continentals had won Trenton, crossed back into Pennsylvania, and then crossed yet again into New Jersey. Vidor 12:35, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Ahem... just as the Normandy Invasion was part and parcel for the Battle of Europe and the attack on the Last Reich, wasn't it???--Tomtom9041 16:18, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Separate events. Valtam  15:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - these are not the same events, deserve two articles Ruhrfisch 15:11, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - agree with Valtam and Ruhrfish Dincher 20:48, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - I believe this is significant enough to stand on its own. Alphageekpa 15:14, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - As stated, the crossing is part of preparation; not of the battle itself and the battle did not occur on the waterfront or during the crossing. If one or both of the articles were stubs, a case could be made; but merging the two would result in a rather lengthy article. --Bossi ( talk ;; contribs ) 16:58, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose The crossing is a significant event in and of itself. The battle article is sufficiently long as it is anyway. TCC (talk) (contribs) 01:11, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Agree with all the above --Tomtom9041 16:15, 30 November 2007 (UTC) (ahem...pardon the late vote)
 * Okey dokey. Do we have yet another article on the second river crossing immediately prior to the battles of Second Trenton and Princeton? Vidor 18:52, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * NO...but wikipedia is fraught, yes I said fraught, with inconsistencies. And?--Tomtom9041 16:16, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Number of Hessians
According to David McCullough's book 1776 (p. 281), there were at least 1400 Hessians-- 900 were captured, 500 escaped, 21 killed 90 wounded. The article says there were only 900 in all. Is the Pulitzer Prize winning author wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by SAISer (talk • contribs) 22:45, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Been known to happen.--Degen Earthfast (talk) 17:58, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Stylistic Change
The Preparation paragraph contained a reference to "Morrisville (then called Summerseat)" and later to "Coryell's Ferry (now called New Hope)."

I changed it to read "Summerseat (now called Morrisville)" just so that these two phrases agree with one another. I don't know if there's some kind of preference or precedent for whether the current or contemporary name gets top billing, I just felt that solving this problem two different ways in the same paragraph seemed awkward. Staypuft9 (talk) 04:29, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Glover and the marines
The section that talks about how Glover's regiment was set to disband at the end of the year doesn't hold a lot of meaning unless the article talks about why these men were so important. Glover's Marblehead fishermen were the guys actually manning the boats used in the crossing, and it was only their nautical skills that allowed the crossing to happen at all. I appreciate that Colonel Knox's yelling helped, but the article as it stands seems to give him the majority of the credit for the logisitcs of the crossing, without even mentioning Glover or his men actually doing all the work of it. ( Morethan3words |  talk ) 20:16, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The role and importance of Glover's regiment is mentioned in the Watercraft section.  Magic ♪piano 23:40, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I didn't see that. I'm okay with the wordage used, but is that the best spot for it? I feel like that info would best be placed in the section that talks about the crossing itself. If no one's opposed, I may just move it. ( Morethan3words |  talk ) 21:47, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I only put the wordage there because the Watercraft section was otherwise kind of small, and it seemed like a good fit. There's probably more that could be written about the actual logistics of loading and unloading the boats, avoiding ice floes, etc, which would be an obvious point at which to give them more due.  (This is just to explain my rationale for placement, not to claim ownership or anything.)  Please respect that the article is currently a good article nominee (it's been in the queue a while, I just forgot to banner it until now), and cite your work.  Magic ♪piano 22:42, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I can understand that, I'll try to find a book that could add some info on all of the above before I make any changes. ( Morethan3words |  talk ) 14:00, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

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Climate impact
Should the Little Ice Age be mentioned in this article, as verified by the following: --RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 01:43, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

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Change of lead image
I propose we change the lead image to Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sleetimetraveller (talk • contribs) 17:46, 16 July 2021 (UTC)