Trenton

Six months of defeat, an army melting away as enlistments (the soldiers' fixed-term contracts) ran out, and a commander writing privately that the game was pretty near up. Then a printer in Philadelphia set the times that try men's souls in type, and Washington fixed a date: Christmas night, one hour before day.

A nor'easter, an ice-choked river, nine miles of sleet, and two of three crossings failed. On the far side, a garrison that was exhausted rather than drunk, a colonel who had laughed off every warning, and a fight in the streets that was over in under an hour.

Nine hundred prisoners paraded through Philadelphia, a dying colonel's last request, and an army still set to dissolve in five days. What the victory actually bought was sold man by man, for ten dollars and six more weeks.