Washington crossing the Delaware: Reenactment is revived

WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. – Hundreds gathered connected some sides of the Delaware River to ticker an yearly Christmas Day reenactment of George Washington’s 1776 crossing, a twelvemonth aft pandemic restrictions forced viewers to watch it online.

Reenactors successful 3 boats completed the crossing successful astir an hr Saturday day nether overcast skies but successful reasonably mild temperatures, a spokesperson for Washington Crossing Historic Park said.

Earlier successful the month, astir 5,000 radical attended a formal rehearsal of the Revolutionary War reenactment amid bully upwind and bully h2o conditions, unpaid Tom Maddock of the Friends of Washington Crossing Park said, calling it “a large day."

In 2020, aft crowd-size restrictions barred holding the accepted in-person event, parkland officials posted a video of a reenactment filmed earlier successful the period providing what they called a “close-up view." This year, radical entering the visitant halfway were asked to deterioration masks, and workers were besides masked, officials said.

Ad

In years past, thousands person often gathered each Christmas greeting connected the banks of the stream successful Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, and Titusville, New Jersey, to ticker humanities reenactors acceptable retired successful boats to retrace the daring 1776 voyage of Washington and his troops.

In 2019, the crossing was completed for the archetypal clip successful 3 years with what the Friends of Washington Crossing Park said was astir apt a grounds assemblage of 4,500 to 5,000 radical looking on. The crossing had been scuttled during the erstwhile 2 years, archetypal by precocious winds and past by precocious water.

Other activities astatine the yearly lawsuit see reenactments of Washington’s code to his troops, humanities speeches and processions, and staffers successful play covering providing nationalist interpretation.

In the archetypal crossing, boats ferried 2,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 18 cannons crossed the river. Washington’s troops marched 8 miles (13 kilometers) downriver earlier battling Hessian mercenaries successful the streets of Trenton. Thirty Hessians were killed, and 2 Continental soldiers froze to decease connected the march.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.