Janet’s thread

Featured image: George Washington and Family by Thomas Pritchard Rossiter, 1858-1860.

by Helen Breen

General George Washington welcomed back to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War (mountvernon.org)

The dramatic painting of “Washington Crossing the Delaware” launching a surprise attack on the Hessian foe on December 25, 1776 is firmly embedded in the American psyche. His bold move resulted in our victory in Trenton. Troops of Marblehead mariners, under the command of Colonel John Glover, played a major role in the surprise attack. Yet, the suffering that American forces endured that winter, and the next one that followed at the Valley Forge, comprised the dark night of the Revolutionary War. Washington, however, would live to see a better Christmas years later.

General Washington in solemn thought before the crossing of the Delaware (Photo courtesy: americanhistory.about.com)

How far removed was the life George Washington could…