In the opening scene of The Crossing, one can see the Continental Army trudging through the woods in the roughly cold December winter with their commander George Washington. George Washington is shown upon a horse giving commands like telling Alexander Hamilton and the rest of the army to leave a cannon behind and to keep moving. This film was an original A&E developed in 1999 for television production, but is still relevant to history today. It is often showed in a classroom setting because it is a good representation of the events taking place in December of 1776. The event taking place in this film starts with the retreat of the Continental Army and ends with the successful attack at the Battle of Trenton, which is all apart of The Revolutionary
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The plan was to send some 2,000 Continental soldiers across the Delaware River into Trenton, New Jersey to engage in a surprise attack on the Hessian soldiers. According to my history notes and some insight from the film, Hessians are trained European soldiers that know how to fight better than almost anyone. The majority of the Continental Army was made up of untrained citizen soldiers. So, one can only imagine the fear the Continental soldiers must have had going into the battle against them. The element of surprise upon the sleeping Hessian soldiers allowed Washington’s men to take the Battle of Trenton with only two deaths and four wounded soldiers according to the history book from this …show more content…
It was a big part of why the attack was so successful as well. The weather during the month of December took a toll on the soldiers, which was not depicted very well by the film. Although, for the time of production I thought the actual fight between the Continental Army and the Hessians was done well with swords, a few guns, and cannon fire. The audience can also sense the fear displayed by the Hessians through the film. It actually shows Colonel Rall of the Hessians being woken up by one his men shouting to him that the enemy has arrived. According to the film, Rall’s took his time getting ready before facing battle but there is really no way to know the accuracy of that. He was later killed in the battle. The description of him at the end of the film says he was buried there with a headstone saying “For him, all is
The plan was to send some 2,000 Continental soldiers across the Delaware River into Trenton, New Jersey to engage in a surprise attack on the Hessian soldiers. According to my history notes and some insight from the film, Hessians are trained European soldiers that know how to fight better than almost anyone. The majority of the Continental Army was made up of untrained citizen soldiers. So, one can only imagine the fear the Continental soldiers must have had going into the battle against them. The element of surprise upon the sleeping Hessian soldiers allowed Washington’s men to take the Battle of Trenton with only two deaths and four wounded soldiers according to the history book from this …show more content…
It was a big part of why the attack was so successful as well. The weather during the month of December took a toll on the soldiers, which was not depicted very well by the film. Although, for the time of production I thought the actual fight between the Continental Army and the Hessians was done well with swords, a few guns, and cannon fire. The audience can also sense the fear displayed by the Hessians through the film. It actually shows Colonel Rall of the Hessians being woken up by one his men shouting to him that the enemy has arrived. According to the film, Rall’s took his time getting ready before facing battle but there is really no way to know the accuracy of that. He was later killed in the battle. The description of him at the end of the film says he was buried there with a headstone saying “For him, all is