Ten Crucial Days

When R and I received an invite to the wedding of our close friends' daughter, we decided to tack on some extra days and make a vacation out of it! Working son (M) and college son (J) didn't come with, so just us two empty-nesters flew into Newark yesterday. 

The air quality is so much better than it was a week ago!

Travel tip: Seats 48A/B on a Boeing 777-200 are great because there is no third seat in the row = extra room for economy price!

After picking up our rental car, we headed south to our hotel in Plainsboro, NJ. Since it was almost 8:00PM, we stopped at a pizzeria on the way to get a couple slices for dinner. It was just okay - still need to find one to convince us that East Coast pizza is even rave-worthy.

Travel tip #2:  Knowing that we would rack up a lot of tolls on this trip, R got an I-PASS when he went back to Chicago last month, so that we could use the E-ZPass lanes and avoid the "convenience" charges ($10/day!) for using the transponder in the rental. 

In spite of the three-hour time difference, we were up early this morning to grab breakfast, check out, and hit the road to get a jump on our packed itinerary for today, visiting a number of sites with Revolutionary War significance.

When thinking about the American Revolution, Boston or Philadelphia usually springs to my mind. But I didn't realize that New Jersey played a critical role throughout the war, with General George Washington and the Continental Army crossing the colony four times and spending three winters encamped here. 

After losing New York City to the British in September 1776 and retreating through New Jersey into Pennsylvania, the resulting low morale of his troops and expiring enlistments at the end of December 1776 meant that Washington desperately needed a win. Crossing the Delaware River back into New Jersey on Christmas night, Washington led the Continental Army in a sneak attack the following morning, defeating the Hessians quartered at Trenton.  Then, on January 3, 1777, they surprised and defeated the troops under Charles Cornwallis at Princeton, notching their first victory over British Regulars on the field. Considered one of the most significant military offensives in history, these "Ten Crucial Days" marked the turning point of the Revolution. 

So while the Battle of Princeton took place on the last of the "Ten Crucial Days", Princeton Battlefield State Park was our first stop this morning. The Clarke House wasn't open, but we walked around the grounds for a bit.

The colonnade was originally the facade of a home in Philadelphia, but was re-erected here in 1959 as the entrance to the common grave of British and American soldiers killed in the Battle of Princeton.

What does the fox say?

Monument to General Hugh Mercer and the Clarke House where he died

The battlefield

From here, we drove to the Lawrence Township Municipal Building for the cache of Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area and Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail passport stamps - all 12 of them! 

 

Our next stop was Trenton for the 10:00AM tour of the New Jersey State House. The volunteer guide reminded us of Trent Crimm from "Ted Lasso" - haha! He did a great job, making the tour both informative and entertaining.

General Assembly

Senate

Rotunda

Exterior renovations underway

Based on the tour coordinator's recommendation, we crossed the Delaware to visit the Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania instead of going to Washington Crossing State Park on the Jersey side. We learned a lot going through the exhibits in the visitor center!

Reproduction of "Washington Crossing the Delaware"
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1851

 

"Near this spot Washington crossed the Delaware
on Christmas night 1776 the eve of the Battle of Trenton"
Erected 1895

Durham boat replicas

Then we headed up to Princeton to meet our friend A for lunch. It's been years since the last time we saw him! We got some artisan ice cream from The Bent Spoon afterwards and walked around campus and over to see the Princeton Battle Monument.

Missed you, D!

John Witherspoon - Presbyterian minister, signer of the Declaration of Independence, 6th president of Princeton (College of New Jersey), and slave owner

Princeton University Chapel

Princeton Battle Monument

We were back on the road to Somerville by 3:30PM, because I had scheduled a guided tour of the historic homes at Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites for 4:00PM. (I did say we had a "packed itinerary", didn't I?!)  

Our guide was very enthusiastic, telling us about the significance of each house. The parsonage was home to one of the founders and first president of Rutgers University (Queens College) and was actually relocated intact to its current location in 1913! 

The parsonage of the Dutch Reformed Church
constructed in 1751

The country home of Philadelphia merchant John Wallace served as the winter headquarters of General Washington during the 1778-79 Middlebrook Encampment. His aides-de-camp John Laurens and that other guy, Alexander Hamilton, were here, too.

Wallace House, still in its original location

Yes, George and Martha would have slept in this house!

Since we still had plenty of daylight and because tomorrow's schedule is also full, we made one more stop at Morristown National Historical Park on the way to our hotel in Parsippany, NJ. Even though the visitor center was already closed, we were able to check out the outdoor portions of Jockey Hollow which were open until 8:00PM. But I'll include those details in the next post.

100 miles