Advance-Party Ambushes Before the Battle
- When
- December 17–22, 1776
- Where
- Outposts around Trenton
- Part of
- Battle of Trenton
In the week before the battle, American advance parties ambushed Hessian patrols and pickets, keeping the garrison unsettled.
During the week before the battle, American advance parties began to ambush enemy cavalry patrols, capturing dispatch riders and attacking Hessian pickets. On December 17 and 18, 1776, they attacked an outpost of jägers, and on the 21st they set fire to several houses. Led by Adam Stephen, one party had not known about the plan to attack Trenton and attacked a Hessian outpost. A spy also reported to Grant that Washington had called a council of war, and Grant told Rall to be on his guard.
Sources
- Battle of Trenton Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.