Episode 1 of 5
Morale crisis and The American Crisis
- When
- December 19, 1776
- Where
- Continental Army encampment in Pennsylvania
- Part of
- Crossing of the Delaware
A week before the crossing, expiring enlistments threatened the army, but Paine's pamphlet published December 19 lifted morale.
Many of Washington's troops had enlistments due to expire at the end of 1776, only a week away, and many were inclined to leave the Continental Army when their commissions ended. On December 19, 1776, a week before the covert crossing, the army's morale was lifted by the publication of The American Crisis, a pamphlet by Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense.
Sources
- George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-11
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.