King George by Steve Sheinkin

army only until the end of the year. Then they expected to go home for the winter. Martin’s enlistment ended in December, and he eagerly traveled home to his family and friends. “They appeared to be glad to see me,” he said, “and I am sure I was really glad to see them.”
    Don’t worry, Martin will be back in the army the next year. But Washington couldn’t wait until the next year. “Ten days more will put an end to the existence of our army,” he wrote on December 20.
    Washington had ten days to save the Revolution.
    Report from Trenton
    A cross the Delaware River from the American camp was the small town of Trenton, New Jersey. This was one of many towns now in the hands of the British army.
    Guarding the town were about twelve hundred German soldiers. Americans called them “Hessians” because many of them came from the Hesse region of Germany. The Hessians took over most of the houses in Trenton and made themselves comfortable. “My friend Sheffer and I lodge in a fine house belonging to a merchant,” wrote one officer.
    This kind of invasion should get you out of school, right? Not if you went to Mistress Rogers’s School for Young Ladies in Trenton, which stayed open all winter. We know this from letters that were sent to students that year. William Shippen, for instance, wrote to his daughter Nancy, age thirteen, saying:

    â€œMy, dear Nancy: I was pleased with your French letter which was much better spelt than your English one, in which I was sorry to see four or five words wrong … Take care, my dear girl, of your spelling and your teeth.”

    And while most families got out of Trenton when the enemy arrived, a few stayed to try to protect their homes. A ten-year-old girl named Martha Reed stayed in town with her mother and younger brother—her father was off in the Continental army.
    Martha later described the cold mid-December night that the enemy showed up at her door. “Mother and we two children were gathered in the family room,” she said. “A great fire blazed in the chimney place … Suddenly there was a noise outside, and the sound of many feet. The room door opened and in stalked several strange men.”
    After warming up by the fire, the Hessian soldiers opened the storeroom and ate all the pickles and jarred vegetables. A bit later, they killed a hog and butchered it on the dinner table.
    Even though Martha’s mother spoke no German, she somehow managed to convince the soldiers that her husband was serving in the British army. So the Hessians agreed to let the Reeds stay in the house.
    A few days later a child’s coat gave the Reeds away. Martha explained: “To please my little brother, my mother had made for him an
officer’s coat of the rebel buff [gold] and blue, in which he delighted to strut and fight imaginary battles.”
    When the Hessians found this coat, they knew they’d been tricked. They were in the home of Patriots! “What a storm broke around us!” Martha said. “They shook the little coat in our faces, jabbering and threatening.”
    Martha’s mother pulled the children outside and they all hid in the hen house—normally a bad hiding place, since chickens cluck and cackle when they’re disturbed. Luckily, the soldiers had already eaten all the chickens.
    Martha and her family spent a freezing and frightening night in the empty hen house. “That was a night I can never forget,” she said.
    The Lion in the Tub
    I n command of the German forces in Trenton was Colonel Johann “the Lion” Rahl. Bravery in battle earned Rahl his nickname. But he was also kind of a lazy guy. He liked to stay up late drinking and playing cards. Then he would sleep late and spend the rest of the morning in the tub.
    â€œThere were times,” complained one of his officers, “when we would go to his quarters for the morning formation between ten and eleven