Tour To Follow George Washington's 1776 March Through New Hope

NEW HOPE, PA — For more than two weeks from December 8th to December 25th in 1776, two regiments numbering about 600 soldiers encamped at Coryell's Ferry, now New Hope, under the command of French general Alexis Roche de Fermoy.

The brigade represented a quarter of the 2,400 troops included in General George Washington's legendary crossing of the Delaware River to the decisive Battle of Trenton on December 25, 1776.

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Coryell's Ferry, being the narrowest crossing along the Delaware River, was strategically important in Washington's plan to defend his struggling army from the onslaught of the British and was heavily fortified to prevent General Cornwallis's army from crossing the river and quelling the fledgling revolution.

To prepare for the imminent battles in Trenton, Washington met with his generals at Coryell's Ferry twice during that period. Two weeks later, at 2 p.m. on Christmas Day, the soldiers were ordered to march toward McConkey's Ferry (now Washington Crossing). The local militia continued to guard the important ferry after the troops departed.

Then on June 19, 1778, the entire Continental Army, more than 12,000 strong, with about 500 wives who followed their husbands into battle, marched along Old York Road, and crossed the Delaware River over a period of three days from New Hope's historic Ferry Landing to Lambertville (then Coryell's Ferry, N.J.) on their way to the important Battle of Monmouth on June 28.

On Saturday, Dec. 19, at 1 p.m., the New Hope Historical Society's walking tour led by the society's historian Roy Ziegler, will follow the routes taken by George Washington and his army through New Hope during the American Revolutionary War.

Tickets are free to Historical Society members and are available to the public for $15. Tickets are limited, so the New Hope Historical Society suggests making reservations now at
newhopehistorical.org.