Compass Points - Every Time and Place

The "Ten Crucial Days"

Compass Points - Every Time and Place

The "Ten Crucial Days"

December 31, 2024

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Although it is New Year’s Eve, for Marines on a mission there is no time off. Marines fight not only in "every clime and place" but also in every time and place. From the very beginning of the Marine Corps, there was no time off for holidays. Beginning on Christmas Day 1775 and continuing until just after New Years, what has become known as the "Ten Crucial Days" were a series of attacks, battles, and maneuvers that saved America's fight for independence. When the Ten Crucial Days ultimate battle arrived just after New Year’s, Marines were in the thick of it.

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Before Washington's bold and successful amphibious assault on the British at Trenton, the Continental Marines led by Marine Major Samuel Nicholas became part of a larger militia force:

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Leaving one company to man the Continental vessels, Nicholas led a battalion of 130 officers and men from Philadelphia in early December and joined Brigadier General John Cadwalader's brigade of Pennsylvania militia, a force of some 1200 men. For two weeks the Marines lived with their brigade in Bristol, Pennsylvania, while they awaited an attack, but the British Army went into winter quarters along the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River. Gambling that foul weather and the Christmas season would lull the British into inactivity, Washington then attacked the German garrison at Trenton on Christmas day. But Cadwalader's brigade missed the victory because it could not cross the ice-choked Delaware.

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Washington, however, intended to exploit his success at Trenton by a similar attack on the British garrison at Princeton, but not without assistance. On his own initiative, Cadwalader crossed the river on December 27th. Advancing cautiously from the southeast, the Pennsylvania militia brigade marched into Trenton on January 2nd as Washington concentrated his army. On the afternoon of the same day, the Marines watched the cannonade between the Continental Army and the British at Assunpink Creek and helped defend a crucial bridge.

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The next day Cadwalader's brigade joined Washington's two-pronged attack on Princeton, following General Hugh Mercer's brigade of continentals toward the village. Mercer's brigade ran into two British regiments well deployed in front of Princeton and soon collapsed in the face of heavy, disciplined, musketry. Cadwalader's brigade came to the continental's assistance, but it too stumbled into the British infantry and also fell back. Nicholas's small battalion was probably engaged, and it presumably retreated with the rest of the brigade. In any event, the second prong of Washington's attack caught the British on an open flank, scattered three British regiments, and took Princeton.

--Allan R. Millett

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Without the success of the Ten Crucial Days and the Marines, the American Revolution may have been over before it began. But every victory comes at a cost. Among the casualties at the battle at Princeton, Captain William Shippin of Philadelphia became the first Marine killed, not in a sea campaign, but on a battlefield. Since the New Year's battle at Princeton back in 1777, until today, Marines are on duty and in the fight no matter the clime, place, or holiday. As the new year 2025 approaches, Compass Points wishes a Happy New Year to all Marines and friends of the Corps, past, present, and future.

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Semper Fidelis - The History of the United States Marine Corps

By Allan R. Millett

Free Press - The Macmillan Wars of the United States

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Princeton Battlefield Society

https://pbs1777.org/