Two-Page Synopsis
The first battle of Trenton is over.
DAY ONE: Sunday, Dec. 29th, 1777
In Philadelphia, Washington decides to go back to NJ. His generals try to talk him out of it. Capt. Warren Murphy, with the First Pennsylvania Riflemen, is not one to argue with generals.
Isaac, 17, and Toby, 14, are brothers. Isaac wants to fight the rebels, but his mother, Maggie, wants them to get away from the war. British Corporal Lawrence barges in and threatens them. Maggie sends the boys to Allentown, PA to be with her sister until the war is over.
DAY TWO: Monday, Jan. 30, 1776
Murphy and the rebel army cross the river. Again. The boys trudge westward. They get to the Princeton Bridge. They’ve been there before. They play a game of "soldier" underneath the bridge of their childhood. Done, they cross the bridge into adulthood, where a real war is about to explode.
DAY THREE: Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, 1776
Lawrence, the bad guy, captures Toby. Isaac uses his wits to extricate his younger brother. Later, the boys collide with Sgt. Swanson, a rebel, at Five-Mile Run, five miles from Trenton. Swanson speaks with a thick German accent.
The front road to Trenton is filled with rebels. The boys take the back road. They cross a swamp. Isaac gets stuck in the mud. Toby runs from a goose. Toby’s on dry ground.
Anna (17) shoots the goose. She marches the boys to the house. Momma is there. Momma speaks with a thick German accent.
Isaac and Anna leave Toby alone with Momma. Toby, too young to know any better, blurts out that they’re Tories. Momma damn near kills him.
Isaac and Anna kiss at midnight.
DAY FOUR: Wednesday, Jan 1, 1777
Isaac and Toby sit on boxes, captured by the rebels. Murphy confronts them. From their names, he knows they’re his sons. He can’t explain about his mother and him. There’s a war on. They’ll come with him tomorrow to the front.
DAY FIVE: Thursday, Jan 2, 1777
Murphy takes the boys to Five-Mile Run. Swanson recognizes the boys, "Ach du yungen." Murphy persuades Swanson to take them.
The battle begins.
Swanson and the boys shoot, run, shoot, run. Murphy leads the retreat in the rear. Toby never shoots. He doesn’t like to kill people. Isaac always misses.
At Trenton, Isaac gets shot in the arm. It’s bad, and looking worse. Toby saves him.
They cross the Trenton Bridge. Swanson bandages Isaac’s arm. The battle’s not over, though. Hundreds of British soldiers fall, charging the bridge and crossing the creek.
No matter. British General Cornwallis asserts that he’ll "bag the Fox" in the morning.
Washington talks to the boys. He learns that one side of the swamp is passable. He’ll take the back road tonight.
DAY SIX: Friday, Jan. 3, 1777
The army marches east toward Princeton. Men sleep while standing. Soldiers behind crash into them. The snow turns red from the bloody feet of the soldiers ahead.
Swanson turns toward his house. The boys now realize that Swanson is Anna’s father, Momma’s husband. Momma sews up Isaac’s arm. Isaac and Anna sneak another kiss.
Washington straightens out the troops at the swamp. The regulars will hit first, get the militia to the rear, take out the bridge. Toby, Isaac, Swanson, and Murphy are with the militia in the rear.
But the regulars don’t hit first, the militia does. And it’s bad.
Murphy fights bravely, but it’s Washington who saves the army this day.
The battle of Princeton is over. Except that they still have to take out the bridge.
Toby dances on the logs, clowning around, until the advance British force from Trenton appears, lead by Lawrence, the bad guy. Toby falls into the freezing creek as the bridge collapses. Toby is in terrible danger. Isaac makes the shot of his life.
It’s finally over. Murphy brings the boys home to their mother. Murphy and the mother hug.
Saturday, OCT 20, 1781, Yorktown, VA: Cornwallis says to Washington, "You won the war on the banks of the Delaware."