I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit. All their wishes centered in one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back.

– Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

November 1776: Washington’s army makes the difficult decision to abandon Fort Lee on the Hudson River and begin a harrowing withdrawal across New Jersey, all while Cornwallis’ British Army remains on their heels. Conditions for the Continental Army looked bleak, and the British swept the landscape before them, convincing many that the Crown would prevail and the war would be brief.

Retreat across the Jerseys incorporates the legacy communities that were key refuges as Washington’s troops made their way to safety in Pennsylvania, with the exact route following the primary roads of the time, connecting New Bridge, Hackensack, Newark, Elizabeth, Woodbridge, New Brunswick, Princeton and Trenton.