As thoughts of the Presidency and Presidents fill the news in 2025, it’s interesting to think back on our country’s first president, born 22 February 1732—almost three centuries ago. Although there are many legends associated with him (I need to bake that cherry pie!), some more dubious than others, he without doubt was a prime reason the Continental Army was victorious in the American Revolution.
The battles of Trenton in late December 1776 and in Princeton January 3, 1777, were a turning point in the Revolutionary War. Only a few miles away, Washington and his troops had crossed the Delaware—memorialized in famous artworks—on the night of December 25-26.
Artist Charles Willson Peale, painted several similar versions of Washington and the Princeton battle that are owned by the Princeton University Art Museum. In the one above, Washington holds a rapier aloft, the battle is still under way. Three people can be seen on his left side (viewer’s right), one of whom was Washington’s friend, Virginia neighbor, and Revolutionary War hero, Hugh Mercer, who died of his battle wounds. This painting is called “Washington at the Battle of Princeton,” (1783/84) and the building in the far distance is Princeton’s Nassau Hall.
This painting remains on display in Nassau Hall today. Its fancy gilded frame originally held a portrait of King George II “decapitated” during the battle by an American cannon ball, reportedly fired by the artillery company commanded by Alexander Hamilton. When Washington’s portrait replaced that of the monarch, the crown that had adorned the original frame was removed. Nassau Hall (pictured below) was built in 1756 and, in 1783, it served for four months as the US Capitol, being the largest academic building then in the colonies. Damaged to its exterior from another January 1777 cannonball remains, unrepaired.
The second painting, versions of which are in various museums and institutions around the country, including Princeton University, replaces the three men with a horse, a groom, and a cannon, the British flag crumpled at his feet. That version is titled “Washington After the Battle of Princeton” (painted between 1779 and 1782). Having grown up in the Midwest, where history didn’t seem so immediate, these connections to Washington are very precious.
