Virtual Visits to Trenton on the Battle Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the first and more famous Battle of Trenton. This year, in lieu of a reenactment and other in-person events, the Old Barracks Museum is hosting a series of online presentations.

This means that those of us from outside the area can make a virtual visit to Trenton while still enjoying our holiday weekend at home. And we don’t have to brave the cold, either.

The museum schedule includes these afternoon events:

• 12:00 noon: “The Trouble with Trenton Virtual Puppet Show!” Register here.
• 1:00 P.M.: “Hogmanay,” a traditional Scottish celebration of the New Year, presented by the Trent House Museum with the Practitioners of Musick. Suggested donation $10. Register here.
• 2:00: “The Real Story of the Battle of Trenton” followed by live questions and answers with Asher Lurie, Chief of Historical Interpretation. Register here.
• 3:00: “Blacks at the Battles of Trenton,” a talk by Algernon Ward, Jr., of Trenton. Register online.
• 4:00: “The Gentler Conflict: Dancing in 18th-Century America” with Sue Dupre and Early Music Princeton. Register here.

At 5:00, William (Larry) Kidder will speak online about Revolutionary Princeton, 1774-1783: The Biography of an American Town in the Heart of a Civil War. His new book details the lives of Princetonians who lived through the Revolutionary War, building on his previous work in Crossroads of the Revolution: Trenton 1774-1783 and Ten Crucial Days: Washington’s Vision for Victory Unfolds. Register for the talk here.

Finally, at 7:00, Don Hagist will discuss his new book Noble Volunteers: The British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution, which brings life to the redcoats, describing their training, experiences, and outcomes. Drawing on military records and other primary sources in British, American, and Canadian archives, and the writings of dozens of officers and soldiers, Noble Volunteers shows how a peacetime army responded to the onset of war, how professional soldiers adapted quickly to become tactically dominant, and what became of the thousands of career soldiers once the war was over. Register for that talk here.

All of these events are free, but in signing up there’s an opportunity to donate to the museum to keep its programs going. You can also order books by Kidder and Hagist through the museum’s online store.