Re-enactment of fateful action leads to battle for organizers

This year's ceremony didn't include the actual crossing of the river because the weather was bad.
WASHINGTON CROSSING, N.J. (AP) -- George Washington's Christmas crossing of the Delaware River led to critical battles in Trenton and Princeton. Its annual re-enactment is now the subject of a legal fight.
The modern skirmishers put aside their differences Wednesday to conduct the 49th re-enactment. The ceremony was held on the Pennsylvania side of the river, but the rowing to New Jersey was scrapped because of strong winds and currents amid weather -- sleet and rain -- that rivaled the conditions during the original event 226 years ago.
But the truce is temporary. The group that has conducted the event for the past 35 years, the Washington Crossing Re-enactors Society, plans to appeal a Pennsylvania court ruling that gives it less authority.
Upset with changes
The group is upset with changes imposed this year by Michael A. Bertheaud, site administrator for Washington Crossing State Park in Pennsylvania.
Bertheaud is not recognizing re-enactors who play key aides to Washington, including future presidents James Madison and James Monroe, complained a society spokesman, Dr. Joseph Majdan.
In addition, the administrator has assumed the role of assigning boat crews and men, despite having no experience with the boats or personnel, Majdan said.
"He has not displayed an openness, a respect for volunteers, and has sought to strangle and suffocate what has been a sense of volunteerism that perpetuates this crossing every year," Majdan said. "This attitude, if left unchecked, can cause the destruction of the celebration of this event on Christmas Day."
Response
Bertheaud said a variety of groups have contributed to the re-enactment, but referred comment on the complaints to the state Historical and Museum Commission, which operates the park.
Commission spokesman John K. Robinson acknowledged that the agency had worked with the society for many years but defended the right of Bertheaud to give some re-enactors a chance to play more visible roles.
All, however, agree on the importance of Washington's bold strategy.
"We must teach our youths today what was necessary for freedom to be won, so freedom can be maintained," Majdan said. "When the cause was lost, they rekindled that flame that became independence."
Historians agree that the crossing, and battles in Trenton and Princeton over the next 10 days in 1776, reversed the declining fortunes of the Continental Army and the American Revolution.
Several hundred people, nearly all on the Pennsylvania side, came out for the event, compared to about 20,000 that jammed the shores last year amid sunny weather and post-Sept. 11 patriotism.
'Authentic' weather
"This is more authentic, isn't it," noted James Kelley, 49, who watched with his son, Matthew, 10. They were in from a comparatively balmy Manhattan Beach, Calif. (60 degrees), visiting his wife's family in Woodbury.
Washington was played by James Gibson of Fallsington, Bucks County, Pa., who led about 40 oarsmen down to three boats tied along the shore, where they shouted, "Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!"
Neither the re-enactment nor Emanuel Leutze's famous painting of the crossing bears much resemblance to the original event.
Errors
The painting, which hangs in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows Washington standing on a boat in front of Old Glory, which would not be created for another seven months. It also erroneously portrays a daytime crossing in fine weather.
The crossing actually took place amid driving sleet in the dark, starting on Christmas Day and finishing in the early hours of the next day. Cannons and horses were ferried on flat-bottomed rafts not designed for bad weather.
With the passwords, "victory or death," 2,400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 18 cannons were ferried across the river.
The troops marched eight miles downstream to surprise Hessian mercenaries in Trenton.
Two Continental soldiers froze to death on the march but none died in the battle, which cost 30 Hessian lives and netted Washington 1,000 prisoners and six cannons.