PHOTO COURTESY OF WEDNESDAYS IN MARBLEHEAD
Glover’s Regiment crosses the Marblehead Harbor. The annual row will take place at the Town Landing, Front Street.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
MARBLEHEAD — History will come alive in Marblehead on Saturday.
Glover’s Marblehead Regiment will be commemorating Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware at 2:30 p.m. at the Town Landing, Front Street, with a ceremony that includes its annual row, using a 26-foot longboat, across Marblehead Harbor.
The Regiment is a nonprofit, historical reenactment group honoring the 14th Continental Regiment led by Gen. John Glover during the American Revolutionary War.
The ceremony and row mark the actual crossing, where Glover’s sailor-soldiers rowed Gen. George Washington, troops, cannon and horses across the Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776, in advance of the Battle of Trenton, according to information provided by Seamus Daly, captain of Glover’s Marblehead Regiment.
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The countless trips through the icy river allowed the Regiment to launch a surprise attack on troops fighting on behalf of the British, a battle that changed the course of the Revolutionary War, according to information provided by Daly.
“Right up to that point, it looked like the Revolution was going to fail,” Daly said in a phone interview.
Daly said the longboat, which is stored at the Gun House, has been in use since 1976 when the Crossing was first commemorated in Marblehead Harbor, and has been done every December since then.
The boat will be in use for the first time since it underwent a refurbishment over the fall, with work sponsored by the Old Marblehead Improvement Association and completed by Doug Park of Redd’s Pond Boatworks.
The boat will be launched at Barnegat at around 9:30 a.m. Saturday and rowed by the Regiment to State Street Landing. They’ll land approximately a half an hour later, while Santa and Mrs. Claus are talking to the children.
The regiment will participate in the Christmas Walk Parade until about 12:30 p.m., which finishes at Memorial Park.
After the parade, they’ll render honors in Memorial Park and then march to various locations throughout town, firing musket volleys and singing sea chanteys. Their objective is to reach the Landing 15 minutes before the ceremony is scheduled to begin.
A short speech commemorating Glover and his men will be given, the regiment will render honors, and initiate a roll call, using names from the original Glover’s Regiment.
As names are called, the men will proceed to the longboat, row across the harbor, fire blunderbuss rounds and row back to Barnegat to land the boat.
The day is poignant for the Revolutionary War reenactment group, Daly said, because it commemorates the war’s turning point.
With his army about to disappear, Washington decided that bold action was needed in the form of a bold counterattack, Daly said. The army would re-cross the Delaware back into New Jersey at three places on Christmas night for its surprise attack, having retreated across the river earlier in the month into Pennsylvania.
Two of the three commissioned crossing attempts failed due to severe weather conditions, but the one that did succeed, which was led by Washington himself, did so because Washington asked Glover and his fishermen to man the boats.
Then, Daly said, they marched the nine miles to Trenton, routing and capturing about 900 Hessians, German troops hired by the British to help fight during the war.
In all, Glover’s men were rowing, marching and fighting for almost 36 hours.
“We celebrate it because it was a monumental effort,” Daly said. “It was a monumental act of courage and defiance. It basically stopped the war from ending that month.”
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Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.