Streamed on: Dec 7, 3:30 pm EST

The Times that Tried Men’s Souls and the 10 Crucial Days:
Dec. 25, 1776 to Jan. 3, 1777

December 7, 2025
Presented by Roger Williams
Performing Arts Center, Brewster

About the Lecture
In December 1776, just six months after signing the Declaration of Independence, General George Washington’s fledgling American Army and the cause of liberty were on the brink of collapse. A disastrous campaign in New York that fall led to the loss of more than half of Washington’s troops and to a loss of confidence among Congress and his fellow citizens. The British Generals believed that the rebellious American soldiers, many of whom would see their enlistments expire in just a few weeks, would no longer be able to mount a significant resistance. Settling into winter quarters, they believed all hope for independence was lost.
George Washington saw something very different… Taking stock of his army’s desperate situation, the rebel commander-in-chief launched his forces into a series of victorious battles, of which British historian Sir George Otto Trevelyan later wrote, “It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world.” That period—December 25, 1776, to January 3, 1777—covered the “Ten Crucial Days” that changed the course of history.

:About Roger Williams
Roger S. Williams serves as a Vice Chair on the History and Education Committees for the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, the State Historian of the New Jersey Society SAR, and the President of the Princeton Chapter SAR. He is the cofounder of TenCrucialDays.org, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that is dedicated to heritage tourism and the education of the sites and venues of the Trenton and Princeton campaigns, including Washington Crossing and the Princeton Battlefield. He is a member of the National Council on Public History, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Congress of American Revolutionary War Round Tables. Roger is also the Lead Project Consultant for a musical production in development, called The Crossing, TheCrossingMusical.com.

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