COLONEL TRUMBULL AND HIS PAINTINGS. 71 



fearless, graceful, and skilful rider, and when on horseback 

 his appearance was magnificent. At Mount Vernon, his 

 groom said to Mr. Daniel Wadsworth, that the only objec 

 tion he had against General Washington was, that he 

 " would come every morning to the stables, and see with 

 his own eyes the condition of the horses, and know that 

 they were well cared for." It will be remembered that the 

 sketch in the field-ground of the portrait is the cannonade 

 in Trenton, January 3, 1777, at the stone bridge over the 

 Assunpink River ; the time was about sunset, the evening 

 before the battle of Princeton. The advance of the army 

 from Princeton had been vigorously opposed by the patri 

 ots through the preceding day. All along the road, espe 

 cially at Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville,) and along the 

 margin of the river, and on to Sabbakong, near Trenton, 

 and even in the entrance of the town, the British army 

 was kept in check, and experienced heavy loss. It was 

 said that they lost one hundred and fifty men. In Colonel 

 Trumbull's picture, the rays of the setting sun have gilded 

 the limbs of an old leafless tree, it being winter. The 

 cannonade at the stone bridge prevented the enemy from 

 passing over to storm the American camp.* Being in 

 Trenton in 1823, I conversed with an old gentleman who 

 was present on that occasion. We were at the moment in 

 his garden, on a rising ground, and he said to me : " Here 

 General Washington sat on his horse, on the very ground 

 where we now stand, and I heard him say, during the can 

 nonade : 'Give them plenty of grape.'" This was justly 

 regarded by the artist as the crisis of the Revolution and 

 of Washington's fame This painting is invalu 

 able, and its value is enhanced by the uniform testimony 

 of contemporary American officers with whom I have vis 

 ited the Gallery, and who have declared that the portrait 

 is a faithful likeness of General Washington in his grand- 



* See an interesting summary of these events by C. C. Haven, Esq., 

 Trenton. 1856. 



