Most everyone, other than the liberal arts faculty in most major universities and a disturbing number of high school history teachers, is familiar with Washington’s crossing of the Delaware on the night of December 25-26, 1776, and the stunning surprise victory that ensued in the streets of Trenton, New Jersey.

What is often lost in the telling of the narrative is the tactical sophistication that George Washington was developing by the winter of 1776-77 and a little-known battle, one which I think shows Washington at his finest, that took place on January 2, 1777.