three in the morning
`` It is wonderful how much the poor fellows were willing to endure in the hope of attaining freedom for themselves and their country . `` Thomas Rodney tells us that on the night of the attack upon Trenton of which we have been talking , while Rall caroused and played cards beside his warm fire , our poor soldiers were toiling and suffering with cold and nakedness , facing wind and sleet in the defence of their country . `` The night , '' he says , `` was as severe a night as ever I saw ; the frost was sharp , the current difficult to stem , the ice increasing , the wind high , and at eleven it began to snow . It was three in the morning of the 26th before the troops and cannon were all over , and another hour passed before they could be formed on the Jersey side . A violent northeast storm of wind , sleet , and hail set in as they began their nine miles ' march to Trenton , against an enemy in the best condition to fight . The weather was terrible for men clad as they were , and the ground slipped under their feet . For a mile and a half they had to climb a steep hill , from which they descended to the road that ran for about three miles between hills and forests of hickory , ash , and black oak . ''