Excerpt from Catalogue of the Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair, in Aid of the U. S. Sanitary Commission

The event which the painter of this noble picture has undertaken to portray and to honor, was one of the-most important and daring of those efforts, one of the severest of those trials, which marked the struggle of our forefathers for Independence. It hardly yields in importance to the battle of Saratoga, or_the surrender at Yorktown; for had this daring attempt been unsuccessful, that last and crowning triumph would_never have taken place.

It was at the gloomiest time of the long, the weary, and unequal strife with the gigantic power of England, that the passage of the Delaware took place. The darkest hour of' that protracted night of peril had then overshadowed the noble Spirits who held in their_keeping the welfare of their country-the freedom of the world but they quailed not, for he who was their leader stood firm, and, amid all their peril, hopefully before them; and resting, under God, on his unequalled wisdom and fortitude, they then saw that the deepest night does indeed foretell the coming day, for the dawn of their liberty - dim, rayless, almost chilling, but still dawn - soon struggled through the gloom upon their aching sight.

The month of December, 1776, found the American forces on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, a little above Trenton, where the main body of the enemy were encamped. The river here is not quite half a mile Wide, and was at this time considered impassable on account of the vast quantity of ice, which was driven along in rugged masses upon its rapid current. Those who have not seen a large and rapid northern river in the depth or the close of winter, ere it has become firmly frost-bound, can have no idea of the terrible force with which the huge blocks and fields of ice sweep down it, grinding, crushing, and piling one_upon the other, with a sound which seems like harsh and prolonged thunder. To attempt a passage at such a time, seems like a courting of destruction; but by the hardy boatmen who are always found upon the banks of su%h rivers, they are occasionally crossed at the most favorable Opportunities, in astrong and lightly laden boat.

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