1777
General Washington wrote to John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress, describing the exhausted state of his army. He reported that that severe weather and fatigue had forced him to encamp at Morristown, the best location to refresh his men. He also reported that British forces under General Cornwallis had evacuated Trenton and Princeton and were retreating toward New Brunswick.
1778
While the main Continental Army was encamped in winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, militias from New Jersey remained active. One group from Burlington captured both a transport ship and a schooner. Another group captured and destroyed a transport ship named for the British Admiral Lord Howe. These expeditions resulted in the capture of British seamen and soldiers and the seizure of valuable cargo while ensuring that the British remained short of supplies.
1781
One of the most dangerous crises of the war reached a climax in Princeton on this day. About 2,400 soldiers from Pennsylvania had on January 1 mutinied over their pay and enlistment terms. On January 7, they met with the President of Pennsylvania and General Wayne to negotiate over these grievances.
On this same day, the mutineers proved their continued loyalty by capturing two British agents that had been sent by the British to entice them to defect. Instead, they turned these men over to the American authorities as a gesture of “devotion to the Patriot cause.”
1789
Although after the war, January 7 marked the day the Continental Congress set for states to choose electors for the first ever U.S. presidential election, which would lead to Washington’s presidency.