The number of soldiers on each side is important. So are the weapons. And strategy. But there’s another factor, which the generals have no control over: the weather.
A storm can change the course of a battle, and the course of history, too. That’s what happened on December 26, 1776.
In December of 1776, George Washington’s Continental Army arrived in Philadelphia. They had just lost four battles in a row to the British army and were forced to retreat a hundred miles from New York through New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
The army was falling apart. Over the previous months, most of the soldiers had gone home: for some, their enlistment time was up; others deserted the army when they just couldn’t take the terrible conditions any longer. They were suffering from ragged uniforms, lack of shoes and blankets, no food, and the frigid cold of winter.
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