War coverage in 1776 (or eventually)
The German Emmanuel Leutze created his best-known work 75 years after George Washington was ferried to victory at Trenton, New Jersey. Time and distance (Leutze did the painting in Dusseldorf) may be excuses for poor memory, but he was way over the top with this one.
It only bothers historians, really. The average viewer (and certainly most Americans) could care less that Washington in fact crossed the Delaware River in the dead of night in a furious snowstorm. Leutze, of course, was going for the old out-of-darkness-to-a-new-dawn effect, and actually painted the morning star directly above the lead poler, as if it’s the Wise Men at Christmas a-coming. See the rest.
