Historical person
Johann Rall
1726–1776
Rall was an experienced officer in the forces of Hesse-Kassel and had served in European and American campaigns. His brigade occupied Trenton as part of the British winter deployment across New Jersey. Washington’s surprise attack on 26 December 1776 caught the garrison before it could form an effective defence.
Rall was mortally wounded during the fighting and died the following day after surrendering his command. Johann Rall was the Hessian colonel commanding the garrison defeated by George Washington at Trenton in December 1776. Johann Rall was born in Stralsund, Swedish Pomerania and died in Trenton, New Jersey.
David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing makes Colonel Johann Rall the Hessian commander responsible for the garrison at Trenton when Washington’s battered Continental Army crosses the Delaware on Christmas night 1776. Fischer reconstructs Rall’s preparations, the intelligence available to him and the sudden American attack, treating his mortal wounding and the collapse of the Hessian defence as part of the reversal that rescued the revolutionary cause from a disastrous year.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring Johann Rall (1 book)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.