As the British Army approached the Revolutionary capital Philadelphia, Washington mustered all his forces including the Continental Marines and Navy contingents. Using Durham boats – large wooden, flat-bottomed, double-ended freight boats – Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night of 1776 in a bold counterstroke, as later immortalized in a painting by Emanuel Leutze. During these ten crucial days of the Revolutionary War, the Marines and cannon-wielding elements of the Navy led by Commodore Barry similarly crossed the Delaware, leading to the Marines’ first land combat of all time at the Second Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton.