 So to offset that disadvantage, Washington and his war council decided upon a daring and what I believe to be a brilliant plan. So once again, they would lead their men out into the cold. This time, however, and try to follow me here, they would sneak out of Trenton in the cover of night. They would go around Cornwallis' army. They would circumvent that army. They would march the 12 miles to Princeton, and they would strike the smaller British force in Princeton under Lieutenant Colonel Mahud, the same force that Cornwallis had left there.