<P> George Washington had stationed a spy named John Honeyman, posing as a Tory, in Trenton . Honeyman had served with Major General James Wolfe in Quebec at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759, and had no trouble establishing his credentials as a Tory . Honeyman was a butcher and bartender, who traded with the British and Hessians . This enabled him to gather intelligence, and also to convince the Hessians that the Continental Army was in such a low state of morale that they would not attack Trenton . Shortly before Christmas, he arranged to be captured by the Continental Army, who had orders to bring him to Washington unharmed . After being questioned by Washington, he was imprisoned in a small hut, to be tried as a Tory in the morning, but a small fire broke out nearby, enabling him to "escape ." </P> <P> The American plan relied on launching coordinated attacks from three directions . General John Cadwalader would launch a diversionary attack against the British garrison at Bordentown, New Jersey, to block off reinforcements from the south . General James Ewing would take 700 militia across the river at Trenton Ferry, seize the bridge over the Assunpink Creek and prevent enemy troops from escaping . The main assault force of 2,400 men would cross the river 9 mi (14 km) north of Trenton and split into two groups, one under Greene and one under Sullivan, to launch a pre-dawn attack . Sullivan would attack the town from the south, and Greene from the north . Depending on the success of the operation, the Americans would possibly follow up with separate attacks on Princeton and New Brunswick . </P> <P> During the week before the battle, American advance parties began to ambush enemy cavalry patrols, capturing dispatch riders and attacking Hessian pickets . The Hessian commander, to emphasize the danger to his men, sent 100 infantry and an artillery detachment to deliver a letter to the British commander at Princeton . Washington ordered Ewing and his Pennsylvania militia to try to gain information on Hessian movements and technology . Ewing instead made three successful raids across the river . On December 17 and 18, 1776, they attacked an outpost of jägers and on the 21st, they set fire to several houses . Washington put constant watches on all possible crossings near the Continental Army encampment on the Delaware, as he believed William Howe would launch an attack from the north on Philadelphia if the river froze over . </P> <P> On December 20, 1776, some 2,000 troops led by General Sullivan arrived in Washington's camp . They had been under the command of Charles Lee, and had been moving slowly through northern New Jersey when Lee was captured . That same day, an additional 800 troops arrived from Fort Ticonderoga under the command of Horatio Gates . </P>

What were the key turning points in the american revolution