Colonel Jacob Bates crossed the Delaware with General Washington on the night of December 25, 1776. The action was the first move in a surprise attack against the German Hessian allied mercenary forces at Trenton, New Jersey, in the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26.
Jacob’s wife Ruth was originally married to Isaac Chapman who served with Jacob in the revolutionary war. Mr. Chapman was killed at Fort Ticonderoga. Ruth then married Jacob. Jacob agreed that they would name their first child Isaac Chapman Bates after her first husband.