Washington, while worrying over how to hold his army together, has organized attacks on the relatively exposed British outposts, which are as a result continually on edge due to ongoing militia and army raids.

German commanders Carl von Donop and Johann Rall, whose brigades are at the end of the chain of outposts, are frequent targets of these raids, but their repeated warnings and requests for support from General James Grant are dismissed.

Beginning in mid-December, Washington plans a two-pronged attack on Rall's outpost in Trenton, with a third diversionary attack on Donop's outpost in Bordentown.

The plan is aided by the fortuitous presence of a militia company that draws Donop's entire two thousand-man force away from Bordentown to the south that results in a skirmish at Mount Holly on December 23.

The consequence of this action is that Donop will not be in a position to assist Rall when Washington's attack on Trenton takes place.