CANNON

While cannon were sometimes decisive on the battlefield, they did not dominate warfare in the way they would come to do in the 20 th century. When one considers the use of artillery in World War I one realizes the limitations of seventeenth century cannons. One of the occasions when they were decisive, however, was the Trenton Princeton campaign. Here the wet weather made the rifles and muskets harder to use and the field artillery was able to come into its own. This was the reason Washington increased the proportion of artillery pieces to infantry at Trenton . The cannon were easier to protect against rain. Because muskets and rifles were hard to fire in wet weather and the artillery were not Washington gave the guns priority in crossing the Delaware .