Washington "was at the end of the tether." "In ten days this army will have ceased to exist," was his almost despairing cry to Congress, calling for aid to strengthen his disappearing and dispirited army. Yet on the upper Delaware, amid all the encircling gloom, God's precious Providence and love was at no time during the Revolution more strikingly manifested. All seemed lost this bleak December, 1776. The hour of defeat, dismay and destruction seemed about to strike. The timid, the faint-hearted, the treacherous were fast accepting British allegiance. Even heretofore stalwart hearts wavered in the cause of Liberty. The newly proclaimed Independence of hot July, the threat and defiance of the Colonies to England's tyranny, was now in the chill December, like the earth, about to be sheathed in the coldness of death.
The alarm came to Philadelphia. Shops were shut, schools closed and the inhabitants engaged solely in providing for the defense of the City, now the aim of the enemy. But out of all this gloom and alarm came the victory at Trenton.
Captain John Barry organized a company of volunteers and went to Washington's assistance. In cooperation with the marines under Captain William Brown, he lent efficient service in transporting Washington's army across the Delaware prior to the Battle of Trenton. Captain Barry acted as an aide to General Cadwallader, and on one occasion, of which there is record, as an aide to Washington in the safe conduct to Philadelphia of the baggage of the captured Hessians and also of the surgeons and physicians to Princeton.
After the Trenton campaign and its consequent successful results, Captain Barry returned to Philadelphia and engaged in naval preparations for the defense of the city. He was the Senior Commander of the Navy in the Port of Philadelphia.
In July, 1777, twelve of the lieutenants of the fleet under Barry struck for an increase of pay and allowances. They notified Captain Barry they would not act on board any vessel until their grievances were redressed. Barry informed the Marine Committee. It reported the affair to Congress, saying that such a combination of officers was of the "most dangerous tendency." Whereupon the Congress dismissed all of the lieutenants and declared their commissions "void and of no effect." The offenders were declared incapable of holding any commission under the United States and recommending the several States not to employ any in offices civil or military. This brought the lieutenants to "acknowledge in the most explicit manner that the offense for which they were dismissed is highly reprehensible and could not be justified under any circumstances or any pretence whatever, and that they were exceedingly sorry for the rashness which betrayed them into such behavior." Then the strikers were "restored to former rank and command."