 The British viewed Trenton and Princeton as minor American victories , but with these victories , the Americans believed that they could win the war . American historians often consider the Battle of Princeton a great victory , on par with the battle of Trenton , due to the subsequent loss of control of most of New Jersey by the Crown forces . Some other historians , such as Edward Lengel consider it to be even more impressive than Trenton . A century later , British historian Sir George Otto Trevelyan would write in a study of the American Revolution , when talking about the impact of the victories at Trenton and Princeton , that " It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world . " 
