Under a stormy, smoke-filled sky, George Washington sits on a brown horse at the center and gestures toward a wounded Hessian officer in an orange coat, who is held up by an American officer in blue and buff. A drum and a cap lie on the ground, a fallen soldier lies beneath the hooves of a white horse, and flags stand out against the clouds on both sides. The picture shows the aftermath of the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, after Washington's Christmas night crossing of the Delaware. Yale says the Hessian commander, Colonel Johann Gottlieb Rall, was mortally wounded, and that Washington directs Major William Stephens Smith to care for him.

John Trumbull said he made the picture to teach soldiers to show mercy to a fallen enemy. The James Monroe Museum notes that it also shows James Monroe lying wounded in the background at the left. This is a small oil, only about 20 by 30 inches, that Trumbull worked on over decades; Yale dates it 1786 to 1828. It came to Yale with the Trumbull Collection in 1832.

It is in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.