[3] The work was commissioned by the city of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1792 to commemorate President Washington's visit there in May 1791 during his Southern Tour.[16] An engraving entitled, General Washington at the Bridge Over the Assunpink Creek, was published in the 1898 book, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, by historian William S.Trumbull described the thinking of Washington after seeing the superiority of the enemy at Trenton: ... he is supposed to have been meditating how to avoid the apparently impending ruin.To re-cross the Delaware in the presence of such an enemy, was impossible; to retreat down the eastern side of the river, and cross at Philadelphia, was equally so; to hazard a battle on the ground, was desperate.[6] Historian and painter William Dunlap after viewing it in the Trumbull Gallery at Yale said: "This is, in many respects, a fine picture, and painted in the artist's best days."[18] The United States Post Office has issued several postage stamps of George Washington from the portrait detail in this painting.