President Barack Obama mentioned this dramatic Revolutionary War scene during his inaugural address last month as he spoke of the challenges the nation faces today. But where did this scene unfold in 1776 — and what capital was abandoned?

Curiosity about that part of the president's speech inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

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Major league players report to a particular place for spring training each year, but what about players who are not signed to a major league contract? Where do minor league players get their spring training?

Francisco M. Cividanes

Stafford, Va.

Spring training is a snap for Ryan Howard, Vladimir Guerrero and other big leaguers — they pack their bags in February and head to camps in Florida and Arizona. But Triple-A hitters and Double-A pitchers need to break out the bats and balls, too.

Minor league players destined to spend the summer in places like Rochester, Chattanooga and Yakima report in March. They show up at the same sites where the major leaguers work out, only they'll practice on back fields, dress in cramped clubhouses and play exhibition games that often draw fewer than 100 fans.

A handful of each team's top-tier minor leaguers are luckier — they get to play spring training games with the big league teams, and some may even make it onto a major league roster in time for opening day.

For Manny Ramirez and other players looking for a job, it's back to school: Many of them join their former college or high school teams for daily workouts. Imagine seeing an All-Star slugger taking batting practice off little Herbie from chemistry class!

Ben Walker

AP Baseball Writer

New York

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During President Obama's inaugural address he said the following:

"In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood."

Did he misspeak? As far as I can recall there was no capital for the first few years and the government shuffled between New York and Philadelphia. What capital, and what river, was he talking about?

Dan Valdez

Albuquerque, N.M.

Obama was referring to Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas 1776 as he led his Continental Army on a successful offensive from Pennsylvania against Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, N.J.

Less than a week earlier, the Continental Congress had left Philadelphia for Baltimore. As home to Congress, these cities effectively served, one after the other, as the young nation's capital.

Moving the seat of the revolutionary government was not a huge enterprise.

"Of course it was a small body of men," says Donald A. Ritchie, associate historian of the Senate. "When things got dicey, they could get on horseback and go somewhere else."

Congress has based itself in nine places. During the Revolution, it met in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lancaster, Pa. (for one day), York, Pa., and Princeton, N.J., where it was stationed when the U.S. sealed its independence in a peace treaty with Britain in September 1783.

Congress moved to Annapolis, Md., late that year. Then it sat in Trenton, New York and back in Philadelphia for a decade before it came to its permanent home in Washington, D.C., in 1800.

The Revolutionary War does not get a great deal of attention in modern presidential rhetoric apart from obligatory references to the Founding Fathers. Obama is an exception. So was Ronald Reagan.

Reagan, in his second inaugural speech, described a general falling to his knees "in the hard snow of Valley Forge." In his 1980 acceptance speech, he quoted from "Common Sense," Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

Obama also quoted from "Common Sense" during the campaign. And in his inauguration speech — immediately after the quote cited in the question above — he again turned to Paine, without identifying him.

"At a moment when the outcome of our Revolution was most in doubt," Obama said, "the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: 'Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet ... it."

(He left out the words: "and to repulse.")

That was from Paine's opening article in his series, "The Crisis." Just days after those words were published in December 1776, Washington had his officers read them to his troops as they prepared for their assault on the Hessians.

Calvin Woodward

Associated Press Writer

Washington

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With all the interest in electric cars, I was wondering if there are new developments in the types of rechargeable batteries. Anything on the horizon that's better than lithium-ion?

Bruce Schowalter

Roeland Park, Kan.

Automakers working on electric cars have embraced lithium-ion batteries as the storage medium of choice. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries — the same type of batteries found in laptop computers — will help power General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Volt. They also power electric cars by Mini and by the startup Tesla Motors.

In the near term, car and battery makers are working furiously to build smaller, more powerful and longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries for the cars of the future. Existing lithium-ion batteries take up lots of space and provide limited range. In the case of the Mini E, the battery takes up the entire back seat and lasts just 150 miles before needing more juice — and a full recharge takes four and a half hours.

Engineers will likely be tinkering with lithium-ion batteries for the foreseeable future because they are extremely effective at storing energy, said Mike Andrew, director of government affairs for Johnson Controls Inc.'s hybrids division.

As for the longer term, scientists are at work on high-end technologies like something called asymmetrical capacitors and various other theoretical devices. But those remain "far out," Andrew said.

Dan Strumpf

AP Auto Writer

New York