...select the most deserving only for your friendships, and before this becomes intimate, weigh their dispositions and character well. True friendship is a plant of slow growth; to be sincere, there must be a congeniality of temper and pursuits. Virtue and vice can not be allied; nor can idleness and industry....67
But when an intimate friendship was established, Washington allowed his closest friends to experience his deep emotions through open and generous expressions of love. Lifelong friendships were made by Washington with neighbors such as Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Dr. James Craik68 and the Anglican/Episcopalian clergyman, the Reverend Lord Bryan Fairfax.69 In Washington’s adult life, close friendships formed within the circle of his fellow military officers Marquis de Lafayette,70 Comte Rochambeau,71 Marquis de Chastellux,72 Baron Von Steuben,73 Comte DeGrasse,74 military aide David Humphreys,75 Colonel Alexander Hamilton,76 and General Henry Knox.77 There was, however, an especially tender place in Washington’s heart for the Marquis de Lafayette. Consider these endearing words of affirmation in his letters to his twenty-five-year-younger, surrogate son:
...the sincere and heartfelt pleasure that you had not only regained your liberty; but were in the enjoyment of better health than could have been expected from your long and rigorous confinement; and that madame La Fayette and the young ladies were able to Survive ...amongst your numerous friends none can offer his congratulations with more warmth, or who prays more sincerely for the perfect restoration of your ladies health, than I do.78
Washington’s cool yet gracious countenance was the necessary firewall to contain and to protect his passionate heart.
CONCLUSION: THE LANGUAGE OF WASHINGTON’S HEART
Just as there are largely unknown statements of faith etched on the stairway walls of the Washington Monument as one mounts the stairs to the pinnacle, so inside the marble-like exterior of Washington there was a largely unknown heart of deep feelings, strong emotions, and a reverent personal faith. As he wrote from New York, just at the end of the War to the freeholders and inhabitants of Kings County on December 1, 1783, “...you speak the language of my heart, in acknowledging the magnitude of our obligations to the Supreme Director of all human events.”79 Just as access to the stairs of the monument is restricted, precluding the average American from reading the marvelous testimonials to the faith etched there, so too, many modern historians have cut off access to the real Washington. This book will reopen the stairs, so to speak, to Washington’s soul and we will once again read the language of his heart etched throughout his life, which was the language of a deep faith, expressed by a devout Christian in the eighteenth century Anglican tradition. Indeed, the language of Washington’s heart was warmed by his passionate soul and the “sacred fire of liberty.”
NINE
George Washington the Soldier
“The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.”
George Washington, General Orders, July 9, 1776
1
George Washington first secured his place in history as a military leader. From childhood, he had set his sights on a military career. He entered into the Virginia militia as a young adult, and in the midst of struggles over promotion and rank, he affirmed that his “inclinations” were “strongly bent to arms.”2
His superb leadership, honed from his earliest years in the French and Indian War and perfected when he assumed command in the Revolutionary War, enabled him to ultimately win. But victory was not usually in sight, since he was greatly undersupplied, usually outmanned or outgunned and sometimes outmaneuvered. But Washington had his moments of triumph as well.3 In this chapter that focuses on George Washington’s military career, we discover the early development of his deep lifelong faith in God’s powerful Providence, as we find him on duty in the backwoods of Pennsylvania.
WASHINGTON ON DUTY IN THE WILDERNESS OF PENNSYLVANIA
Washington had traveled the Virginian wilderness into the Allegheny Mountains in his work as a sixteen-year-old surveyor for Lord Fairfax. Given his experience, as well as his keen interest in military service, in 1753, Virginia Gov. Dinwiddie gave the then twenty-one-year-old Washington the extraordinary task of trekking across the vast unopened mountainous reaches of what is today the state of Pennsylvania.4 His mission was to travel to Fort Le Boeuf near modern-day Erie, Pennsylvania, to tell the French military stationed there that they were trespassing on British land, and that they would need to leave. Some have speculated that young George was also willing to go because he was running from a broken heart.5
Washington arrived at the Fort on December 11th, having left on October 31st. He soon learned that the French commander St. Pierre had no intention of leaving. He said, “I am here by virtue of the orders of my general, and I entreat you, sir, not to doubt one moment that I am determined to conform myself to them with all the exactness and resolution which can be expected from the best officers.”6 Washington left to carry that news back to Dinwiddie. His return journey however, encountered many dire circumstances, which he narrowly escaped. These included being spared death from an Indian who fired his gun and missed at only fifteen paces away; surviving a near drowning in an ice-swollen river when he was thrown off a makeshift raft; and hiking his way back on foot, since his horse had nearly starved to death on the long, hungry ride, even before facing the cold winter return trip.
A theological book that George Washington owned and signed as a young adult
Washington was sent back to the Fort with troops in 1754, and the first fire under Washington’s military command occurred, as well as the first casualties of what was to become the French and Indian War. A surprise attack on a hidden French encampment resulted in ten killed, including Monsieur De Jumonville (the commanding officer), one wounded, and twenty-one prisoners. Ever after this event, the French claimed that Washington was guilty of assassinating an ambassador, while the British claimed that Washington’s troops were simply protecting English land against the French intruders and spies. Regardless, Washington’s small band retreated, expecting a much larger assault from troops garrisoned at Fort Duquesne, the site of modern day Pittsburgh. The retreat also gave Washington’s men time to build Fort Necessity at Great Meadows. Here Washington’s soldiers gave a hearty defense until they surrendered before a much larger French force. The surrender was necessitated, in part, due to their rain-soaked weapons and dampened gunpowder. But they negotiated surrender with what Washington believed to be terms of honor. However, when Washington signed the capitulation, due to his limited knowledge of French, he unwittingly signed a paper that declared he had assassinated Jumonville.7 A painful lesson indeed for the young Washington.
WASHINGTON’S LESSON ON PROVIDENCE: SURVIVING A MASSACRE
Today, it is a little known fact that when George Washington was twenty-three, he very easily could have died in a bloody battle that was more of a massacre than a battle. It took place on July 9, 1755, just a year after his surrender at Fort Necessity.
When Jumonville was killed, Washington had, in essence, fired the first shot in what became the French and Indian War. The British continued their defense of their claim on the land north of Florida and south of Canada, from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River. From their perspective, the French troops in western Pennsylvania were encroaching on that claim. The Indians were caught in the middle. Some sided with the French, and some with the British. The French and Indian War, pitting England against France, eventually raged over two continents. By the end, Great Britain had won, and France had to withdraw some of its claims in North America. After the War, Great Britain decided to saddle the American colonists with the bill for what they viewed as their defense of America. In 1765, the British Ministry imposed the infamous Stamp Act on America, which Washington criticized as a foolish decision.8 This and other subsequent new taxes had not been voted on by the colonies. By such taxation without representation,9 the British put in motion the events that would eventually ignite the American Revolution and result in the loss of their American colonies.10
Nineteenth century British author William Thackeray noted Washington’s unique role and the irony of all these events:
It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania, a young Virginian officer should fire a shot, and waken a war which was to last for 60 years, which was to cover his own country and pass into Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to sever ours from us, and create the great western republic; to rage over the old world when extinguished in the new; and, of all the myriads engaged in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame to him who struck the first blow.11
SPARED BY PROVIDENCE
George Washington’s life was especially in danger in a couple of instances during the French and Indian War. For example, Washington wrote to his friend and biographer, David Humphreys, of an incident where he was almost killed by “friendly fire”:
.... during the time the Army lay at Loyal Hanning, a circumstance occurred which involved the life of George Washington in as much jeopardy as it had ever been before or since. The enemy sent out a large detachment to Reconnoiter our Camp, and to ascertain our strength; in consequence of Intelligence that they were within 2 miles of the Camp a party commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel Mercer of Virginia line (a Gallant & good Officer) was sent to dislodge them between whom a severe conflict & hot firing ensued which lasting some time & appearing to approach the Camp it was conceived that our party was yielding the ground upon which George Washington with permission of the General called (per dispatch) for Volunteers and immediately marched at their head to sustain, as was conjectured the retiring troops. Led on by the firing till he came within less than half a mile, & it ceasing, he detached Scouts to investigate the cause & to communicate his approach to his friend Colonel Mercer advancing slowly in the meantime – But it being near dusk and the intelligence not having been fully disseminated among Colonel Mercers Corps. And they taking us for the enemy who had retreated approaching in another directions commenced a heave fire upon the relieving party which drew fire in return in spite of all the exertions of the Officers one of whom & several privates were killed and many wounded before a stop could be put to it. To accomplish which George Washington never was in more imminent danger by being between two fires, knocking up with his sword the presented pieces.12
In other words, Washington was directly between two lines of soldiers firing at each other. Because they were the same army, Washington tried to stop them from shooting by riding in front of his men on his side of the battlefield and using his sword to push the soldiers’ rifles to the sky so no one would be killed. As a result, the person most in danger was Washington himself!
Later, when young Colonel Washington was in the woods of Pennsylvania in 1755, in the midst of the French and Indian War, he faced an extremely close brush with death. British General Edward Braddock was in charge, leading 1300-1400 British soldiers on the way to Fort Duquesne. Only a few miles south of that location, as they crossed the Monongahela River, their path into the forest suddenly came alive with gunfire—all of it one-way—from the Indians and French hidden in the trees and shooting at the unsuspecting British soldiers. The British, who had been trained to march and fight in open field formation were cut to pieces without ever seeing their enemy. In his book, The Bulletproof George Washington, David Barton writes: “... not a musket was seen; the enemy was not visible. The blue smoke rising up after every discharge revealed that the firing came from the trees.”13
Washington had warned Gen. Braddock of the fighting methods of the Indians, but Braddock would hear none of it.14 His hubris and unwillingness to learn from Washington’s wilderness experience of fighting the Indians cost him and his officers their lives, as well as those of many of their men.15 Tragically, every one of the officers— except Colonel Washington—was wounded or killed.16
Someone looking at Colonel Washington at the battle assumed he would die any minute. He reported later, “I expected every moment to see him fall. Nothing but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him.”17 By the end of the “battle” (or really “rout”), Washington alone remained unharmed, with 714 Americans and British either killed or wounded.18 In contrast, the French and Indians lost three officers and thirty men.
Why was Washington not killed? After this battle, George wrote his brother, John Augustine Washington, and provided his answer to that question—“the miraculous care of Providence”:
Dear Jack: As I have heard since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial acct. of my death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of contradicting both, and of assuring you that I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence, that protected me beyond all human expectation; I had 4 Bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me, and yet escaped unhurt. We have been most scandalously beaten by a trifling body of men; but fatigue and want of time prevents me from giving any of the details till I have the happiness of seeing you at home; which I now most ardently wish for, since we are drove in thus far. A Weak and Feeble state of Health, obliges me to halt here for 2 or 3 days, to recover a little strength, that I may thereby be enabled to proceed homewards with more ease; You may expect to see me there on Saturday or Sunday...I am Dear Jack, your most Affect. Brother.19
His comment is both a demonstration of his wit, as well as a statement of his deep faith in Divine protection.
One of the great Virginian Presbyterian ministers of those days pointed to Washington and expressed his hope that the young Colonel was being prepared by God for great things. Reverend Samuel Davies has been described by Dr. Clarence Edward Macartney as the “most eloquent preacher of Colonial days.”20 What did Reverend Davies say about this remarkable young man who survived all the gunfire despite the incredible odds? “I may point out to the public that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope that Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to his country.”21
This was just one of several close calls with death in the dangers of the French and Indian War in the wilds of the unsettled frontier.22
THE INDIAN PROPHECY
Fifteen years later, Washington’s diaries show that he and his friend and personal physician, Dr. James Craik, went back to the Fort Dusquesne region and encountered several Indians.23 As the French had been ousted from America, and the Indians had made peace, they safely made their return trip with the purpose of protecting the lands that Washington and his soldiers had received as payment from the government for their service in the French and Indian War. The remarkable Indian encounter that Washington and Craik had at that time was not recorded by Washington himself, but by Craik, who related it to Washington’s adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. Custis records the solemn meeting in his Recollections of Washington, preserving what has become known as the “Indian Prophecy.”
