George Washington: Providence, Prayer, Protection, and President

George Washington experienced a miracle early in his military career. This account is widely known and was included in most school history textbooks, until recent changes caused it to be deleted from many books.

During the French and Indian war at the Battle of the Monongahela, young Colonel Washington was engaged in a fierce skirmish with the Indians. An easy target in his bold red coat, he crisscrossed the battlefield carrying General Braddock’s orders to the troops. The Indian warriors later acknowledged that they were targeting all officers–and particularly Washington–in the bright garb. Yet Washington survived. There were eighty-six British and American officers involved in the battle; sixty-three of them died. Colonel Washington was the only officer on horseback who was not killed, and later, the Indians testified that they repeatedly shot at him, and were surprised that he never fell. They believed he was protected by an invisible power and that no bullet, bayonet, arrow or tomahawk could harm him.

Years later, the Indian chief sought Washington out in order to tell him what had happened in the battle. The Chief said, “I am a chief and ruler over my tribes. I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. [On that day] I called to my men and said, ‘Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies.’ Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for you, knew not how to miss-’twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we, shielded you. I am come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle.”

Washington himself later wrote to his brother John, “By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!”

“The disadvantageous circumstances on our part, under which the war was undertaken, can never be forgotten. The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition were such as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unobserving; while the unparalleled perseverance of the armies of the United States, through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of eight long years, was little short of a standing miracle.”