Good afternoon Heart4Teens.com readers!
One of my fellow youth leaders gave me a book called "Under God" this
past year and I was enthralled with the true stories it contained. I wanted to
share one of the stories with you that had a profound impact on me. But it also
made me mad. The impact of the story will be obvious when you read it. But my
anger was due to the fact that stories like these have been systematically taken
out of our history books over the years.
See if you can figure out who today's story is about before you reach the end!
From my family to yours,
Author Michael T. Powers
______________________________________
Bulletproof
Excerpt from the Book: Under God
By: Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait
Bethany / 2004 / in association with Wallbuilders.com
The French and Indian War: Account of a British Officer
JULY 9, 1755
The American Indian chief looked scornfully at the soldiers on the field before
him. How foolish it was to fight as they did, forming their perfect battle lines out
in the open, standing shoulder to shoulder in their bright red uniforms. The British
soldiers -- trained for European warfare -- did not break rank, even when braves
fired at them from under the safe cover of the forest. The slaughter at the Monongahela
River continued for two hours. By then 1,000 of 1,459 British soldiers were killed or
wounded, while only 30 of the French and Indian warriors firing at them were injured.
Not only were the soldiers foolish, but their officers were just as bad. Riding on
horseback, fully exposed above the men on the ground, they made perfect targets.
One by one, the chiefs marksmen shot the mounted British officers until only one remained.
"Quick, let your aim be certain and he dies," the chief commanded. The warriors -- a
mix of Ottawa, Huron, and Chippewa tribesmen -- leveled their rifles at the last officer on
horseback. Round after round was aimed at this one man. Twice the officer's horse was
shot out from under him. Twice he grabbed a horse left idle when a fellow officer had been
shot down. Ten, twelve, thirteen rounds were fired by the sharpshooters. Still, the
officer remained unhurt.
The native warriors stared at him in disbelief. Their rifles seldom missed their mark.
The chief suddenly realized that a mighty power must be shielding this man. "Stop
firing!" he commanded. "This one is under the special protection of the Great Spirit."
A brave standing nearby added, "I had seventeen clear shots at him . . . and after all
could not bring him to the ground. This man was not born to be killed by a bullet."
As the firing slowed, the lieutenant colonel gathered the remaining troops and led the
retreat to safety. That evening, as the last of the wounded were being cared for, the
officer noticed an odd tear in his coat. It was a bullet hole! He rolled up his sleeve and
looked at his arm directly under the hole. There was no mark on his skin. Amazed,
he took off his coat and found three more holes where bullets had passed through
his coat but stopped before they reached his body.
Nine days after the battle, having heard a rumor of his own death, the young
lieutenant colonel wrote his brother to confirm that he was still very much alive.
As I have heard since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial account of my
death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of contradicting the first and
of assuring you that I have not as yet composed the latter. But 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 battle on the Monongahela, part of the French and Indian War, was fought on
July 9, 1755, near Fort Duquesne, now the city of Pittsburgh. The twenty-three-year-old
officer went on to become the commander in chief of the Continental Army and the
first president of the United States. In all the years that followed in his long career,
this man, George Washington, was never once wounded in battle.
Fifteen years later, in 1770, George Washington returned to the same Pennsylvania
woods. A respected Indian chief, having heard that Washington was in the area,
traveled a long way to meet with him.
He sat down with Washington, and face-to-face over a council fire, the chief told
Washington the following:
I am a chief and ruler over my tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the great
lakes and to the far blue mountains. I have traveled a long and weary path that I might
see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day when the white man's blood
mixed with the streams of our forests that I first beheld this chief .
I called to my young men and said, "Mark yon tall and daring warrior? He is not of
the red-coat tribe -- he hath an Indian's wisdom and his warriors fight as we do--himself
alone exposed. 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.
Seeing you were under the special guardianship of the Great Spirit, we immediately
ceased to fire at you. I am old and shall soon be gathered to the great council fire of
my fathers in the land of the shades, but ere I go, there is something bids me speak
in the voice of prophecy:
Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man , and guides his
destinies -- he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him
as the founder of a mighty empire. I am come to pay homage to the man who is the
particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle.
* * *
This story of God's divine protection and of Washington's open gratitude could be
found in many school textbooks until the 1930s. Now few Americans have read it.
Washington often recalled this dramatic event that helped shape his character and
confirm God's call on his life.
"Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you." Psalm 91:7 NLT
Excerpt from the Book: Under God
By: Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait
Bethany / 2004 / in association with Wallbuilders.com
