America’s Godly Heritage Part 4 by David Barton

When Americans were still British citizens before the Revolution, it had been illegal to print English-language Bibles in America, but with the final American victory over the British at Yorktown, that policy was terminated. Robert Aitken, a local Philadelphia printer, therefore approached Congress, seeking permission to print an English language Bible on his presses, pointing out that it would be “a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools.”

Congress agreed, approved his request, and appointed a congressional committee to oversee the project. 16 In late summer, 1782, the committee announced that the Bible was ready for print; 17 on September 12, 1782, Congress officially approved that Bible  and it soon began rolling off the presses – the first English-language Bible ever printed in America. In the front of that Bible is a congressional endorsement declaring: Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled . . . recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. 

Of this event – and the Bible it produced – an early historian observed: Who, in view of this fact, will call in question the assertion that this is a Bible nation? Who will charge the government with indifference to religion when the first Congress of the states assumed all the rights and performed all the duties of a Bible Society long before such an institution had an existence in the world!

Another well-documented (but today unfamiliar) part of America’s Godly heritage involves the account of a young George Washington during a fierce military battle in which his life precariously hung in the balance for two hours but was miraculously spared. In fact, following that event, Washington himself openly acknowledged that it had been by the direct intervention of God that he remained alive.  

The incident occurred during America’s French and Indian War (1753-1763). At that time, England and France – two long-standing bitter enemies that had warred against each other for centuries in Europe – claimed the same land in America along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. They went to war to settle that dispute; those living in America at the time took sides, with most of the Indians joining the French and most of the American colonists joining the British.

Great Britain, seeking to drive the French from the inland parts of America, dispatched 2,300 handpicked, veteran British troops to the colonies. Those troops, under the command of distinguished veteran General Edward Braddock, arrived in Virginia and were joined by a hundred Virginia buckskins, led by their twenty-three year old colonel, George Washington.

They then set out for the mouth of the Ohio River to expel the French from Ft. Duquesne (now the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Having marched hundreds of miles, Braddock temporarily halted his troops at Fort Cumberland. They were still more than a hundred miles from the French fort, but Fort Cumberland would serve as a staging ground for the attack. Braddock dispatched his force in four waves, with himself, George Washington, the Virginians, and 1,200 chosen British troops comprising the third wave and principal military force (the first two groups had been the engineering force with its workers and their military protection, sent out to open a road through the wilderness; the fourth group was the baggage and equipment wagons bringing up the rear). By July 9, 1755, Braddock’s force had moved within seven miles of the French fort, and while following a path leading through a wooded ravine, they marched into a waiting ambush; the French and Indians opened fire on them from both sides.

Fortunately, Braddock’s group was composed largely of battle-hardened British veterans accustomed to war, but unfortunately they were veterans of European wars. European warfare was traditionally conducted in the open: one army lined up at one end of an open field and the other army lined up at the opposite end; they faced each other, took aim, and fired. The British now found themselves in the Pennsylvania woods with the French and Indians firing at them from the tops of trees, behind rocks, and under logs; the British were completely unfamiliar with woodland warfare.

When they came under fire, they responded according to their training and lined up shoulder-to-shoulder along the bottom of the ravine; not surprisingly, they were promptly slaughtered. Over the next two hours, 714 of the 1,300 British and American troops were shot down, with only thirty of the French and Indians being shot – nearly all of those by Washington’s Virginia buckskins, who were accustomed to woodland warfare and had sought cover when the attack began.  

Even among the officers the British losses had been enormous: of the eighty-six British and American officers in that battle, twenty-six were killed and thirty-six more wounded. Significantly, George Washington was the only mounted officer not shot down off his horse – and he had been particularly vulnerable, having courageously ridden back and forth along the front lines, delivering General Braddock’s orders among the troops.

Late in the battle General Braddock was seriously wounded and Washington took charge, gathering the remaining troops and heading back toward Fort Cumberland. Along the way, Braddock died, and on his death, Washington performed the role of a military chaplain, conducting the funeral service, reading Scriptures, and offering prayers. 21 Braddock’s body was buried in the middle of the road, with col. washington conducting gen. braddock’s funeral wagons driving over his grave to prevent the Indians from finding and desecrating his remains.

Washington and the remaining troops arrived back at Fort Cumberland on July 17, 1755. During the week-long return to the fort, word had spread across the colonies that the slaughter of the British and Americans had been complete – that the entire force had been wiped out; so after his safe arrival at the fort, Washington wrote a letter to his family, assuring them that despite reports to the contrary, 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 both and of assuring you that I now exist and appear in the land of the living. Having confirmed his safety to his family, he then recounted what had occurred during the battle – that when he had removed his jacket at the end of the battle, he found four bullet holes through it but not a single bullet had touched him; he had horses shot from under him, but he had not been scratched. He therefore concluded: I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectation. As word of God’s Divine protection of Washington spread across the colonies, the Rev. Samuel Davies even referred to the incident in a sermon only a few weeks after the momentous battle. (Davies was a leader in the American revival known as the Great Awakening and was considered the greatest pulpit preacher in America.) Significantly, the devastating defeat of the British troops left American settlers on the frontier completely unprotected. They therefore banded together into volunteer military companies to defend their home.