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"I knew personally the celebrated Quaker Potts who saw Gen'l
Washington alone in the woods at prayer. I got it from himself, myself.
Weems mentioned it in his history of Washington, but I got it from the
man myself, as follows:

"I was riding with him (Mr. Potts) in Montgomery County, Penn'a near to
the Valley Forge, where the army lay during the war of ye Revolution. Mr.
Potts was a Senator in our State & a Whig. I told him I was agreeably
surprised to find him a friend to his country as the Quakers were mostly
Tories. He said, 'It was so and I was a rank Tory once, for I never
believed that America c'd proceed against Great Britain whose fleets and
armies covered the land and ocean, but something very extraordinary
converted me to the Good Faith!" "What was that," I inquired? 'Do you see
that woods, & that plain. It was about a quarter of a mile off from the
place we were riding, as it happened.' 'There,' said he, 'laid the army of
Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for
giving up the Ship but that great and good man. In that woods pointing to
a close in view, I heard a plaintive sound as, of a man at prayer. I tied my
horse to a sapling & went quietly into the woods & to my astonishment I
saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on
one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of
the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye
Crisis, & the cause of the country, of humanity & of the world.

'Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying.

'I went home & told my wife. I saw a sight and heard today what I never
saw or heard before, and just related to her what I had seen & heard &
observed. We never thought a man c'd be a soldier & a Christian, but if
there is one in the world, it is Washington. She also was astonished. We
thought it was the cause of God, & America could prevail.' "He then to me
put out his right hand & said 'I turned right about and became a Whig.'"

Diary and Remembrances
Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden

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Originally posted by Fitzhugh Williams

Braddock has received a lot of blame for the loss, and each time someone does a film they never fail to mention how a European-trained general was out of his element in the American wilderness. But if you look at the way he deployed his troops, and the precautions he took, he did as well as anyone would have done. The French had no scouts and literally ran into the British. The first three vollies killed the French commander and broke the line, if it can be called that. It should have been the end of the battle. That it was not is due in part to luck, to Dumas, and to the complete inactivity of Gage. I really think Braddock was better than he has been made out to be. If he had just a little more luck he would have been the hero of the battle. And what if another person had been in command of the same troops in the same place, like for instance Davoust. Davoust would have won. But what would he have done differently. Anything? Or would he just have been luckier?

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