Read an Excerpt
Bulletproof
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 war-did not break rank, even when braves fired at them from under
the safe cover of the forest. The slaughter 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 chief’s
marksmen shot the mounted British officers until only one remained.
"Quick, let your aim be
certain and he dies," the chief commanded. The warriors 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!
This battle, 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 [Washington].
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 [pointing at Washington], 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 virtually all
school textbooks until 1934. 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
