Here Washington was visited by an old sachem, who approached him with great reverence and addressed him through Nicholson, the interpreter.  He had come, he said, a great distance to see him.  On further discourse, the sachem made known that he was one of the warriors in the service of the French, who lay in ambush on the banks of the Monongahela, and wrought such havoc to Braddock’s army.  He declared that he and his young men had singled out Washington, as he made himself conspicuous riding about the field of battle with the General’s orders, and fired at him repeatedly, but without success; whence they concluded that he was under the protection of the Great Spirit, that he had a charmed life, and could not be slain in battle.

Washington himself wrote thus to his brother: 

By all the powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability and expectations; for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me; yet I escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side.

His marvelous preservation was the subject of general remark; Mr. Davies, later President of Princeton College, used these words in an address a few weeks after the Braddock defeat: 

     That heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope
     Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some
     important service to his country.

Escape from a Marriage

The next apparently providential intervention in the affairs of the hero of the Revolution is connected with very different scenes from those of battle and carnage; it may, perhaps, be fairly described as a narrow escape from a marriage which, while it might have proved a happy alliance in so far as Washington himself was concerned, would almost certainly have resulted in the loss of his inestimable services to his country.

Washington’s attachment to Mary Philipse is a fact beyond reasonable question; his offer of marriage to that young lady is somewhat traditional.  It is certain, however, that during his necessary absence on military duty, Captain Morris, his associate aide-de-camp in the Monongahela engagement, became a successful suitor for the hand of Miss Philipse.

What is far less generally known is the fact that, had Washington been successful in his early matrimonial aspirations, he would certainly have remained a loyal adherent of the royal cause, and would thus have been lost to his native land.  Evidences of the justice of this theory are by no means lacking.  The relatives and friends of the lady were nearly all devoted to the cause of England; Washington was the associate of many of them; and Captain Morris, his successful rival, remained in the British service during his life.  There can be, I think, little doubt that, in the event of his marriage with Miss Philipse, Washington, like Captain Morris, would have returned to England and been forever lost to America.  Mrs. Morris survived her illustrious admirer twenty-five years, dying about the year 1825.