At the beginning of the French and Indian War, Colonel Washington was a raw, untested 23-year-old. However, his part in the battle on the Monongahela was an amazing event that has been nearly forgotten in the revisionist purging of textbooks of information about our early American heroes.
During the battle, the young George Washington rode back and forth on the battlefield, delivering General Braddock's orders to the troops. They had been ambushed, and the Indians targeted the officers, bringing down sixty-three of the eighty-six British and American officers on the field, including General Braddock, who was killed. Washington was the only officer on horseback not wounded.
Later that day, in a letter written to his brother, John A. Washington, he said he was "protected beyond all human probability or expectation." He had two horses shot out from under him, and after the battle found four bullet holes in his coat. He evidently saved the coat because many years later his step-grandchildren described it to his biographers.
After that experience he was absolutely fearless on the battlefield, and often rode out in front of his troops. The Indians regarded him with awe, which was testified to by an unlikely witness. Mary Draper Ingels was captured by a band of Shawnee Indians and while in their village overheard an excited discussion of the battle between the French and their Indian allies.
After escaping and making her way back to Virginia, she related the account of an Indian chief named Red Hawk who said he had shot at Washington eleven times and then ceased firing, convinced that the Great Spirit was protecting him.