History is "His Story"

View of restored Ft, Necessity in distance, with wayside display signage in foreground.

As part of Corinne's and my first foray into hauling a hard sided camper to Ohiopyle, PA, I visited the Fort Necessity National Battlefield and nearby Braddock's Grave. These places remember important events in the French and Indian Wars. A 22 year old Col. George Washington, builds Fort Necessity in an open field with no high ground, with tiny redoubts, trenches that would later fill with rainwater, and too close to the forest, where the enemy could take cover behind trees.  A battle between the British and American forces of numbering 400, and French and Indian forces numbering 700 ensued here on July 3, 1754.  After a day of battle, where his forces suffered significant casualties, the French commander offered terms of surrender, that Washington agreed to allowing him and all but two of his men (who would be held for one year as ransom) to leave and return to Virginia.  Surprisingly, the French commander was the brother of the French commander that Col. Washington's unit killed in the Battle of Jumonville Glen on less than six weeks earlier on May 28, 1754. 

One year later Col. Washington returns as an aide to British General Braddock, and in the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755, Braddock is mortally wounded, and dies on July 13, 1755.  Washington's life is miraculously spared again as the British forces lost more than half of their officers and men.  General Braddock was buried in the military road (named Braddock's Road) so that his body could not found and desecrated by the Indians.  Washington presides over the burial ceremony. 

A little more than 25 years later the British army surrenders to the American General Washington at Yorktown with significant support from the French navy.  America becomes a free nation.  God is the God of history.  He ordains the events of history and uses all of them for His redeeming purposes.  Americans are a fortunate people, a blessed nation.  May we not forget God's hand in the history of our founding and right up to today.