You never know what you’ll come across when researching information for a nature book…
As a kid, when I first saw the image of “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” I wondered why our future First President wasn’t sitting down – the small boat is full of men, it looks ready to tip over and there are large chunks of ice floating in the river.
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The “answer” is in the book The Allegheny by Frederick Way Jr. (The Rivers of America series, Farrar & Rinehart, 1942). It appears that in 1753, when Washington was but 21 years old and a Major, he had delivered a letter to the French forces near present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On the return trip, he and his guide, Christopher Gist, found themselves on the other side of the Allegheny River from where they wanted to be. It was early December and cold. The shore was frozen. Ice floated down the river. They were tired and just wanted this endeavor over with. So, being resourseful young men, they cut down some trees and made a raft.
By now, it was nightfall. But instead of waiting to set out until the next day, impetuous young men that they were, they immediately began poling across the flowing river. Chunks of ice in the water? No matter. We’ll just pole faster. That worked right up until an especially large piece hit the raft and knocked Washington into ten feet of freezing water.
Fortunately, the men were able to make it to the banks of near-by Six-Mile-Island in the middle of the river where they spent the night. But their raft was lost and they still had to cross the main channel of the Allegheny River.
Somehow both men survived the night and when they woke the next day, the river had frozen solid. So they just walked to shore.
My conclusion: Washington was determined that no ice-bearing river will get the better of him again and that risk-taking trumps common sense in the future leader of a new country.
(Image from Wikipedia of a painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze.)



