When George Washington arrived at the French fort he met the Chevalier Legerdeur de St.
Pierre who accepted the letter and spent two days with his staff
preparing a negative reply. The French were continuing to lay claim
to the lands along the Ohio River and had no intention of leaving.
While waiting for the answer George
studied the fort, taking notes and drawing diagrams that might be
militarily useful if war broke out. He had one of his companions
count how many canoes the French had and how many more were being
constructed to get some idea how many soldiers they were planning to
transport.
When the French answer was ready George
and his party left the fort traveling by canoe down freezing streams
where floating blocks and sheets of ice threatened to crush or poke
holes through the boats. When they arrived back in Venango the
Half-king and his companions decided to stay there with the French.
George was very worried about this, worried that the French speeches,
presents, and alcohol would eventually draw the Native Americans away
from the English and make them allies with the French if war broke
out. The only thing he could do was get the French answer, and his
own report, back to Governor Dinwiddie in Virginia as quickly as
possible.
***
[This is one of the best single volume biographies of our greatest President.]
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***
George Washington led his little
expedition out of Venango on Christmas Day 1753 – headed home to
Virginia. They plowed through deep and freezing snow that exhausted
the horses. George dismounted to lighten the load on his horse and
had the other men who were able, do the same. After three days the
slow pace was too much for George to bear so he decided to press
ahead of the group taking only his guide Christopher Gist with him.
George and Gist camped one night before
reaching the ominously named Murdering Town. Here they found a group
of Indians who seemed to be waiting for them and asked many questions
about where the rest of their party was and when it would arrive. The
Virginians gave evasive answers since they feared these Indians might
be allies of the French and planning to prevent the completion of
George's mission.
As the two travelers pressed on with
their journey one Indian insisted on joining them. He offered to
carry George's pack and then later offered to cary George's gun.
George decided to keep the gun. Suddenly, in a broad meadow the
Indian turned and fired his rifle from 15 paces away and then ran to
a tree and began reloading. Neither George nor Gist were injured and
they quickly captured the Indian.
Gist wanted to kill their assailant on
the spot but George refused. Instead they pretended to believe that
the shot might have been an accident, or maybe a signal to the
Indian's friends. They told hm to go on ahead and they would follow
his tracks and catch up with him the next day. As soon as he left
George and Gist built a large campfire to make it look like they were
staying put and then they set out to trudge through the snow all
night long to make their escape.
After hiking through deep snow for more
than 24 hours George Washington and Christopher Gist reached the
Allegheney River. Both sides of the river were frozen but the middle
was still flowing. The travelers used their one hatchet to chop logs
and build a raft. They used poles to try to push the raft across the
river. At one point George's pole got jammed in the ice and he was
thrown into ten feet of water. After Gist helped George back onto the
raft they found themselves unable to reach either shore. Fortunately
they were able to land on an island in the middle of the river. That
night was bitterly cold and Gist got frostbite on his hands and feet.
By morning the great cold had frozen
the river hard enough that they could walk across. Soon they arrived
at the cabin of an Indian trader named Frazier. While they rested and
recuperated there George met an Indian queen named Aliquippa. She was
offended that he had not visited her on his way into the wilderness.
He was able to console her with a gift of a watch-coat and a bottle
rum.
George and Gist left Frazier's cabin on
horses on New Year's Day. They reached Gist's home the next day and
from there George traveled alone back into the more settled parts of
Virginia. He met with Governor Dinwiddie on 16 January 1754 to
deliver the letter from the French and his own report, thus
completing his mission into the wilderness.
***
Note:
My biographical study of George Washington was intended for my own education but I thought I would also like to share what I have learned here on my blog. The main sources of information I used were:
First, "George Washington: A Biography" by Washington Irving. I like this one because it was written by one of our early American literary masters and because it was written so long ago that Irving often mentions talking with people who had actually seen George.
Second, "Washington: An abridgement in one volume By Richard Harwell of the seven-volume George Washington" By Douglas Southall Freeman. I wanted the complete seven volume set but that is not yet available on Kindle. Too bad. Still, this abridgement is a great work, packed with information.
Third, "Washington: A Life" By Ron Chernow. This is an excellent modern biography that came out in 2010, helping me to get some of the more recent research missing from the older biographies.
***
Copyright © 2018 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
Sunday, May 6, 2018
Friday, May 4, 2018
Officer Delgado and the Pulse Nightclub Attack
Police officer Omar Delgado was on duty in Eatonville, Florida on the night of Sunday, June 12, 2016. He was responding to a disturbance about 2:00 AM when he heard a "signal 43" from Orlando. A signal 43 means "Rush! Officer needs help."
Delgado drove eight miles south expecting the emergency - whatever it was - would be over before he got there. But it wasn't. When he arrived at the Pulse nightclub shots were still being fired and victims were still in the building. The shooter would not be stopped for another three hours.
Officer Delgado went into the building with the 2nd wave of responders and saw dozens of people lying on the floor. He assumed they were playing dead and he called out to them: "Hey, come on, get up! Let’s go! We have cover for you. Police! We’re here.”
As he called out, Delgado realized in horror that these people were not playing dead, they WERE dead. Or they were dying. As he watched, he saw some of the bodies start to twitch as the last thin threads of life gave way. "They didn't want to give up," he said. That terrible sight triggered months of nightmares.
A fellow officer who had served in Afghanistan said the horrors in the Pulse nightclub that night were worse than anything he saw in the war.
Bullets were still flying and the police were worried there might be a bomb in the club when Delgado went to work trying to identify and save the living. As he helped one woman escape he deliberately shone his light in her eyes so she wouldn't see the bloody bodies all around her.
One of the people he saved was Angel Colon who remembers: "He grabs my hand and says, ‘This is the only way I can take you out.' I’m grateful to him, but the floor is just covered with glass. He’s dragging me out while I was getting cut.” Angel asked Delgado to carry him instead. Colon said. “I just saw him, his size, his glasses, so I’m like, ‘Just help me, please.’”
When he couldn't save anyone else Delgado stood guard over the bodies. He saw some of the dead had terrible disfiguring wounds and felt like he had to stop that from happening to others. He guarded one woman about whom he said, "She was kind of my baby, per se, I was watching her. I knew she was gone."
At one point that evening Delgado sent a message to his children, letting them know he loved them, just in case. He finally left the scene at 9:00 AM.
Delgado suffered from PTSD-like symptoms for months after the attack. He found it difficult to sleep and felt panic whenever his cell phone rang. The sound reminded him of the phones of the victims ringing in the night club, the phones of the dead, the phones that would never be answered again.
Delgado tried to go back to work on the 4th of July weekend after the attack but he had a flashback and could not continue. Since then he has been treated for nightmares and depression.
Unable to perform all of the normal duties of a police officer, and thus losing out on overtime, Delgado sought financial help from a GoFundMe account and also from the OneOrlando Fund which was set up to provide money to survivors of the Pulse night club attack. Unfortunately, that fund was only for people who were actually in the club when the shooting started so it did not provide any assistance to Officer Delgado.
Ultimately, Delgado lost his job just six months before he would have been fully vested in the pension plan. (According to one source he will receive a pension equal to 42% of his salary but that will only kick in 10 years from now.)
When Officer Delgado was called to risk his life to save people at the Pulse night club he did his duty. When his traumatic experiences left him needing help it seemed there was no help to be had.
For more information on Officer Delgado check the links below:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/orlando-shooting-police.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/17/health/beyond-the-call-delgado-orlando/index.html
http://lawofficer.com/exclusive/tale-two-stories/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/pulse-nightclub-hero-dismissed-police-department/story?id=51613661
***
[In this book shooting victim Gabby Giffords argues for responsible gun ownership.]
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***
Copyright © 2018 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
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