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The First “Teflon” HeroExplore more photos from the story |
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Insubordinate, incompetent, an admitted murderer who had surrendered in abject defeat—Washington should have been done in by any of these blows to his reputation. But instead, he flourished. The first "Teflon" hero in American history—nothing stuck to the young George Washington.
Clearly, he possessed uncanny survival skills. He had proven that in 1753, during a dangerous trek through the Ohio River Valley wilderness when he was shot at by an Indian and later plunged into an icy river. By all rights, Washington should have died of exposure. But he lived to tell the tale and made a name for himself.
A second, more political factor bolstered Washington after his inglorious July 4th debacle. Instead of being upbraided and sacked, he was praised by the Virginia legislature for his courage in the face of the "depraved" French and their "savage" Indian allies. Washington benefited from some 18th-century "spin" as the British turned the Fort Necessity fiasco into a propaganda coup to rally opinion against the enemy.
Just as intriguing as this public reversal of Washington's failures is how they escaped inclusion in your schoolbooks. Maybe it is this simple: his "youthful indiscretions" never fit the tidy "I-cannot-tell-a-lie" image of young Washington that many Americans still cherish. As historian Andrew Burstein once wrote, "We gauge our prospects as a people by locating a past from which we can draw hope and pride." Many Americans still cling to the mythic version of history with heroes as perfectly polished as the marble monuments in the nation's capitol.
Yet the tale of "Washington's Confession" is not simply revisionism meant to tarnish an icon. Washington emerged as the "indispensable man" who saw combat at its worst, learned well the politics of war, and was surely shaped by these disastrous misadventures. The measured, and generally indomitable, spirit he later demonstrated, as commander facing daunting odds and then as President, was molded by what has been called his "forge of experience."
Perhaps, then, Washington's confession is just one piece of America's "hidden history," a reminder that winners tell the tales. And Washington was a winner. Even though as he surely knew—it is often the defeats and disasters that can teach us the most.
Adapted from America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation, by Kenneth C. Davis. Copyright© 2008 by Kenneth C. Davis. By permission of Smithsonian Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Comments
One of the greatest fears is to stick one's neck out and stand up above the crowd - to lead. He who does it must be able to put up with all the criticism, insinuations, false accusations, rejection, public failures, ungratefulness, and above all, self doubt. It's nice when those things don't bother you much.
Posted by Jaime Herrera on July 1,2008 | 01:50PM
I prefer a man in full to the two-dimensional, text-book presentations in which we are schooled to admire and idolize our forefathers, and this article is a great reminder why I feel that way. It isn't that Washington made mistakes -- we all do -- and it isn't that he learned from his mistakes -- many of us do -- it's that he learned how to apply that knowledge so that those mistakes would not happen again. This is much more admirable and proves, to me, at least, Washington was someone worthy of admiration.
Posted by William Cadle on July 7,2008 | 04:08AM
Washington's Indian allies mistakenly killed a diplomat, who hadn't yet identified himself as such, during time of war. This isn't exactly the same as a shooting during a convenience store hold-up. As to the confession, one factor not mentioned above is that Washington had received a bad translation of what he was signing.
Posted by Brandon Shaw on July 14,2008 | 04:05AM