

             WASHINGTON,A SAMPSON
200 years of historic stories of Washington, you may have read some
of them. Historians have exhausted every phase of Washington's
life. Each have selected some particular side of Washington to
write about, such as Washington the Surveyor, Washington the
Farmer, Washington the Soldier, and even Washington the Mason. In
fact Washington's life may be the most looked at life of any of our
Presidents.

       However, of all the stories which have been written, there
are so many which have been forgotten. Sadly it is the forgotten
which tell us much about the man himself, and it is those stories
in which tell much of Washington's physique.  Example- In 1754
which was during the French and Indian War, Washington was
reporting to Governor Robert Dinwiddie, Dinwiddie had questioned
Washington's ability to accomplish the arduous conditions on the
frontier.

    "I have a constitution hardy enough to encounter and undergo
the most severe trials." Washington's answer to the Governor was no
idle boast. Washington's great strength and powerful physique was
commented upon by all those who knew him.

     Example - George Merser, Washington's aide-de-camp wrote the
following in 1760.  "Washington stood straight as an Indian,
measuring six feet three in his stockings and weighing 175 pounds,
his frame is padded with well developed muscles indicating great
strength"   With the passage of time, Washington's great strength
became legendary.

     Charles Wilson Peale, a London Painter, visited Mount Vernon
in 1772 to make a portrait of Washington in his Virginia uniform of
the French and Indian war. Peale wrote and told a story which he
witnessed, which indicated Washington's Great Strength.

      One afternoon several young gentlemen visitors at Mount
Vernon, and myself were engaged in pitching the bar. One of the
athletic sports in those times, when suddenly the Colonel appeared
among us. He requested to be shown the pegs that marked the bounds
of our efforts; then smiling, and without putting off his coat,
held out his hand for the missile. No sooner did the heavy iron bar
felt the grasp of his mighty hand than it lost the power of
gravitation and whizzed through the air far beyond our utmost
limits. We were indeed amazed as we stood there all stripped to the
Buff with our shirt sleeves rolled up, and having thought ourselves
very clever fellows, while the Colonel on retiring, pleasantly
observed, "When you beat my pitch young gentlemen, I'll try again."
Among the many descriptions of Washington at the time of the
American Revolution, one of the best comes from the pen of David
Ackerson in a letter to his son. Ackerson, a Company commander
during the War wrote. "There was no surplus flesh about him. He was
tremendously muscled, and the fame of his great strength was
every-where. His large tent when wrapped up with the poles, was so
heavy it required two men to place it in the camp wagon. Washington
would lift it, and toss it in the wagon as if it were a pair of
saddle-bags. He could hold a musket with one hand and shoot with
precision as easily as other me did with a horse-pistol."  Israel
Trask, a veteran of the War, vividly recalled a scene he witnessed
when he was a very young recruit. and which has been told by others
who were there at the time.

     "A rifle corps from Virginia having recently arrived on the 
outskirts of Boston in the winter of 1775-76, found themselves 
ridiculed by a marblehead (Mass.) regiment because they wore 
uniforms of White Linen frocks, ruffled and fringed. Sharp words 
were followed by snowballs and soon a general melee began. A 
fierce struggle commenced with biting and gouging on the one 
part, and knock down on the other part with as much fury as the 
most deadly enmity could create, reinforced by their friends, in 
less than five minutes, more than a thousand combatants were on 
the field, struggling for the mastery."

     "At this juncture General Washington made his appearance,
whether by accident of design I never knew. I only saw him and his
aide, both mounted, with the spring of a deer He leaped from his
saddle, threw the reins of his bridle into the hands of his Aide,
and rushed into the thickest of the melee, with an iron grip seized
two brawny athletic savage looking riflemen by the throat, keeping
them at arms length, and shaking and talking to them. In this
position the eyes of the belligerents caught sight of the General.
The effect on them  was instantaneous flight at top speed in all
directions from the scene of the conflict. Less than fifteen
minutes time had elapsed from the commencement of the row before
the General and his two soldiers were the only occu pants on the
field.  Here bloodshed, imprisonment, trial by Court-martial we
happily prevented and hostile feelings between the different corps
of the Army extinguished by one individual." Many are the stories
told and retold of Washington's feats of strength, it is possible
that many have been embellished around the edges, but the story of
Washington being able to crack walnuts with his bare hands came
from the time after the battle of the Monongahela.



