George Washington's alleged deathbed conversion to Catholicism?

[fredystairs]

I’ve heard two visions concerning Washington. At the Battle of the Mononghela in 1755 during the French and Indian War, Washington was the senior officer left after General Braddock was wounded. Washington took command and withdrew the remaining British troops. While he was riding on a horse, and thus exposed, he was not touched by a bullet. Years later he talked with the Native American chief who fought against him. The chief said that he could see angels protecting Washington. Apparently, this was taught in schools in the 19th Century.

The second was at the Battle of Gettysburg July, 1863, during the Civil War. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry was holding the far left of the Union line on Little Round Top. In command of the 20th was Col Joshua Chamberlain. A Confederate soldier took aim at Chamberlain but stopped, because he saw a vision of a Revolutionary War officer on a horse. I think he believed it was Washington and refrained from firing at Chamberlain.

Pax

 

[Tis_Bearself]

There is a story that Washington while at Valley Forge went into the woods by himself and engaged in some vocal prayer begging the Almighty for help, and was seen and heard doing this from a distance by either Isaac Potts (the Quaker who owned the land) or somebody else. The history types couldn’t find enough written evidence that Washington did this so it remains a “legend” that Christian artists frequently depict in art.

https://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/washington/prayer.html

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Here is a interesting blog post by a skeptical historian who dismissed the accounts of the vision as being Union propaganda released just prior to the Civil War (1861) by an author who wrote a series of such pamphlet. The page has some interesting links to digitized old copies of the original pamphlet.

Somebody in the comments section taking the opposite view linked this book, which was written by an editor of a scholarly project on Washington’s papers at the U of Virginia. I haven’t read the book, but it apparently takes the position that Washington was (or became as a result of his war experiences) a prayerful man with a great belief in Providence, similar to what Tommy999 posted.