Washington and His Generals; Or, Legends of the Revolution

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1847. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... with a rude cross hanging on his breast. That peaceful man built the church, reared the altar, planted the cross. Here, in the calmness of the summer evening, you might see the red warrior with blunted war-knife, come to worship; the little Indian child kneeling there, clasping its tiny hands, as it learned, in its rude dialect, to lisp the name of Jesus; and here the dark brown Indian maiden, with her raven hair falling over her bending form, listened with dilating eyes, to that story of the virgin-mother. Here, that man with the cross on his breast, lived and taught for twentyfive years. Forsaking the delights of Parisian civilization, the altars and monuments of the eternal city, he came here to teach the rude Indian that he had a soul, that God cared for him, that a great Being, in a far distant land, wept, prayed, and died for Aim, the dusky savage of the woodt. When he first came here, his hair was dark as night: here he lived until it matched the winter's snow. One Sabbath morn, just as the day broke over these hills, while man and woman and child knelt before the altar, while the aged Priest stood yonder, lifting the sacramental cup above his head, yes--my blood chill, as I write it--on a Sabbath morning, as the worship of Almighty God was celebrated in the church, all at once a horrid cry broke on the silent air! A cry, a yell, a wild hurrah! The cry of women, as they knelt for mercy, and in answer to their prayer the clubbed rifle came crushing down--the yell of warriors shot like dogs upon the chapel floor--the wild hurrah of the murderers, who fired through these windows upon the worshippers of Jehovah! There was a flame rising into that Sabbath sky--there were the horrid shrieks of massacre ringing on the air, as men and women plunged into ...