R 061

2017 -- S 0298 Enacted 02/15/2017

S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

CELEBRATING GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

Introduced By: Senator Dennis L. Algiere

Date Introduced: February 15, 2017

WHEREAS, When George Washington was a Colonel with the Virginia Regiment, he

and Captains Mercer and Bishop, along with two bonded servants and a packhorse proceeded

through the Rhode Island colony in February of 1756. The time of the crossing encompassed the

Colonel's twenty-fourth birthday on February 22nd of 1756; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Washington's assignment was to report upon "Braddock's Defeat"

to Sir William Shirley, Governor-General of the American Colonies, at his mansion in

Dorchester, south east of Boston; and

WHEREAS, General Sir Edward Braddock had commanded his force of nearly 1,300

British and Colonial forces into an ambush along a forested river, the Monongahela, in the

Colony of Pennsylvania, almost bordering on the Ohio Territory. The French had swept down,

with their Indian allies, as the French and Indian War against the British colonists was raging; and

WHEREAS, Washington Irving wrote that "Braddock's shattered army continued its

flight after it had crossed the Monongahela, a wretched wreck of the brilliant battle force that had

recently gleamed along its banks, confident of victory"; and

WHEREAS, In his book, "Washington: A Life", Ron Chernow said of George

Washington, "With exceptional pluck and cool-headedness, young George Washington was soon

riding all over the battlefield … Because of his height, he presented a gigantic target on

horseback and when two horses were shot from under him, he dusted himself off and mounted the

horses of dead riders… When Braddock was felled… only Washington was left to attend to him";

and

WHEREAS, Governor Dinwiddie, Colonial Governor of Virginia, dispatched

Washington to Boston to elucidate Governor General Sir William Shirley of the disaster that

General Braddock had wrought in February of 1756, seven months after the debacle; and

WHEREAS, Washington's party proceeded through Rhode Island on the Boston Post

Road to inform General Shirley, whose own son was a victim of the recent defeat, and to speak

about the American colonists' losses and the further threats from the forces of the French; and

WHEREAS, The Party left no record of a stop in Westerly at the Babcock-Smith House.

Dr. Babcock had been a frequent correspondent with Benjamin Franklin, but it cannot be

ascertained if they changed horses at Governor Samuel Ward's Farm in Weekapaug, although no

other public horse was available up the Post Road except at Sugar Loaf Road; and

WHEREAS, The South Kingstown charter of 1723, with its dominant "Sugar Loaf Hill"

can be taken as a sojourn-site for the five men; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and providence Plantations

hereby celebrates George Washington's Birthday; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Helen Farrell Allen, Principal, Tempus Fugit.

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LC001385

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