Eagle Feathers #273 –Father of Our Country

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Two hundred and forty-six years is a long time to honor any person’s memory, and yet Americans of all generations have done so. We have lauded this man for the heroic deeds he achieved in a time when no other person could have accomplished them. This remarkable person was General George Washington.

As a General, he raised the first American flag on Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776, which was the same day the American Continental Army was formed under him. He led this army through eight long years of war, from Prospect Hill to Yorktown, followed by eight years of leadership as our first American President. Since then, his name has been noted through a myriad of ways. Hundreds of towns, cities, boroughs, villages and streets have taken his name and celebrate his distinction as “The Father of our Country.” Thousands of Americans through the years have taken or received his name in emulation.

• Famous author Washington Irving was one of them. His mother named him after President Washington; and when the boy was six years old, he was blessed by him. It seemed fitting because Irving went on to write a five-volume biography, The Life of George Washington.
• General Nathanael Greene, second in command under General Washington, idolized him. The Washingtons had no children and were deeply moved when the Greene’s named their first son George Washington Greene and their daughter Martha Washington Greene.
• Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, honors him.
• His was the first carved face and most prominent on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
• Washington, our 42nd state, is named after him.
• The George Washington Bridge in New York City bears his name.
• His image is on many of our postage stamps.
• New Hampshire’s Mount Washington honors him.
• His face is on our national currency of quarters and one-dollar bills.

January 1, 1776 is a date etched in stone in Somerville’s history. Washington Street was first called the Road to Newtowne, the original name of the city of Cambridge and the home America’s first college, Harvard.

Later, the road became a much-traveled thoroughfare that was laid out through today’s Union Square honoring the President. The Square features a mural image of the General presenting the first American flag to his soldiers and watching it wave over Prospect Hill.

This Grand Union Flag was an ensign of thirteen alternating red and white stripes with the British flag in its upper left-hand contour. The ensign was the original American standard and flew above our troops and over our ships until June 14, 1777. On that day, Congress replaced the foreign section of our flag with thirteen radiant stars on a patriotic blue field. Somerville/Charlestown was the first location in America to celebrate our flag before its constellation of stars began to grow.

At the end of the victorious eight-year American Revolutionary War, some of Washington’s officers wanted to crown him, King. They had grown to love and respect their commander and wanted him to continue to lead the country that they had fought for. General Washington, the object of their honor and devotion, resolutely turned them down. He reminded them that they had just fought and won a war for freedom, not for a monarchy.

Reflecting back to the war’s beginning, his original directive had been to organize the first American Army which was made up primarily of ragtag farmers and frontiersmen. He then rescued Boston, which was occupied by the British Army. From his headquarters in Cambridge and his fortress at Prospect Hill, he planned and executed what was to be his first famous victory, the bloodless evacuation of Boston.

Phillis Wheatley, a well-educated Boston slave, was America’s first black poet to publish a book. One of her most acclaimed poems was titled, To his Excellency General Washington. The General sent her a letter of appreciation and an invitation to thank her in person at his Cambridge headquarters. The last four lines of this 42-line poem read:

“Proceed, Great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the Goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! Be thine.”

Most American’s agree with Washington’s friend, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. He stated in Washington’s eulogy … “First in war, First in peace, and First in the hearts of our countrymen!”