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“Enemies foreign and domestic.” In July of 1775, General Washington appointed Dr. Benjamin Church as the first surgeon general of the Continental Army. Three months later, Washington discovered Dr. Church had been spying for the British, writing coded messages address to British officer, Major Crane.
Washington informed the Continental Congress, October 5, 1775: “I have now a painful tho’ a Necessary Duty to perform respecting Doctor Church, Director General of the Hospital.”
One of the most notorious stories in that of Benedict Arnold.
A court-marshal cleared Benedict Arnold of wrong, but his loyalist wife, Peggy, felt the Americans did not appreciate him.
She developed a relationship with a British spy in Philadelphia, Major John Andre, with whom, in 1779, she finally got her husband to make contact.
Meanwhile, in 1779, the Continental Congress declared a Day of Public Prayer to Almighty God which Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson observed by signing a State Proclamation of Prayer: “Congress…hath thought proper…to recommend to the several States…a day of public and solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for his mercies, and of Prayer, for the continuance of his favour… That He would go forth with our hosts and crown our arms with victory; That He would grant to His church, the plentiful effusions of Divine Grace, and pour out His Holy Spirit on all Ministers of the Gospel; That He would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth… I do therefore… issue this proclamation… appointing…a day of public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God…Given under by hand…this 11th day of November, in the year of our Lord,
The next spring, April 6, 1780, General Washington issued the order from his headquarters at Morristown: “Congress having been pleased by their Proclamation of the 11th of last month to appoint Wednesday the 22nd instant to be set apart and observed as a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer… there should be no labor or recreations on that day.”
On August 3, 1780, General Benedict Arnold was put in charge of the fort at West Point, New York, designed by the Polish freedom fighter Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
West Point controlled the Hudson River Valley which stretched from near Canada in the North to New York City in the south. The Hudson River Valley effectively divided colonial America in half, with New England Colonies on the east and Middle/Southern Colonies on the west. Therefore the surrender of West Point would split the country and cost Americans the War.
By AUGUST 30, 1780, General Benedict Arnold made his decision final. He met with British spy John Andre and conspired with British General Henry Clinton to surrender West Point for 20,000 pounds, equivalent to a million dollars today. Get the book Miracles in American History-32 Amazing Stories of Answered Prayer
Benedict Arnold weakened West Point’s defenses, neglected repairs and removed supplies, all the while complaining to General Washington of shortages. General George Washington was planning on inspecting the defenses of West Point on the very day Benedict Arnold was going to surrender it.
British spy Major John Andre met with General Arnold the night before. Dressed as a civilian, Andre then left Arnold and headed back to the British lines.
Providentially, some American sentries spotted him in the woods and stopped him. With unusual curiosity, the sentries searched him once, then twice, and just before letting him go, they decided to search him a third time, making him remove his boots.
There, in the heel of the boot, they found the folded up map of West Point with instructions on where to attack. The American sentries arrested John Andre and immediately sent word to General Benedict Arnold, who was waiting for General Washington to arrive for breakfast.
John Jay, serving as an aide to Washington, arrived first but found Benedict Arnold had already fled, as his plan was now known. Arnold escaped to the British ship HMS Vulture.
He joined the British ranks and later fought Americans, even burning the city of New London, Connecticut, in 1781. Washington offered to return John Andre to the British in exchange for Benedict Arnold, but the British refused.
The Continental Army hung British Major John Andre as a spy, as the British had hung the 21-year-old American spy Nathan Hale earlier.
General George Washington wrote September 26, 1780: “Treason of the blackest dye was yesterday discovered! General Arnold who commanded at West Point, was about to…give the American cause a deadly wound if not fatal stab. Happily the treason had been timely discovered to prevent the fatal The providential train of circumstances which led to its discovery affords the most convincing proof that the Liberties of America are the object of divine Protection.”
On May 8, 1783, Yale President Ezra Stiles stated: “A providential miracle at the last minute detected the treacherous scheme of traitor Benedict Arnold, which would have delivered the American army, including George Washington himself, into the hands of the enemy.”
The Continental Congress issued a Day of Thanksgiving, October 18, 1780: “In the late remarkable interposition of His watchful providence, in the rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief and the army from imminent dangers, at the moment when treason was ripened for execution… It is therefore recommended…a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer…to confess our unworthiness…and to offer fervent supplications to the God of all grace…to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth.”
John Jay, who was later appointed by George Washington as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, stated September 8, 1777: “This glorious revolution… distinguished by so many marks of the Divine favor and interposition…in a manner so singular, and I may say miraculous, that when future ages shall read its history they will be tempted to consider a great part of it as fabulous… Will it not appear extraordinary…like the emancipation of the Jews from Egyptian servitude.” For God’s Glory Alone Ministries thanks Bill Federer and www.AmericanMinute.com
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