In general (NPI):
I’ve heard it said of Washington that he, seemingly miraculously, survived many close brushes with death during his military career. This led to legends that he led a “charmed life.” One can imagine how mystical patriots, or patriotic mystics, would interpret such data to mean that Divine Providence was protecting Washington’s life, because of his destiny to lead this nation to independence, and so on. But is there a verifiable list of such incidents of Washington’s miraculously cheating death? If so, how does it hold up to scrutiny?
In particular:
When I was a kid I read in a kid’s magazine one such story. Washington was traveling and stopping at an inn for the night. The innkeeper was a German who was chosen by British conspirators to be the hitman and knife Washington in his sleep. He told his daughter to show Washington upstairs to a guest room. But the patriotic young lady had overheard their assassination plot and instead guided Washington to sleep in her own room (get your mind out of the gutter); then she lay down in the guest room. In the middle of the night the German sneaked up to the sleeping figure and stabbed. In the morning, Washington paid the innkeeper and merrily went on his way. The assassin rushed upstairs to discover his dead daughter who had sacrificed her life for the Revolution.
I haven’t been able to find any verification of this story. Is it total fiction? Is there any truth to it at all?
Never heard that. It has all the elements of an urban legand type thingie seems to me, FWTW.
It reminds me of a story I read someplace, IIRC, it was totally fiction. Washington was someplace where a special dinner was being made for him. For whatever reason the cook was to poison him. After making the meal, and knowing there was no way out for him, the cook killed himself. Washington ate the meal and was fine. The poison used was a tomato which at that time was thought to be poisonous.
On the Presidential Assassination page of the USA Trivia site, they list only a single attempt on Washington.
I have never heard either of the preceding stories and have not found reference to either in a (cursory) web search.
According to Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:
"(I)t is strange that during the Braddock massacre, when every other mounted officer was struck, he remained uninjured . . . In subsequent years, during the Revolution, Washington was again and again to take the most foolhardy risks, but the bullets, although they tore his clothes and killed his horses, never struck his body.
“Washington’s seeming invulnerability to gunfire, more suited to mythology than factual history, was observed–he commented on it wonderingly himself–but it was only the most exotic aspect of that charisma which brought him so early the confidence and respect of his fellowmen.”
But the story about the innkeeper sounds like total BS. Common sense would dictate that the woman whisper a warning in Washington’s ear to get the hell out of the inn.