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George Washington’s prayer at Valley Forge.
The Continental Army camped at Valley Forge from December 19, 1777 to June 19, 1778, under terrible conditions and without adequate supplies or shelter; while the British Army was quartering in civilian homes in Philadelphia. Possibly 2000 soldiers died of disease, malnutrition and exposure.
There is no record of the actual prayer; only a story told by Reverend Snowden in his “Diary and Remembrances”. Isaac Potts, a Quaker, a Tory, and a pacifist, was strolling through the woods in Valley Forge during the winter.
“I heard a plaintive sound as, of a man at prayer,” Potts said. “I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods and to my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was His crisis, and the cause of the country, of humanity, and of the world. Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying. I went home and told my wife, ‘I saw a sight and heard today what I never saw or heard before,’ and just related to her what I had seen and heard and observed. We never thought a man could be a soldier and a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington. She also was astonished. We thought it was the cause of God, and America could prevail.”

"George Washington Praying at Valley Forge". Farmer Potts in listening in the background on left. Engraving by John McRae, 1866




Washington's prayer for the Nation from the closing paragraph of a letter to the Governors of the 13 states on the occasion of his retirement from command of the Continental Army and public life, June 8, 1783.
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.