During the brutal winter at Valley Forge, Washington frequently made the rounds to comfort and boost the morale of his men. One day he chanced upon a certain Private John Brantley drinking stolen wine with some fellow soldiers:
Brantley boosily invited his commander to "drink some wine with a soldier."
"My boy, you have no time for drinking wine," Washington remarked, turning away.
"Damn your proud soul," Brantley cried. "You're above drinking with soldiers."
"Come, I will drink with you," replied Washington, turning back to take a drink.
"Give it to your servants," Brantley suggested, nodding to Washington's aides.
"Now," Brantley declared, having retreived his empty pitcher, "I'll be damned if I don't spend the last drop of my heart's blood for you."
[Source: P. Smith, A New Age Now Begins]
Washington, George (1732-99), US general and statesman, 1st (unanimously elected) president of the United States (1789-97), member of Virginia's House of Burgesses (1759-74), commander in chief of the American forces during the Revolutionary war, chairman of the Constitutional Convention (1787) [noted for his military brilliance during the Seven Years' (1756-63) and Revolutionary wars (defeating, with French aid, General Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781)]
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