2011 Mount Vernon Prayer at Valley Forge Ornament

The story of Washington's prayer in the snow at Valley Forge is one of America's most cherished tales of the epic struggle to survive against terrible odds, against hunger, and disease and the unrelenting forces of nature. George Washington's life, his writings, accounts from family and friends prove he was a devout Christian. Moreover, we know that his prayers were impressive. This is stated in the tradition of his discovery by Isaac Potts deeply in prayer on Christmas Day 1777.

This story is well documented in the historical records. Isaac Potts, 26 years old, was a resident of Valley Forge, and as a Quaker was opposed to the war. He supervised the grinding of the grain which George Washington ordered the neighboring farmers to bring to his army. The fullest account of Potts' testimony is in the "Diary and Remembrances" of Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden, a Presbyterian minister and a Princeton graduate (Original Manuscript at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Call no. PHi.Am.1561-1568).

"I was riding with him (Mr. Potts) near Valley Forge, where the army lay during the war of the Revolution. Mr. Potts was a Senator in our state and a Whig. I told him I was agreeably surprised to find him a friend to his country as the Quakers were mostly Tories. He said, "It was so and I was a rank Tory once, for I never believed that America could proceed against Great Britain whose fleets and armies covered the land and ocean. But something very extraordinary converted me to the good faith."

"What was that?" I inquired. "Do you see that woods, and that plain?" It was about a quarter of a mile from the place we were riding. "There," said he, "laid the army of Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for giving up the ship but that one good man. In that woods," pointing to a close in view, "I heard a plaintive sound, as of a man at prayer. 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 ye 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. We thought it was the cause of God, and America could prevail."

The Prayer at Valley Forge Christmas Ornament is handsomely decorated by a 24-carat, gold-finished brass frame with enameled colors on porcelain. The reverse shimmers with a winter scene of the Mount Vernon Estate. This Christmas Gift Idea can serve as either a handsome Christmas display or Patriotic Tree Ornament. Own a moment of American history.