The Indianapolis journal., 1904-02-21

of which were given in the Jour
fEIXM nal recently, included personal
S conversation with many men who
were prominent in the revOlutioary war,
and the most stirring Of the many narra-
tives Dr. Fisk related were those from men
who were soldiers under General Washing
ton In those days OF the revolution. DR..
Fisk was student at Princeton College,
Princeton, n. J., AID during the terms he
would take short Journeys into the sur
rounding country to see interesting places
and people. IL was during those school
days that he met most of the men whom
ne liked best to recall In speaking of
them he said:
1.-The conversations / had with those peo-
pie have remained indelibly stamped on my
memory, as treasures too valuable to
waste. One OF these men, he continued,
''whom / remember with particular dis
tinctness was Colonel Terhune. In the sum-
mer OF 1si7 was told that this man lived
in the neighborhood of the college. 1 found
his home, nine miles from Princeton. in
Cherry Valley Although the Colonel was
nearly ninety years old, he was imposing in
appearance. Straight and lean, his six
feet two inches of height were seemingly
more. His hair was white; his wide, but
noble forehead, jutted out over keen dark
blue eyes, and he had great curved beak
of nose, with a small, determined-looking
mouth. Sometimes, when talking, he would
leap TO his feet and stride backward and
forward under the low ceiling of his room.
He would mentally live over again the stir
ring days he passed through when under
General Washington. He was just such
a man as / had pictured a revolutionary
hero.
when l asked him if he had known
Washington, he replied:
" Did / know Washington? Why
should say ! did. i was with him almost
soldier and afterwards an officer in those
troops with whom ne uniformly moved,
who were commonly known as his body
guard
How did you happen to enter the serv-
ice2' 1 asked him.
g That is not a long story he replied. L
had only been married a few weeks when
CORVALLIS invaded the State, obtained con-
troll of IL. and split il in two diagonally
with chain OF forts from New York TO
Trenton. on the Delaware. He drove me
from my home. as he did many other good
Americans My wife went among her rela-
tives in north New Jersey, and IL was up
wards of six years before 1 saw her again.
j went with Washington into Pennsylvania,
but my first army work was TO help in set
ting Washington and his army back across
tHc delaware INTO New Jersey on the night
OF TINT memOra BILE Dec. "A as he was on
his advance on Trenton, where he success
fully surprised the Hessians in their COM
Portable quarters while they were having
their Christmas orgy. 1t was nv lot TO be
on the same boat which took General
Washington himself across. / handled the
first oar on the left-hand side. standing be-
tween General Washington and Lieutenant
Brewster. / was the one who gave the
artist who painted Washington Crossing
the Delaware" the details for his work.
Sf err SAT in f6k hoxr af 81,
boat with an Ice pole, showing aside the
cakes of Ice that were floating in the water.
Washington. instead OF sitting on the seat
provided for him, stood with one foot on it
and one foot on the bottom of the boat
A heavy scabbarded Claymore hung by his
side He had field glass in his hand, and
was intently watching the farther shore,
where his troops were unloading
NOT A HANDSOME MAN
'I asked Colonel Terhune If Washington
was a good-looking man. and he said:
No, sir; he was not. There were better
looking men with him all the time. When
you first noticed him you would observe
that his eyes were far apart, almost like
those of a horse. and the corners of his
head. He had big nose, big and thick.
and in chilly. damp weather it was as red
as a beet. But he had a countenance that
all liked
:" No. sir. he did not have fine figure
He was narrow-shouldered and hat-chested
but in a procession he was an imposing
ngure. as ne was at least six feet two
inches high and commonly weighed 200
pounds and had imposing dignity be-
sides No, he wasn't graceful, neither was
ne exactly awkward. He had none of the
nippant gracefulness, for his extre-nities
were too large. His feet were so big he
wore Is shoe. and his hands were cor
respondingly large; His fingers We're each
nearly large enough for rolling pins Froll
his waist down he the most powerful
man ever saw. He had strength and
vigor IN his lower limbs that | never knew
any other human being to possess If a
crowd OF US We're walking along and came
10 stream OF water and one of us would
look for a log TO throw across, another
Tor stones 10 step on, Washingtn would
calmly and deliberately leap across IL at
one step i think the race never possessed
better horseman. He could wrap his
him until he couldn't breathe and no horse
could loosen the grip of his legs
Colonel. was Washington a good con-
Versationalist?' l asked. and he replied:
Why. he never talked. But he was
the most interesting listener talker ever
had His countenance bore that beaming
inviting. iuquiring look that coaxed a man
TO tell all he knew, while Washington said
nothing. L have known him TO spend the
evening IN company, at parties and when
the gathering broke UP everybody would
remark what a sociable man Washington
was: when he had actually said nothing
What did you consider the most striking
feature of WashingtOn's ability Colonel %
Why. his practical unfailing. accurate
common sense on every feature of every
subject that could he presented TO him
And he would never do. nor could he be
induced 10 do, anything that he thought
was wrong or underhanded. And he had
most wonderful energy.
HE UNDERSTOOD MEN.
Washington was the most gifted man
In reading character that ever knew. We
never knew OF his making a mistake in his
first notion of a man. He seemed infalli-
bly, 10 read character elements and fndica-
tions OF ones position in life You want n
special instance OF this? Well. when we
were spending that hard winter near Nor
ristown. when the terms of service of the
men were rapidly expiring and smallpox
was among Us 10 a great extent. as a crowd
OF Us were out the parade ground one
morning, with out cOmmander-in-chief we
saw "a man crossing a portion Of the parade
ground near Washington looked at him
moment or two. then turned back to us
and said. That man Is a British colonel
We told him he was surely mistaken He
persisted in his belief and all finally
agreed with him and wanted 10 arrest him
but Washington answered us oh no we
must make more out of him than hat .