Washington Crossing the Allegheny, 1753 Experienced backwoodsman Christopher Gist proved essential to George Washington’s mission. When snowstorms halted Washington’s band of men in December, Gist and Washington set out alone on foot. Their trek as narrated by Washington reads like a modern action movie, with attacks by Indians and passage over a swift river filled with tossing chunks of ice. Washington fell off the crude raft they constructed; Gist saved him from drowning.
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