Echoes of War
@EchoesofWarYT
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16h
Oct 1777. After the Battle of Germantown on Oct 4, American soldiers find a stray dog wandering near their lines. It's a small terrier with a collar. They read the name on the collar.
It belonged to Gen. William Howe. The commander of the British army in America. The man who had just taken Philadelphia and beaten Washington twice in a month.
Some of the soldiers apparently wanted to keep it as a trophy. Washington said no.
On Oct 6 he sent the dog back across the lines under a flag of truce with a short note. It read: "General Washington's compliments to General Howe. He does himself the pleasure to return him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the Collar appears to belong to General Howe."
The note was in the handwriting of his aide, Alexander Hamilton.
Think about the moment. Washington had just lost a battle he thought he could win. His army had lost about a thousand men. The British were sitting in the American capital. And he took the time to make sure his enemy got his dog back.
That was who Washington wanted to be, and who he wanted his army to be seen as. Not a mob of rebels. Gentlemen fighting a war by civilized rules.
The original note still survives. Washington loved dogs his whole life and kept dozens of hounds at Mount Vernon, so he probably understood exactly what losing one felt like.