If you have attended any of my lectures or classes in history at the American History Guild, you may have noticed my use of the word “providence” from time to time (okay, frequently). It refers, in short, to the recognition that God not only created the world and all that is in it, but He governs it as well, through various means. It is the idea that God superintends the details of history. When George Washington observed that he had been providentially spared, though shot at many times in the Battle of the Monongahela in the French and Indian War, he was saying that God had preserved his life. He noticed four bullet holes in his coat and that he was missing several horses that had been unceremoniously shot out from under him in the course of the battle. He would go on to use the term providence as divine favor and protection for himself and the American cause at least two hundred seventy times in his writings and public pronouncements.
Reading about the providential ways in which American Independence was won on the battlefield is an enjoyable and enlightening experience. But actually walking the grounds where the men fought and died is almost as good as examining the holes in Washington’s coat. The reality of that providence is increased exponentially when you can emerge from the woods to enter the killing ground at The Cowpens or walk (or charge) up the trails on King’s Mountain and see in your mind’s eye the exact spots where the Scots-Irish riflemen destroyed the command of the too-boastful British Major Patrick …