Washington's Remarks

You know how libraries always seem to have war memorials? They always seem a bit slap-dash and cheesy; they're usually big stone eagles perched atop a tablet that lists the community's soldiers who gave their lives. For some reason it always seems to be World War 2 that gets top billing. Maybe most of these monuments were built before Vietnam. Maybe people just haven't found a way to properly honor their native sons and daughters who gave their lives for a morally ambiguous war.

One of the best things about my old library in Sunderland, Massachusetts, was that it listed its dead on big hand-painted signs inside the library. The paint on the signs was faded and chipping off, but they sat there above the librarian's desk. Going to take out a video of "The Breakfast Club"? Well there's a list of Civil War dead staring back at you. It's a small town so eccentric things like this can happen. Since it was a colonial hub, the list of dead spread from Vietnam all the way back to the French and Indian War.

When the Pixies sing about the "valley full o' pioneer" in their song "U-Mass," this is what they're talking about. It's hard to imagine a time when western Massachusetts was considered pioneer country, but westward expansion had to start somewhere. The French and Indian War was a border conflict between English and French forces, with Indian allies joining both sides. This year is the conflict's 250th Anniversary.

For the first time ever, George Washington's "Remarks," his reflections on his time as a young officer in the French and Indian War, will be publicly displayed. For anyone interested in colonial history and the elusive figure of GW, this is big news (not like the umpteenth copy of the Declaration camping out at the Time Warner building).

Read more about the GW's papers at the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia. Take the quiz to find out which founding father are you?