The writer had a good view of Washington three days before the crossing of the Delaware.

“Washington,” he says, “had a large thick nose, and it was very red that day, giving me the impression that he was not so moderate in the use of liquors as he was supposed to be.  I found afterward that this was a peculiarity.  His nose was apt to turn scarlet in a cold wind.  He was standing near a small camp-fire, evidently lost in thought and making no effort to keep warm.  He seemed six feet and a half in height, was as erect as an Indian, and did not for a moment relax from a military attitude.  Washington’s exact height was six feet two inches in his boots.  He was then a little lame from striking his knee against a tree.  His eye was so gray that it looked almost white, and he had a troubled look on his colorless face.  He had a piece of woolen tied around his throat and was quite hoarse.  Perhaps the throat trouble from which he finally died had its origin about then.  Washington’s boots were enormous.  They were number 13.  His ordinary walking-shoes were number 11.  His hands were large in proportion, and he could not buy a glove to fit him and had to have his gloves made to order.  His mouth was his strong feature, the lips being always tightly compressed.  That day they were compressed so tightly as to be painful to look at.  At that time he weighed two hundred pounds, and there was no surplus flesh about him.  He was tremendously muscled, and the fame of his great strength was everywhere.  His large tent when wrapped up with the poles was so heavy that it required two men to place it in the camp-wagon.  Washington would lift it with one hand and throw it in the wagon as easily as if it were a pair of saddle-bags.  He could hold a musket with one hand and shoot with precision as easily as other men did with a horse-pistol.  His lungs were his weak point, and his voice was never strong.  He was at that time in the prime of life.  His hair was a chestnut brown, his cheeks were prominent, and his head was not large in contrast to every other part of his body, which seemed large and bony at all points.  His finger-joints and wrists were so large as to be genuine curiosities.  As to his habits at that period I found out much that might be interesting.  He was an enormous eater, but was content with bread and meat, if he had plenty of it.  But hunger seemed to put him in a rage.  It was his custom to take a drink of rum or whiskey on awakening in the morning.  Of course all this was changed when he grew old.  I saw him at Alexandria a year before he died.  His hair was very gray, and his form was slightly bent.  His chest was very thin.  He had false teeth, which did not fit and pushed his under lip outward."[1]

[Footnote 1:  This letter, recently printed, is in the collection of Dr. Toner, at Washington.  It contains some obvious errors, as in regard to the color of the eyes, but it is nevertheless very interesting and valuable.]