General George Washington

General George Washington: From Surveyor to Military Man

When George was sixteen, he assisted in a surveying mission for plotting land in western Virginia in 1748. His experience on this party, and the recommendation of his inherited father-in-law, Lord Fairfax, found George appointed as an official surveyor in Virginia. Two years of surveying in western Virginia sharpened Washington's mind and body and taught him a sense of resourcefulness that would soon translate to the battlefield. Following the death of his half-brother in 1752, George Washington inherited Mount Vernon, enjoying a comfortable agricultural life.

George Washington in the French and Indian War

In 1753, Robert Dinwiddie, the Lt. Governor of Virginia, gave George Washington command over a portion of the Virginia militia. Tensions with the French in North America escalated; that same year, Washington was ordered to deal with the French occupants at Fort Duquesne in modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After diplomacy failed, Washington went on the offensive, the spark that began North America's French and Indian War.

George Washington surrendered to a French counterattack but gained the respect of British military command. In 1755, he was promoted to Colonel and joined the British army, and at the age of 23, Washington earned a promotion to commander of the entire Virginia militia. Washington led British forces to victory, recapturing key forts in western Pennsylvania in 1758.

General George Washington in the American Revolution

As a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, Washington openly opposed the Proclamation of 1763, the Stamp Act of 1765, and the Intolerable Acts of 1774. A growing patriot at heart, Washington entered the rebel-hearted First Continental Congress of 1775 on behalf of Virginia.

General George Washington and the Continental Army

The First Continental Congress retaliated against Britain with continued economic sanctions and political posturing. After "shot heard round the world" sparked the battle at Lexington and Concord in 1775, the reality of military conflict was made clear. The Second Continental Congress created the Continental Army, but who would lead them? John Adams nominated one man as commander-in-chief: General George Washington.

Fig. 2- A portrait of George Washington in his Continental Army uniform.

Though he had military experience, Washington himself did not seek the appointment. The appointment was partially political to gain the favor of patriots in southern colonies. Washington also lacked experience with large armies and large engagements. His previous experience as a Colonel gave him experience with small groups maneuvering through woods and valleys, not to prepare a professional army to engage the British Army. General George Washington's early engagements did not go well.

General George Washington at Trenton

In 1776, the British forced Washington to retreat from New York City into Pennsylvania. American Morale and support for the war had been pushed to the brink along with General Washington's position; he needed to act fast and decisively if the revolution would last more than a few months.

The odds were stacked against General Washington, but he devised a daring plan to seize the initiative. On Christmas Day, December 25th of 1776, Washington led his army across the Delaware River into New Jersey. Only a fraction of his force made it entirely across the frozen river.

Fig. 3- General George Washington led the Continental Army across the Delaware River.

German Hussian mercenary troops were stationed in Trenton; Washington figured that the Germans would be celebrating the holiday, lulled into a sense of safety by the harshness of weather and the flowing of warm ale. His gambit paid off. The small Continental Army caught the Germans by surprise, securing General Washington's first war victory. American morale and confidence rekindled and more men enlisted in the Continental Army.

General George Washington at Valley Forge

Early victories and Trenton and Princeton solidified General George Washington's reputation as a true battlefield commander, but the Continental Army still awaited its most difficult trials. The British had taken Boston, New York, and Philadelphia all by 1777. Washington commanded his army well, inflicting heavy casualties on the British, but winter approached quicker than the Continental Army could prepare.

Fig. 4- General George Washington and the Continental Army at Valley Forge.

Locked in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, during the winter of 1777, 12,000 men of General George Washington's Continental Army weathered freezing temperatures, malnutrition due to poor supply line management, and disease. However, the colonial army needed better training and equipment entering the harsh winter of 1777 in Valley Forge. As many as 2,000 men under Washington's command died before winter ended.

General George Washington Wins the War

After the trial at Valley Forge, the American Revolution in the northern colonies primarily developed into a tactical stalemate. The British retreated to New York City, preparing a new invasion of the American south. General Washington waited, biding his time as the influential French openly declared their support for the rebel colonies.

General George Washington stationed Horatio Gates and then Nathaniel Green in command of the Continental Army in the southern colonies. After the British invasion in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1779, several devastating engagements took place. Eventually, the British found themselves cornered on a peninsula in Virginia at Yorktown in 1781.

Fig. 5- British General Cornwallis surrenders to General George Washington at Yorktown.

Moving the northern army to Virginia and using the French fleet to secure the bays and oceans, Washington laid siege to the town until British General Cornwallis surrendered his army. Although no one knew it then, the Battle of Yorktown would be the last significant engagement of the American Revolutionary War.

Exhausted, the British Parliament signed the 1783 Treaty of Paris, ending the war and granting the American colonies complete independence from England. George Washington resigned from his command of the Continental Army in December 1783, returning to his home of Mount Vernon.

General George Washington had seemingly done the impossible in leading the Continental Army to victory against the British military. Respected by his peers and loved by a nation, the newly-born United States of America elected George Washington as its first president. Washington served his country as President for eight years, from 1789 to 1797, after many years in service as one of America's most famous generals.