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“The man who led an army, founded a country, and became the first president of our nation”

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Washington had very little formal education, but he was good at math and good at solving problems. He did not talk a lot, but he did think extremely carefully about everything.

As a young kid, Washington had always moved around between his dad’s various plantations of Virginia, because of this, he came to love nature and know how to skillfully trek through various landscapes.

Some interesting facts are that John Washington had first come from England in 1657, George Washington had four step-brothers and was the eldest of the six children born to his mother and father, Mary and augustine.

His dad died at the age of eleven and that left all the farms to his siblings and his mother.

During adolescence, he became a very tall, strong, and athletic young man. As a teenager, his inspiration and model was his older half brother, lawrence. Lawrence was a well-educated gentleman.

His first job, at 15, he was the assistant for a group of field surveyors, who work for lord Fairfax, a wealthy neighbor of his half brother Lawrence.

His job was to make detailed reports about the wilderness, helping farmers settle or sell the land. In 1751, he and his brother Lawrence caught smallpox, a year later, his brother died.

He fell in love with Martha Washington, he settled into his job as a planter, but the unfair rules made it really hard to make a living.

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“Washington saying farewell to all his generals.”

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Before George Washington fought against the British, he fought for the British, serving as a commander in the French and Indian war.

A wealthy and prosperous Virginia farmer who had 100s of enslaved people, he came to hate all the taxes imposed and the restrictions being put on the colonies by the British king.

In 1775 the continental congress asked Washington to lead the colonial army. He had proven his military skills in the French and Indian war, and had the added benefit of coming from the south.

Since he was from the south, the southern colonies, and the northern colonies could come together to the cause of revolution.

Even though Washington deeply believed in the cause of having a commander for their army, he doubted himself.

Washington knew that young soldiers like Joseph Plumb Martin, a Connecticut farm boy, looked forward to going to war, but Washington was 43 years old and had fought in wars.

He knew it would be hard to leave his home and family. In his letter to his wife, he said, “I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding aboard if my stay were seven times seven years”.

In 1775 George was unsure if he would be able to become the leader of the colonial army. He worried he might not be smart and clever enough to ensure that they would win the war.

He thanked the Congress for the honor of being asked to lead, and also told his concern to them, but he said he would do everything he could to help the colonists achieve their goal of independence.

In a speech to congress, Washington stated, “ I feel great distress from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress desires it, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert every power I possess in their service, and for the support of the glorious cause.”

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 Washington’s perspective about his colonial army

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 Washington’s perspective about his colonial army

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Even though Washington was a general, he understood the hardships of his fellow soldiers, one major concern of his was the low pay.

He did not like that his men had to do so much work for the cause of independence, with so little money. He knew this kept men from enlisting to be a soldier. He told the Congress, “a soldier cannot ruin himself and family to serve his country.”

Joseph Plumb Martin had gone for days without food, and had made a simple moccasin to keep his feet off the ice.

Many years later, Martin wrote a narrative of a revolutionary soldier. He thought it was ironic that soldiers fighting for such a noble cause were so poorly equipped.

He describes the soldiers marching to Princeton New Jersey, his narration was, “the young ladies of the town… had collected and were sitting in the stoops and at the windows to see the noble exhibition of thousand half-starved men marching.”

In a letter dated December 23, 1777 seven, he said, “ I can assure those gentleman that it is a much easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under  frost and snow without clothes or blankets. However, although they seem to have little feeling for the cold and distressed soldiers, I feel super abundantly for them, and, from my soul, I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my power to relieve or prevent.”

Washington wrote, “Men just dragged from the tender scenes of domestic life were easily scared by the hard life of a soldier, such soldiers might desert the army, and encourage others to desert too.”

While Washington’s compassion made him fight for his soldiers to get paid more, he still expected them to fight very hard, he scorned the lack of discipline, literally hated it, and was horrified by what happened at the battle of New York in 1776:

I found the troops… retreating, and those ordered to support them… flying in every direction, and in the greatest confusion… I used every means in my power to rally and get them into some order, but my attempts were… ineffectual… On the appearance of a small party of the enemy… their disorder increased, and they ran away in the greatest confusion without firing a single shot.

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General Washington knew that such chaos would never win the war, and he did everything he could to ensure that soldiers who forgot or neglected their duties were punished harshly.

Even the Washingtons sympathized with his soldiers being hungry, he prohibited them from stealing anything including food.

His reason was practical as much as it was moral. Too often people kill soldiers, who try to steal from them.

To one of his colonel, he said,  “every attempt of the man to plunder houses, our church, gardens, extra, etc. be discouraged, not only for the preservation of property and sake a good order, but for the prevention of those fatal consequences, which usually follow after such diabolical practices.”

Martin describes him stealing in his book-I had to travel far and near . . . and at all times to run the risk of abuse, if not injury, from the inhabitants when plundering them of their property, (for I could not, while in the very act of taking their cattle, hay, corn and grain from them against their wills, consider it a whit better than plundering—sheer privateering) [stealing under the authority of a government].

Washington worried about his reputation and wanted people to respect him. If the colonies lost, their people might think less of him, almost blaming him for losing the war.

He wrote to his cousin, “I never was in such an unhappy divided state, since I was born,” to a confidant he wrote, “that his army service was one continuous round of annoyance and fatigue.”

Washington kept fighting for the cause of freedom as the war dragged on. He praised the soldiers for putting up such a good fight against the British, the most powerful army and navy in the world.

In the letter he wrote. “ Without arrogance . . . it may be said that no history . . . can furnish an instance of an army's suffering such uncommon hardships as ours have done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude.”

After the war, Washington made sure all the soldiers received a fair pay from the new government.

When he said goodbye to his officers, Washington again balanced courage and kindness. The commander-in-chief, one general reported, “was suffused in tears.”

In the final goodbye Washington could not speak because he had such strong feelings for his men, revealing his warrior spirit and his caring heart.

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“President of the United States of america”

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In 1789, George Washington was elected the president of the United States of America; he was sworn in on April 30th, in the nation’s first capital, New York city.

Huge crowds cheered him as he took the presidential oath on the balcony of old city hall. He appoints Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to his cabinet.

From 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the capital. Some important documents are the bill of rights, constitution, articles of confederation. And these documents set the baselines for today’s government.

Washington and the government  made the nation’s justice system, its supreme court, as well as tax, banking, financial and postal systems, all of which are still used today. By the end of 1795, the US had extended its territory till the Mississippi river.

Washington was reelected as the president in 1792.

After his two term presidency, he came back to his farm and three years later he died.

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“Famous battles of the American revolution”

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During the revolutionary war, there were over 230 skirmishes and battles, some battles that Washington battled are the battle of Long Island,  Battle of clouds and siege of Yorktown.

Battle of Long Island-

After the successful siege of Boston, George Washington knew that the general Howe would come back to the city of New York, in early July, the British assembled and landed on Staten island.

They had a troop of 32,000. While Washington had strengthened his positions overall and fortified Brooklyn Heights, it was there on August 7, 1776 Howe defeated them.

Even though he was defeated, Washington was able to save 9000 troops with a nighttime evacuation of Long Island.

Battle of clouds-

Although Washington and his troops were defeated at the battle of Brandywine, his troops were able to withdraw from the fight in good order and shape, this helped them continue to shield Philadelphia from the advance of General William Howe.

The two opposing armies appeared close to another major battle on September 16, 1777, but a severe thunderstorm coupled with huge rainstorms limited the engagement to minor skirmishes, after which it ended as a draw.

Siege of Yorktown.

The final battle or siege of Yorktown is what ended the American revolution.

Between 1778 and 1781 after the British withdrawal from Philadelphia, Washington put his army outside of New York and waited for a big opportunity to attack the forces of the new general.

This happened while the British waged a successful campaign across the south.
lord Cornwallis made the mistake Washington had been waiting for. While Cornwallis put his army around Yorktown in Virginia, he was waiting for reinforcements to come from Clinton, or get evacuated to New York.

Taking his opportunity, Washington quickly moved south with his French allies and coordinated with the Marquis De Lafayette to keep Cornwallis in place.

At the same time, naval forces from France maintained control over the Chesapeake bay, which stopped all assistance and reinforcements from England.

Washington fired the first American Cannon of the siege. He captured key portions of the British entrenchment, and the opening of a second season signaled the end for Cornwallis, who formally surrendered on October 9, 1781.

The war had finally ended.