George Washington is still one of the most well-known American personalities, who not only showed military skill in the wars on American soil, but also among the founding fathers of the United States of America.
Origin and teenage years:
George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball at Wakefield Manor in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His parents were English resettlers who built up a existence as plantation owners in the New World. As usual during this time, his parents also kept black slaves for the work on the plantations.
At the age of 11 his father died and his 14-year-old half-brother Lawrence took over the guardianship of George and the management of the plantation. Up to the age of fifteen, he enjoyed elementary school education in Williamsburg, where he focused on mathematics.
From 1748 he accompanied the husband of the neighborly daughter George William Fairfax on his surveying tours and earned himself as a geometer. During this time, he not only acquired basic knowledge in cartography, but also learned to appreciate leadership and the value of a landed property. So he bought in this time also his first own property of 585 hectares at Bullskin Creek at the bottom Shenandoah.
In 1752 his half-brother Lawrence died of tuberculosis and George took over the management of the plantation. In June 1752, he also applied to a general adjutant post in the Virginia militia.
George Washington's military career:
The Seven Years War in North America
His first military mission was to deliver a letter from the deputy governor of Virginia Robert Dinwiddie to the French urging him to immediately stop the fort west of the Allegheny. This request was rejected by the French.
His first command of 160 men was given to George in the spring of 1754, when he and his soldiers were sent to the area of what is now Pittsburgh to scout the French forts and the reconnaissance troops. After George received the information that the Ohio Company men were expelled by the French from their as yet unfinished fort, he rallied his Native American allies and had himself build some forts in defense against possible attacks by the French. In May 1754, in the battle of Jumonville Glen, the first clashes broke out between the French and the troop squad of Washington, with the French losing. A month later, he himself was trapped in Fort Necessity with his troops and had to surrender. He was only promised safe conduct if he allowed the murder of French commander Joseph de Jumonville during the battle of Jumonville Glen. George signed the contract, was able to withdraw with his troops but later objected to a murder and made the poor translation of the contract responsible.
When the seven-year war broke out, George Washington was captained by the British Braddock expedition in May 1755. The order of the army was the siege of the French Fort Duquesne. But by the military setup based on European conditions and not on dense American wilderness, which it is easy for the French to encase the vanguard of the 10-kilometer-long train on 9 July. In this battle on Monongahela, George's troops caught between the British and the French and suffered heavy casualties. From a total of 1,300 men fell in this battle about 900 soldiers. Washington realized that the demands of European conditions were not to be applied to the war on American soil.
After the defeat of the Braddock expedition, Washington was the supreme command of the first regular regiment of Virginia with at times over 1,000 men. Through his engagement, the borders of Virginia could be defended against the French, with the main battles taking place in the other states.
1758 should follow another British expedition to the French Fort Duquesne. Although Washington expressed its concerns about the operation, he joined them. In contrast to the Braddock expedition, the current troop strength was about twice as high. In addition, this time, Native American scouts were sent ahead, the British soldiers were taught in the forest fight and exchanged their typical red uniforms against those of the Rangers, who were much better camouflage due to their green color in forests. On November 12, 1758, Washington and its regiment encountered a French reconnaissance patrol from Fort Duquesne. After a fierce but victorious battle, they reached the fort, which they found burning. The French troops had fired it because of the superiority of the British and withdrew.
In December, Washington resigned from the regiment with the rank of Colonel to assume a seat in the Virginia House of Representatives. He also married on January 6, 1759 Martha Dandrige Custis.
The time after the Seven Years War:
The marriage between George Washington and Martha Dandrige Custis was, from Washington's perspective, pure reason, not sentimental marriage. Martha was already widowed at the age of 26 and one of the richest women in Virginia. He adopted the two children Martha and managed his plantations.
With the advent of the rebellion of the locals against the British, the next conflict was inevitable. Since Washington already had a seat in the House of Deputies of Virginia, he was convened in 1774 also to the first continental congress of the 13 colonies, which wanted to prepare the way to American independence.
The American Revolutionary War:
1775 reached the American independence aspirations their peak. At the first Continental Congress, Washington was nominated as Commander of the Continental Army on 15 June 1775 by Thomas Johnson, Governor of Maryland, to go to war against the British. Washington accepted the nomination and immediately began to deploy a force.
His first mission as Commander led him to Boston, where around 16,000 militia soldiers encircled the pushed back British forces. After 9 months on March 17, 1776, the British withdrew from there and Boston could be taken by Washington. He then moved with most of his army to New York City, which he had fortified. On 27 August 1776, he suffered a defeat at the Battle of Long Island, but was able to win at the Battle of Harlem Heights on September 16, 1776 victory. The rebuffing of the British, however, was short-lived. With the victories of the Battle of White Plains and the Battle of Fort Washington, the British were able to occupy Manhattan in October. Washington retreated with his soldiers to Valley Forge in Pennsylvania to avoid being trapped.
On December 26, 1776, Washington surprised the Hessian mercenaries of the British by crossing the Delaware River and attacking the enemy forces at Trenton, New Jersey. He had his positions fortified, was able to hold them against a British attack in January 1777 and drive them out of New Jersey by a surprise attack at Princeton. With the lost battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the city of Philadelphia, which at that time was used as a capital, fell into British hands and the Continental Congress had to retire to York (Pennsylvania). Another defeat suffered Washington at Germantown on October 4, 1777 in an attempt to retake Philadelphia. In the coming winter his army also suffered heavy losses from the diseases of typhoid fever, dysentery and pneumonia and shrank to around 5,000 men together. In February 1778 reinforced him in the leadership of sent by Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, whose mission was the support in the construction and training of the Continental Army.
As early as June 28, 1778, the now more disciplined and trained army was able to demonstrate its abilities as it attacked the British rearguard of the army from Philadelphia to New York. In the summer of 1779, Washington's focus was on fighting British loyalists and some Iroquois tribes.
The allied with the United States from 1778 France sent in 1780 an expeditionary force of 6,000 men, led by Lieutenant-General Jean -Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau in support of Rhode Iceland. In August 1781, the French and Continental armies joined forces and marched together towards Yorktown, where British troops had settled. Shortly thereafter, the British armed forces capitulated and with the Peace of Paris in September 1783, the American Revolutionary War ended.
Appointed as first president:
On February 4, 1789, George Washington was unanimously elected President of the United States of America by representatives of the 13 founding states. On April 30, 1789 was his swearing on the balcony of the Federal Hall of New York.
Leaving as president and his death:
Washington withdrew in 1797 due to increasing health deterioration from the presidency. Already at the age of 17 he suffered from malaria. Next came his, due to the high sugar consumption, failed teeth, later diphtheria, tuberculosis and smallpox added.
End of 1799 he fell ill with a laryngitis and died on December 14, 1799 on his estate Mount Vernon in Virginia. 4 days later the funeral took place in the family vault. In 1831, it was converted into the new family crypt completed at that time.
You can find the right literature here:
Washington: A Life
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life of Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
Despite the reverence his name inspires, Washington remains a lifeless waxwork for many Americans, worthy but dull. A laconic man of granite self-control, he often arouses more respect than affection. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chernow dashes forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man. A strapping six feet, Washington was a celebrated horseman, elegant dancer, and tireless hunter, with a fiercely guarded emotional life. Chernow brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods. Probing his private life, he explores his fraught relationship with his crusty mother, his youthful infatuation with the married Sally Fairfax, and his often conflicted feelings toward his adopted children and grandchildren. He also provides a lavishly detailed portrait of his marriage to Martha and his complex behavior as a slave master.
At the same time, Washington is an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but he also brilliantly orchestrated their actions to shape the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency.
George Washington Dealmaker-In-Chief
Drawing on substantial new material, Cyrus A. Ansary gives a riveting account of how George Washington sought to put in place in America an economic system that was the antithesis of what had existed in the colonies under British rule. The entrepreneurial economy – which nurtures and rewards innovation and inventiveness – did not sprout into being in the United States by sheer happenstance. It was put in place by our first President. He painstakingly laid the foundation for it, but it did not take root without a struggle. He needed extraordinary tenacity to overcome fierce opposition to his program.President Washington’s economic initiatives are the least well understood facets of Washington’s busy and productive life. They enlarged the dreams and opportunities of Americans, led to a flourishing entrepreneurial climate, and are an inspiring tale for our time.
The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington
In 1776, an elite group of soldiers were handpicked to serve as George Washington’s bodyguards. Washington trusted them; relied on them. But unbeknownst to Washington, some of them were part of a treasonous plan. In the months leading up to the Revolutionary War, these traitorous soldiers, along with the Governor of New York, William Tryon, and Mayor David Mathews, launched a deadly plot against the most important member of the military: George Washington himself.
This is the story of the secret plot and how it was revealed. It is a story of leaders, liars, counterfeiters, and jailhouse confessors. It also shows just how hard the battle was for George Washington and how close America was to losing the Revolutionary War.
In this historical page-turner, New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer teams up with American history writer and documentary television producer, Josh Mensch to unravel the shocking true story behind what has previously been a footnote in the pages of history. Drawing on extensive research, Meltzer and Mensch capture in riveting detail how George Washington not only defeated the most powerful military force in the world, but also uncovered the secret plot against him in the tumultuous days leading up to July 4, 1776.
George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution
When George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring. He realized that he couldn’t defeat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York.
Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have offered fascinating portraits of these spies: a reserved Quaker merchant, a tavern keeper, a brash young longshoreman, a curmudgeonly Long Island bachelor, a coffeehouse owner, and a mysterious woman. Long unrecognized, the secret six are finally receiving their due among the pantheon of American heroes.
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