As America approaches its 250th anniversary of its independence, historians continue to assess the lives and impact of its earliest leaders. George Washington, long called the Father of the Country, stands out among a cast of daring, bold, and sometimes colorful figures from the time period. Washington had a life of both frustrations and triumphs, but his determination and sense of integrity became the defining characteristics of his life.
George Washington was born February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, near the coast. His father, Augustine, was a planter and justice of the peace. His marriage to Mary Ball Washington was his second marriage. George Washington was the eldest of six children born into the second marriage and had a warm relationship with his older half-brother Lawrence from his father’s first marriage. In 1735, the family moved to a new plantation in nearby Fairfax County, which the family later named Mount Vernon.
His relationship with his parents was often uncomfortable, and after his father’s death in 1743, Washington’s life changed considerably. He was unable to go to the English boarding school his half-brother had attended. Instead, he attended the nearby Lower Church School, a small school run out of the local Anglican church. He grew to a towering 6’4” and became an expert horseman and developed a love for dancing. Family friend William Fairfax, a local judge and planter, took the young Washington under his wing and taught him to be a surveyor. Washington received a surveying certificate from the College of William and Mary in 1749, and Fairfax had him appointed county surveyor for nearby Culpeper County at the age of 17.
In 1752, following his older brother’s footsteps, he enlisted in the Virginia Militia and was soon appointed as a major. The British were facing tensions with the French as the two powers challenged each other for control of the Upper Ohio River Valley. The Ohio Company, a Virginia land company that included Fairfax, Washington’s older brother, and other elites, heard rumors of French encroachments on their lands in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Washington’s superiors tasked him with assessing the threats.
The threat became obvious in June 1754 when Washington found the French building Ft. Duquesne, a huge fortress in what became Pittsburgh. Washington, with a small detachment of militia troops quickly built a small stockade called Ft. Necessity to challenge the French. On July 4, French troops ordered his surrender. Washington, surrounded and vastly outmanned and outgunned, accepted the terms and agreed to leave the area. Though he faced criticism for the decision, most observers across the colonies and in Britain called it a heroic stand in the face of overwhelming opposition.
The French and Indian War soon erupted, a war that engulfed Europe and the Americas. Washington, soon promoted to lieutenant colonel, distinguished himself in campaigns throughout the war and hoped his conduct would be rewarded with a commission as a regular officer in the British army. At the Battle of the Monongahela in 1755, a devastating ambush that left the senior officer, Gen. Edward Braddock dead, Washington had two horses shot out from under him as his actions saved what was left of British and colonial forces. After the battle, he discovered several bullet holes in his coat and hat and realized how close he had come to death himself. Washington won the respect of the men for charging into combat. But by 1757, the new British commander in Virginia, Lord Loudon, told Washington in no uncertain terms that he would not be given a commission. The decision stung Washington, but he still did his duty to his utmost. In 1758, he took part in the Forbes Expedition, the attempt to retake Ft. Duquesne. By this point, the tide of the war was shifting in the British favor, and Washington’s and other brigades found the fort abandoned.
With the war now winding down, Washington resigned his militia commission. In 1759, he married the widowed Martha Custis and adopted her two children. The union made him one of the wealthiest men in Virginia. The two never had children together, but it was a happy marriage by all accounts.
That year, voters sent Washington to the House of Burgesses. Washington never became a great speaker or orator in a time when those skills could make or break a political career. A formal man, he preferred brevity in speech and moderation with the issues. A man of principle, Washington saw these principles increasingly tested in the 1760s as heavy-handed British actions upended its relationship with the colonies, tore apart the rights of the colonists, and pushed America into a confrontation with the crown government. Washington, like the other Americans of his generation, would soon face a difficult choice about his principles and what price he was willing to pay for those ideas.
Source: Vecteezy.com