In the early 1750s, France and Britain were at peace. However, the
French military had begun occupying much of the Ohio Valley, protecting
the King's land interests and fur trappers and French settlers. But the
border lands of this area were unclear and prone to dispute between the
two countries. Washington showed early signs of natural leadership and
shortly after Lawrence's death, Virginia's Lieutenant Governor, Robert
Dinwiddie, appointed Washington adjutant with a rank of major in the
Virginia militia.
On October 31, 1753, Dinwiddie sent Washington
to Fort LeBoeuf, at what is now Waterford, Pennsylvania, to warn the
French to remove themselves from land claimed by Britain. The French
politely refused and Washington made a hasty ride back to Williamsburg,
Virginia's colonial capitol. Dinwiddie sent Washington back with troops
and they set up a post at Great Meadows. Washington's small force
attacked a French post at Fort Duquesne killing the commander, Coulon de
Jumonville, and nine others and taking the rest prisoners. The French
and Indian War had begun.
The French counter attacked and drove
Washington and his men back to his post at Great Meadows (later named
"Fort Necessity.") After a full day siege, Washington surrendered and
was soon released and returned to Williamsburg, promising not to build
another fort on the Ohio River. Though a little embarrassed at being
captured, he was grateful to receive the thanks from the House of
Burgesses and see his name mentioned in the London gazettes.
Washington
was given the honorary rank of colonel and joined British General
Edward Braddock's army in Virginia in 1755. The British had devised a
plan for a three-prong assault on French forces attacking Fort Duquesne,
Fort Niagara and Crown Point. During the encounter, the French and
their Indian allies ambushed Braddock, who was mortally wounded.
Washington escaped injury with four bullet holes in his cloak and two
horses shot out from under him.
Though he fought bravely, he
could do little to turn back the rout and led the broken army back to
safety. In August, 1755, Washington was made commander of all Virginia
troops at age 23. He was sent to the frontier to patrol and protect
nearly 400 miles of border with some 700 ill-disciplined colonial troops
and a Virginia colonial legislature unwilling to support him. It was a
frustrating assignment. His health failed in the closing months of 1757
and he was sent home with dysentery.
In 1758, Washington returned
to duty on another expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. A friendly fire
incident took place killing 14 and wounding 26 of Washington's men.
However, the British were able to score a major victory, capturing Fort
Duquesne and control the Ohio Valley. Washington retired from his
Virginia regiment in December 1758. His experience during the war was
generally frustrating, with decisions made excessively slow, poor
support from the colonial legislature, and poorly trained recruits.
Washington applied for a commission with the British Army but was turned
down. In December 1758, he resigned his commission and returned to
Mount Vernon disillusioned.
A month after leaving the army,
Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow, who was only a few
months older than he. Martha brought to the marriage a considerable
fortune: an 18,000-acre estate, from which George personally acquired
6,000 acres. With this and land he was granted for his military service,
Washington became one of the more wealthy landowners in Virginia. The
marriage also brought Martha's two young children, John (Jacky) and
Martha (Patsy), ages 6 and 4, respectively. Washington lavished great
affection on both of them, and was heartbroken when Patsy died just
before the Revolution. Jacky died during the Revolution, and George
adopted two of his children.
From his retirement from the
Virginia militia until the start of the Revolution, George Washington
devoted himself to the care and development of his land holdings,
attending the rotation of crops, managing livestock and keeping up with
the latest scientific advances. He loved the landed gentry's life of
horseback riding, fox hunts, fishing, and cotillions. He worked six days
a week, often taking off his coat and performing manual labor with his
workers. He was an innovative and responsible landowner, breeding cattle
and horses and tending to his fruit orchards. While he kept over 100
slaves, he was said to dislike the institution, but accepted the fact
that slavery was the law. He also entered politics and was elected to
Virginia's House of Burgesses in 1758.
George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County,
Virginia. Washington served as a general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies during the American Revolution, and later became the
first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He died
on December 14, 1799, in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Early Life and Family
George Washington could trace his family's presence in North
America to his great-grandfather, John Washington, who migrated from
England to Virginia. The family held some distinction in England and was
granted land by Henry VIII.
Much of the family’s wealth was lost during the Puritan revolution and
in 1657 George’s grandfather, Lawrence Washington, migrated to Virginia.
Little information is available about the family in North America until
George’s father, Augustine, who was born in 1694.
Augustine Washington was an ambitious man who acquired land and
slaves, built mills, and grew tobacco. For a time, he had an interest in
opening iron mines. He married his first wife, Jane Butler and they had
three children. Jane died in 1729 and Augustine married Mary Ball in
1731. George was the eldest of Augustine and Mary’s six children, all of
which survived into adulthood. The family lived on Pope's Creek in
Westmoreland County, Virginia. They were moderately prosperous members
of Virginia's "middling class."
Augustine moved the family up the Potomac River to another Washington
family home, Little Hunting Creek Plantation, (later renamed Mount
Vernon) in 1735 and then moved again in 1738 to Ferry Farm on the
Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, where George
Washington spent much of his youth.
Little is known about George Washington's childhood, which fostered
many of the fables later biographers manufactured to fill in the gap.
Among these are the stories that Washington threw a silver dollar across
the Potomac and after chopping down his father's prize cherry tree, he
openly confessed to the crime. It is known that from age seven to
fifteen, George was home schooled and studied with the local church
sexton and later a schoolmaster in practical math, geography, Latin and
the English classics. But much of the knowledge he would use the rest of
his life was through his acquaintance with backwoodsmen and the
plantation foreman. By his early teens, he had mastered growing tobacco,
stock raising and surveying.
George Washington’s father died when he was 11 and he became the ward
of his half-brother, Lawrence, who gave him a good upbringing. Lawrence
had inherited the family's Little Hunting Creek Plantation and married
Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax, patriarch of the
well to do Fairfax family. Under her tutorage, George was schooled in
the finer aspects of colonial culture.
In 1748, when he was 16, George traveled with a surveying party
plotting land in Virginia’s western territory. The following year, aided
by Lord Fairfax, Washington received an appointment as official
surveyor of Culpeper County.
For two years he was very busy surveying the land in Culpeper,
Frederick and Augusta counties. The experience made him resourceful and
toughened his body and mind. It also piqued his interest in western land
holdings, an interest that endured throughout his life with speculative
land purchases and a belief that the future of the nation lay in
colonizing the West.
In July, 1752, George Washington's brother, Lawrence,
died of tuberculosis making him the heir apparent of the Washington
lands. Lawrence’s only child, Sarah, died two months later and
Washington became the head of one of Virginia's most prominent estates,
Mount Vernon. He was 20 years old. Throughout his life, he would hold
farming as one of the most honorable professions and he was most proud
of Mount Vernon. He would gradually increase his landholdings there to
about 8,000 acres.
