George Washington As A Military Leader

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George Washington was born on his father’s estate in Westmoreland County,
Virginia, on February 22, 1732. He was the eldest son of a well-to-do Virginia farmer,
Augustine Washington, by his second wife, Mary Ball. The Washington family was
descended from two brothers, John and Lawrence Washington, who emigrated from
England to Virginia in 1657. The family’s rise to modest wealth in three generations was
the result of steady application to farming, land buying, and development of local
industries.
Young George seems to have received most of his schooling from his father and,
after the father’s death in 1743, from his elder half-brother Lawrence. The boy had a liking
for mathematics, and he applied it to acquiring a knowledge of surveying, which was a
skill greatly in demand in a country where people were seeking new lands in the West. For
the Virginians of that time the West meant chiefly the upper Ohio River valley.
Throughout his life, George Washington maintained a keen interest in the development of
these western lands, and from time to time he acquired properties there.
George grew up to be a tall, strong young man, who excelled in outdoor pursuits,
liked music and theatrical performances, and was a trifle awkward with girls but fond of
dancing. His driving force was the ambition to gain wealth and eminence and to do well
whatever he set his hand to.
George Washington was the first president of the United States and one of the
most important leaders in United States history. His role in gaining independence for the
American colonies and later in unifying them under the new U.S. federal government
cannot be overestimated. Laboring against great difficulties, he created the Continental
Army, which fought and won the American Revolution out of what was little more than an
armed mob. After an eight-year struggle, his design for victory brought final defeat to the
British at Yorktown, Virginia, and force...