No one looms higher in the pantheon of American heroes than George Washington, whose military service in the Revolutionary War coupled with his achievements as the first president of the United States earned him adoration bordering on worship his from his contemporaries and future generations alike. Abigail Adams said that Washington was made of “majestic fabric,” and upon his death in 1799, Henry Lee professed him as the “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Americans have named our national capital, an commanding monument, and even a state in his honor.
Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at Wakefield, in a cozy home in the country Westmoreland County, Virginia.
His father was a land speculator and a successful planation owner he trained Washington in the ways of a planter up until his death in 1743. Washington learned to shoot and ride horses, traveled with his father on business trips, and developed an overwhelming ambition to become both a wealthy and a successful landowner is his own right. Washington became a land surveyor in 1749, under the tutelage of William Fairfax, after his mother denied his plans to join the British navy, and so he surveyed much of Virginia’s vast western land claims up until he inherited the family estate at Mount Vernon, after the death of his brother Lawrence in 1752.
George soon realized that he wasn’t content with that kind of a life style, so he joined the local militia. It didn’t take him very long to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. Shortly thereafter he was involved with the start of the French and Indian War.
After a victory over a smaller French force he had his men create Fort Necessity in the same place despite the fact it was terribly indefensible, causing him to have to surrender the Fort to the French on July 4th, 1754. Throughout the war his valor earned him the respect of many of his peers, eventually making George a full bird colonel and placing him in.
