1732-1799 American Commander In Chief

A Hero Larger Than Life.

George Washington's role as military commander of the Revolution and first president of the United States seems to have elevated him so far beyond most mortals that he appears not to have inhabited human flesh but marble or bronze. Too heroic, too venerated, he also seems too remote. He would not have recognized himself. Ambitious though he was, it was the constant recognition of his own limitations and the constant struggle against them that made him successful and worthy of imitation.

Background.

Born in Virginia, educated only intermittently, he developed such skill in surveying that at age sixteen he was commissioned to survey the Shenandoah Valley. In 1752 he inherited his family estate at Mount Vernon and was made major in the militia. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie sent him late in 1753 to warn off the French who were...