by Mark Harrington

Created on: July 06, 2008   Last Updated: May 05, 2011

George Washington is a highly influential figure in American history and is credited with giving birth to a new nation, one that is unlike any other in the world, one with equal rights. Washington was born to Augustine Washington and his second wife Mary Bell Washington on Feb. 22, 1732 and it was only eleven years later that Augustine died. After the death of his father he went to live with his half brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon where his early career was jump started by the Fairfax family for whom his brother had married into. The Fairfax's gave him the job of a surveyor. 

There has been a lot of false history told about George Washington.  For one he never had wooden teeth.  Every one knows that wood does not respond well to moisture.  He actually had teeth made from ivory made by Dr John Greenwood as well as teeth from other people and there is no proof if he chopped down a cherry tree or not.

He was first noticed by the public when he was an aide to one of the four Virginian military districts and had been dispatched in 1753 by Gov. Robert Dinwiddie on a mission to notify the French commander at the Pennsylvanian fort Le Boeuf to cease their advances on the British occupied territory. He also was told to see how large the French forces were as well as to see where the French forts were located. His promotion to lieutenant colonel might have been the result of his diary accounts of the dangers of the mission that was published at Williamsburg after he had returned. There was an increasing rivalry for control over the Ohio valley which sparked the beginning of the French and Indian wars which occurred from 1754-63. For Washington this was an opening for new opportunities.

Besides his many defeats and lack of strategic experience, his coolness in battle and his natural ability to command is probably what helped the second continental congress make their decision to appoint him commander and chief of the continental army in July 1775. He assumed command of the crude army overwhelming the British in Boston in the middle of July, and moved the army into New York in 1776 after the British retreated. After his defeat by Gen. William Howe he retreated from Manhattan. He moved his army across the Hudson River entering into New Jersey in November, and then crossed the Delaware a month later to seek shelter in Pennsylvania. On Christmas Day almost a month later he crossed the half frozen Delaware again and surprised the British at Trenton and just a few weeks later went on to defeat the British again at Princeton on Jan. 3, 1777. He only won a third of his battles, but in war nobody's keeping track of how many battles are won, it's who wins the last battle that counts.

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