I recently came to, what was to me, an appalling realization: I know next to nothing about George Washington. I remember a few anecdotes from civics lessons as a kid--the cherry tree, crossing the Delaware, Mount Vernon, that wig*--but I have no solid idea of the man. To me he is a wooden figure, not mythic exactly for in my mind's eye there is nothing very fetching about him that might shroud him in myth. He was simply a Great Man, the reluctant first president of our fledgling nation.
Ron Chernow, over the course of 900 or so pages, is helping both to soften the wooden image into more human materials and to disabuse me of the notion of Washington being anything other than stunningly ambitious for power and prestige throughout his life (at least his young life. This dadgum book is 900 pages and this world weary father of two young ones only has so much reading time day by day.)
I am thinking of blogging a bit through this Great Man's Great Life on the assumption that there are others out there equally ignorant of the details as me. Allow me to proffer one story to begin:
As a young man, Washington rose quickly through the twin engines of self-promotion and lofty friends to head a regiment of the colonial army in Virginia. Still a loyal servant to the crown, Washington led his contingent along with a small company of British regulars and assorted other colonials westward into the Ohio territory (part of modern day Pennsylvania) to counter the incursion of French forces into the region. Washington had previously acted as an ambassador to the French in this burgeoning conflict, basically telling them to scram or face the fury of England. The French, emboldened by broad Indian support and a greater feel for the realities of warfare in the New World rebuffed the challenge and continued to press into Ohio.
Thus Washington was dispatched to fortify the frontier defenses with a woefully small contingent. And here's the thing: he failed many, many times. Foremost was the location he chose for what he called Fort Necessity. It was low-lying and subject to becoming a swamp when it rained. It was too close to a dense forest from which French sharpshooters could hide and shoot relatively unhindered. It was also too small for his garrison.
When the French attacked the colonials were thrown into disarray. Then it started to pour. Their trenches filled with water as did the grounds of the fort. It was a miserable and humiliating defeat. The French viewed the attack as the response to a provocation by Washington when he had earlier ambushed a group of French soldiers a few miles from the fort. Washington maintained that his attack was justified because the French contingent was spying on Washington's fortifications, but there is little to show how that might be the case. Moreover, one of those killed in the attack was a French ambassador to the English on a diplomatic mission. In a weird way, then, Washington fired the first salvo in what turned into the bloody French and Indian War. That the French saw this as retaliation and not a proper battle is why Washington and the rest of the colonials were allowed to march back to Virginia with their colors.
Colonel Washington was 21 years old.
*It also turns out that Washington never wore a wig. He powdered his hair. File this under mildly interesting.
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