George Washington in the Revolution

George Washington is best known as our nation, America’s first president. However, as president, he was also our first commander-in-chief, a role he was unanimously elected into formally on June 16, 1775. Humbly, he expressed in his acceptance speech his unworthiness for such an important position. However, in his military career, he would be proved vital to the survival and success of the American Revolution, perhaps most notably in the year 1776.

Washington became commander-in-chief during the prime of his life, at age forty-three. A rich Virginian planter, he had long been a member of the Virginia legislature and was a member of the Continental Congress, despite his lack of formal education. His only prior military experience was as a colonel leading a regiment in the disastrous Braddock campaign of 1755. At election, he had not so much as drilled a regiment in fifteen years. In all manner of words, he was severely limited in military experience, a fact he was well aware of.

Despite his actual lack of ability, Washington presented the image of military leadership; a visage that instilled confidence in his men. He dressed his tall stature of six foot two impeccably, always in his fine parade uniform, and carried himself like a gentleman accustomed to high position and respect. Though, his manner set him apart and even above others, he was always described as a friendly and modest man.

His first military victory, the expulsion of the British from Boston in the March of 1776, was the end of a nine month siege that began after the retreat of the British from the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Washington arrived and set up base in near by Cambridge, shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill and from there in out, it was an uphill battle of wills.

The first problems being his promised twenty thousand men turned out a significantly less fourteen thousand able-bodied troops. The second being the alarming lack of gunpowder, calculated...