George Washington: War Hero, American President, Whiskey Distiller
He was America's indispensable man of the hour with the grace to bow to the people. And He made good whiskey.
Efforts were made right from the beginning to make George Washington a kind of earthly god. His accomplishments during America’s Revolutionary War were, after all, little short of amazing. Yet he chose to put his country first and decline attempts to make him a king.
“If he gives up his power, as he said he would, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
George III, King of England, on George Washington, 1778
Washington was man enough to refuse glory when others wished to force it upon him. In fact, he longed only for a return to his beloved Mount Vernon and the pleasures of working his fields and gardens. He had done more than beat the British. As the commanding general he had established the way American soldiers were to be organized, how they should behave and how they were to relate to their civilian leaders. Just about every big decision he made set a precedent.
The Delaware Crossing That Almost Wasn’t
There was a good battle plan drawn for an attack on British troops at Trenton, NJ but, as famously happens with good plans, it went downhill rapidly. Washington would march his troops four miles from their encampment in Pennsylvania to the west bank of the Delaware River, load them and their horses, plus 18 cannons and caissons, gunpowder, food and equipment into dozens of boats then cross the 300 yard stretch of river and march to engage the enemy. At night. In the snow. During a howling nor’easter. On Christmas night!
Washington knew that even if they made it across the ice-choked river against the wind, they’d still have another 10 miles of marching in the dark on icy roads. Washington sat on a crate near a fire and pondered his odds. It’s hard to imagine the stress of being under that kind of pressure.
“As I was certain there was no making a retreat without being discovered and harassed on repassing the river, I determined to push on at all events.”
And push on they did! The Continental Army won its first victory of the Revolutionary War by whipping the garrison at Trenton, NJ. It greatly boosted American morale and helped to win the battle at Princeton a week later.
A lot of the mythology that sprang up in Washington’s wake was ginned up by people chasing opportunities to make money. Chief among those was Parson Weems who invented the cherry tree story out of whole cloth (“Father, I cannot tell a lie…”) as well as the maudlin lie of Washington kneeling in prayer while deep in the snow at Valley Forge.
Washington was a self-confessed spiritual man who understood and promoted the idea of Godly faith among the people but it’s unlikely that he was either Christian or religious. Despite that, he understood the vital need for faith in the affairs of the nation.
Valley Forge was no walk in the park …
… just more of the same suffering!
By December, 1777, the British Army had occupied Philadelphia, then America’s capitol city and were hunkered down for the winter. A day’s march to the northwest of that city was a place called Valley Forge, which Washington picked for wintering his own troops. Just over 12,000 of them stayed there for the next six months, shivering in 1,800 hastily-built log huts without adequate food or clothing. Some of the men were barefoot.
Then, to the great benefit of America’s rag-tag army, came the Prussian military genius, Friedrich Wilhelm Baron Von Steuben, who soon became Washington’s chief drillmaster. Von Steuben ran the troops through a gamut of intense Prussian-style drills, teaching them how to effectively load, fire and reload weapons, how best to charge with bayonets and to march in combat. The training manual he wrote remained the official text for the U.S. Army for decades.
About his slaves …
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