General George Washington: A Military Life

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Random House Publishing Group, Jun 7, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 496 pages
Much has been written in the past two centuries about George Washington the statesman and “father of his country.” Less often discussed is Washington’s military career, including his exploits as a young officer and his performance as the Revolutionary War commander in chief. Now, in a revealing work of historical biography, Edward Lengel has written the definitive account of George Washington the soldier.

Based largely on Washington’s personal papers, this engrossing book paints a vivid, factual portrait of a man to whom lore and legend so tenaciously cling. To Lengel, Washington was the imperfect commander. Washington possessed no great tactical ingenuity, and his acknowledged “brilliance in retreat” only demonstrates the role luck plays in the fortunes of all great men. He was not an enlisted man’s leader; he made a point of never mingling with his troops. He was not an especially creative military thinker; he fought largely by the book.

He was not a professional, but a citizen soldier, who, at a time when warfare demanded that armies maneuver efficiently in precise formation, had little practical training handling men in combat. Yet despite his flaws, Washington was a remarkable figure, a true man of the moment, a leader who possessed a clear strategic, national, and continental vision, and who inspired complete loyalty from his fellow revolutionaries, officers, and enlisted men. America could never have won freedom without him.

A trained surveyor, Washington mastered topography and used his superior knowledge of battlegrounds to maximum effect. He appreciated the importance of good allies in times of crisis, and understood well the benefits of coordination of ground and naval forces. Like the American nation itself, he was a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts–a remarkable everyman whose acts determined the course of history. Lengel argues that Washington’s excellence was in his completeness, in how he united the military, political, and personal skills necessary to lead a nation in war and peace.

At once informative and engaging, and filled with some eye-opening revelations about Washington, the war for American independence, and the very nature of military command, General George Washington is a book that reintroduces readers to a figure many think they already know.
 

Contents

Young Frontiersman May 1741 February 1753
5
The Ohio October 1753 January 1754
25
Fort Necessity January October 1754
33
Braddock JanuaryJuly 1755
51
The Virginia Regiment July 1755January 1759
65
Call to Arms 17591775
85
Boston June 1775 March 1776
103
New York March August 1776
133
Princeton December 1776January 1777
195
Philadelphia December 1776 September 1777
211
Germantown SeptemberOctober 1777
243
Valley Forge December 1777 May 1778
266
Monmouth MayJune 1778
284
The Dark Before the Dawn 1778 1781
307
Victory September 1780 December 1783
324
Old Soldier 1784 1799
353

Retreat September December 1776
153
Redemption Trenton December 1776
177
First in War?
365

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About the author (2005)

EDWARD LENGEL is associate professor of history at the University of Virginia and associate editor of The Papers of George Washington. A specialist in military history, he is the author of World War I Memories and The Irish Through British Eyes.

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