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George Washington was famous for his leadership and forbearance on diplomatic policies. The triumph of American Revolution made his military career outstanding. His reputation soon grew throughout the continent and across the Atlantic. Due to his popularity, he was elected to be the president. However, historians had found out that George Washington’s military skill was only mediocre based on his battlefield record.
While George Washington was a child, he was not well-educated. Since Lawrence Washington was the eldest child in the family, he was given the opportunities in studying in Great Britain over his young brother, George. And education was not prevail in Virginia at that time, most of college taught religious materials, Such as Harvard College and Yale College. George Washington received basic knowledge from two tenants of Augustine Washington(George Washington’s father) called “Hoby” and “Williams”. Instead of military skill, George Washington showed great talent for Maths when he was a child. Despite this, he was not offered further studies. George Washington’s good family environment influenced him a lot. The story of the “cherry tree”is well-known. He learned decency and good attributes from his family. His brother Lawrence worked as a commander also providing George Washington a few chances to learned the insight of military strategy,as well as the connections to the military training he would need. His mother’s gift to him was his disciplined behaviors and non-discriminatory perspective. His father-in-law Lord Fairfax taught Washington many virtues. Land survey skill and hunting also facilitated his career as a soldier.(Irving)
While he was doing land surveying in West Virginia in 1749, the tension between England and France became greater and greater. Both sides deployed a huge number of armies. George Washington attended a military practice with Lawrence’s friend: Mose. During that time, George learned how to use gun and sword, and went over several essays about wars. After his brother died, he became the Deputy chief of southern district. In 1753, he worked as a diplomat for British. He negotiated with Indian Chief in order to get the support from them. He succeeded. However, there was a French spy got into George Washington’s Army. But George Washington assumed he is an Indian ally. Travelling through Ohio River, suggested to build a fort ,which has been taken by French when it was being built, at the intersection of Ohio River. He won a small skirmish with French Army through a surprise attack which seem to give him too much confidence. Since French held a larger formation and the number of soldiers were overwhelming, he retreated,deployed comprehensively and waited for French army’s counterattack. Unfortunately,unlike what George Washington thought, the French didn’t fight back immediately. Then the lack of forage became a severe problem. What’s more, he cruelly exploited of Native American labors made the chief feel unsatisfied. And Indians ally had been alienated. At last,the English ally hadn’t arrived, Washington had to surrender. Through his debut, we can see that although he shows his eminent ability in negotiating, he is lack of a more careful, invulnerable military plan. Even if , unfriendly actions against native Americans are common among the white, I don’t think it is sensible to maltreat them when they are your allies. But on the other side, because George was only the Deputy chief of Southern district, he had to follow many orders given by his superior. There were many restrictions that bound George Washington’s ideas.(Irving)
In 1777’s winter, the miserable scene of Washington’s troop in Valley Forge from December 19,1777 to June 19 1778 aroused a terribly negative attitude to the troops initially. John Marshall, who would become the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, remembered that cataclysm for the rest of his life ,and it had a lifelong impact on his decisions in his life of political career. After George Washington failed to retake the Capital, he led the army to Valley Forge. During this 6 months, he struggled with training soldiers and reorganizing them. At the same time, he managed and manipulated with the supply which had been cut out by the Great Britain. They lived in tatty huts with unkempt environment and unfavorable sanitary conditions. Scabies exploded in the camp; it took away soldiers’ lives and undermined the troop. A military memoir written by an officer of the Continental Army said “the sanitary in the camp is awful;soldiers are not conscious of the importance of toilet, instead, the ground is scattered with feces. The pungent smell is everywhere.”(qtd. In 1776:the birth of America). The supply is a severe dilemma for George Washington too. There were over 12000 people in Valley Forge, including children and women. What makes the situation more terrible is the fighting surrounding Philadelphia as well as the impediment to road caused by snowing which slowed down or even stopped the supply wagons. Around 1500 horses died in the cold winter.Even though soldiers are provided with better protections, the death is somehow inevitable. George Washington had authorized the reorganization of these supply lines, but it was useless. Lacking of basic medical knowledge is common at that period, nevertheless Washington did a even worse job of narrowing down the ways for disease propagation than the other general. Other British regular army had a fixed place for stool but Washington’s troop didn’t have one. It was partly contributed to the fact that people in Continental Army are mainly rural barbarians, they didn’t know or follow the rules in the camp. During the rest in Valley Forge, there were more than 2000 people died within a year. However, the vaccination against smallpox turned out to be an eminent action, also, the only laudable one during this time period. It stopped devastating smallpox from spreading.
From 1776 to 1778, It is a hard time for continental army. Since the defeat of New York, the morale of those voluntary fighters became dour and pathetic. There is a letter of military discipline talks about the fatigue the troop had gone through and the reason why they went to a worship. George Washington, as a general, didn’t keen on religious belief and detested that kind of superstitions prevail among military and carried out a lot of rumors. From my opinion, however, it’s a good solution to soothe soldiers and unify them together via the name of god. Since most of the people in the New World were devout religious people, prayer could give them a lot of power, not only for the battle, but also for the expedition and long way they had to travel. The letter mentions that the soldiers had already travelled a long way, and it was not a sensible choice to keep going on. In case the soldiers could no longer endure this arduous journey, they would be reluctant to follow general’s orders or even take rebellion. At this critical moment, it would be better if the General listened to what soldiers really need----solace and Gospel.And 2 years later, George Washington prayed to god in Valley Forge. There is a sense of irony here, but Valley Forge set up an statue which depicts George Washington praying and kneeling down on the ground.
The good things happened during the rest in Valley Forge. After the Battle of Freeman’s farm and the ensuing battle of Bemis height, the balance of the war had changed. But before these two triumphs, George Washington confessed his own dissatisfaction against those volunteers. In order to take back Boston, George Washington converged all armies in a place nearby. The troop had around 16000 people. However, people who were suitable for battle was less than 14000, including 1500 people who were sick and 1500 absentees. Even if the huge number of soldiers is astonishing, majority of these people were not professional soldiers. They joined the army out of their own accord. Their morale was high, however, the negative side was that they had not been trained before and they were regardless of laws and discipline in the camp. In other words, they were not “qualified” soldiers.(qtd. In 1776:the birth of America). The disappointing thing that annoyed George Washington was the nose count of the “monstrous” troop. Washington said, if they are regular soldiers, the counting process would not take more than a couple of hours, but it took him 8 days to count nose. This tedious but necessary process delayed the plan of the war. The diseases were still a severe and inescapable threaten. The demands of the camp were not standardized and loosely supervised. There were no neither flag nor uniforms. We can easily deduce that such an army were unlikely to possess high combat capability. Washington called the army force “embryo” privately.
To those people remained royal to Great Britain, Continental Army was “rebel army” or “countryman” condescendingly. They didn’t deserve name such as “US armed force” or “army”. John Burgoyne deemed Washington’s as “the army of absurdness” and “the armed mob”.(qtd. In 1776:the birth of America). Benjamin Thompson, the most eminent scientist at that time, observed on Continental Army“The clothes are dirty and shabby, they are shaming the name of “soldier”.(qtd. In 1776:the birth of America). Although Thompson was pro-English, most of scenes he described were valid. No wonder so many English commanders thought that Washington’s army was consisted up of farmers.
Washington fought on despite repeated setbacks.Battle of Saratoga is the turning point of the Independent War. William Howe had just taken Philadelphia, which is the center of Continental Army. The British Army thought they were going to win the war and they became very arrogant. One of British general, John Burgoyne, tried to crush Continental Army. Washington’s main concern was General Howe, but he also noticed Burgoyne’s movement. So he sent General Benedict Arnold to aid Gate’s Army. His battle formation had a clear flaw, Arnold took a raid and defeated British soldiers. Arnold’s troop lost 300 soldiers whereas British troop lost 600. It was the prelude of a series of triumph. It’s called the battle of Freemen’s Farm. And after the Second Saratoga, Battle of Bemis Heights, General Burgoyne had limited choice and surrendered. In this battle, Washington deployed army to attack back immediately and decisively while British soldiers still indulged in their victory was very impressive. Even he had just lost Philadelphia, his showed great fortitude and unshakable ambition. Tthe Army had been defeated, however, his soul was invictable, like a sharp dagger, cut through the darkness and dig out hope sealed behind black clouds. And this personality finally shored up his army and led Continental Army to victory. (Baidu, Battle of Saratoga)
In brief, George Washington was definitely not a legend commander. He lost more battles than he won. In the early stage of his career, his arrogance and wrong preoccupation led to so many dilemmas and loses. He didn’t have a well-rounded plan, instead, he is an “improviser”----not that good one. But that’s not all his fault, no formal army was a plight for him too. A good commander can’t win a war without valiant warrior. Maybe he is not the best General, he has to be the bravest, most tenacious and best leader of the Independent War ----his tireless “harassment” and obtrusive attempts on the battle field brought the birth of America in the end.
Works Cited
1.刘彤，乔治华盛顿的部队被称为“乞丐”？http://cul.qq.com/a/20150915/018122.htm
2.Wikipedia, Valley Forge, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Forge
3.天生的笨蛋，华盛顿的滑铁卢-福吉谷
4.Baidu, 萨拉托加大捷，https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%90%A8%E6%8B%89%E6%89%98%E5%8A%A0%E5%A4%A7%E6%8D%B7/5291456?fr=aladdin#3_2
5.Kennedy, David M and Lizabeth Cohen. The America Pageant. AP EDITION, 15th ed.Cengage Learning, 2017. Print.
6.GeorgeWashington Master(Documents given by Gerrard)
7.GeorgeWashington Life before the presidency(Documents given by Gerrard)
8.Washington Irving. George Washington. 2007 published. 2015. Print.
