Seven primary documents from twenty-eight years of military service — 1755 to 1783. Washington's own letters. His general orders. The words of a French officer who served beside him. The record of what he commanded and what he returned when it was over.
On July 9, 1755, British General Edward Braddock led a column of 1,400 British regulars and Virginia colonial militia toward Fort Duquesne in western Pennsylvania. French forces and their Native allies ambushed the column in a narrow ravine. The British regulars, trained for European open-field combat, broke under fire they could not see. Braddock was shot from his horse. Washington, a twenty-three year old Virginia colonel serving as Braddock's aide-de-camp with no formal commission in the British army, rode back and forth through the ambush rallying the colonial troops and organizing the retreat. Two horses were shot from under him. Four bullet holes were found in his coat. He was not wounded.
Nine days later, from Fort Cumberland, he wrote his brother John Augustine Washington. The letter is at Founders Online.
As I have heard since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial acct. of my death and dying speech, I take this early oppertunity of contradicting both, and of assuring you that I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence, that protected me beyond all human expectation; I had 4 Bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me, and yet escaped unhurt.
On June 15, 1775, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. He was forty-three years old. He had not commanded troops since the French and Indian War twenty years earlier. On June 16, he addressed Congress to accept the command. The speech is at Founders Online.
Tho' I am truly sensible of the high Honour done me in this Appointment, yet I feel great distress, from a consciousness that my abilities and Military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important Trust: However, as the Congress desires I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I Possess In their Service and for the Support of the glorious Cause... I beg it may be remembered by every Gentn. in the room, that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think my self equal to the Command I am honoured with.
Washington commanded the Continental Army through eight years of active campaigning. The record of those campaigns is in the primary archive — his dispatches to Congress, his general orders, his letters to subordinates. The Journals of the Continental Congress at the Library of Congress document the official record. The Papers of George Washington at Founders Online contain over 60,000 documents from the Revolutionary War period alone.
By December 1776, the Continental cause was near collapse. The army had retreated across New Jersey. Thousands of enlistments were set to expire on January 1. Washington wrote Congress that without action the army would dissolve. On Christmas night 1776, he led 2,400 men across the ice-choked Delaware River in a driving storm and attacked the Hessian garrison at Trenton at dawn. The attack succeeded. He wrote Congress the same day. The letter is at Founders Online.
I have the pleasure of congratulating you upon the success of an enterprise, which I had formed against a detachment of the enemy lying in Trenton, and which was executed yesterday morning... The quantity of artillery, arms, ammunition, and stores of different kinds, taken, is large, though I cannot at this moment determine it exactly. I will just add, that the loss on our side was inconsiderable... The party are all safe.
The Continental Army arrived at Valley Forge on December 19, 1777. Philadelphia had fallen. The men had no shoes, no coats, and insufficient food. Over the winter of 1777–1778, approximately 2,500 men died of disease and exposure. Washington wrote Congress repeatedly about the army's condition. He also issued daily General Orders — the primary documents of daily command at the encampment. The General Orders for December 26, 1777 — one week into the encampment — are at Founders Online.
The General ardently wishes it were in his power to conduct the troops to comfortable quarters, but where are these to be found? Should we retire to the interior parts of Pennsylvania, the State would be abandoned to the Enemy. He is therefore resolved to take post in the neighbourhood of this Camp, and trusts that the Officers and Soldiers, with one heart and one mind, will resolve to surmount every difficulty with a fortitude and patience becoming their profession and the sacred cause in which they are engaged.
Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings, to a general mutiny or dispersion. Strong symptoms, however, of discontent have appeared in particular instances; and nothing but the most active efforts every where can long avert so shocking a catastrophe.
The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in America in June 1777 at age nineteen, commissioned a Major General by Congress. He served as Washington's aide-de-camp and was with him at Valley Forge. On December 30, 1777 — eleven days into the encampment — Lafayette wrote Washington a letter that documented both the army's condition and what Lafayette observed of the man commanding it. The letter is at Founders Online.
I don't Need telling You How I am Sorry for all what Happens Since Some time, it is a necessary dependence of my most tender and Respectful friendship for You, which affection is as true and Candid as the other Sentiments of my Heart and much Stronger than a So new acquaintance Seems to admit. But an other Reason to be Concerned in the present Circumstances is my Ardent, and perhaps enthusiastic wishes for the Happiness and liberty of this Country. I See plainly that America Can defend Herself if proper Measure are taken and Now I Begin to fear that She Could be lost By Herself and Her own Sons.
On June 8, 1783 — with the Treaty of Paris signed and the war effectively over — Washington sent his last circular letter as Commander-in-Chief to the governors of all thirteen states. It was his final public communication before resigning his commission. In it he addressed directly what the volunteer army had accomplished and what he believed the republic required to survive.
The Citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as the sole Lords and Proprietors of a vast Tract of Continent, comprehending all the various soils and climates of the World, and abounding with all the necessaries and conveniences of life, are now by the late satisfactory pacification, acknowledged to be possessed of absolute freedom and Independency; They are, from this period, to be considered as the Actors on a most conspicuous Theatre, which seems to be peculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity.
On November 2, 1783, at Rocky Hill, New Jersey, Washington issued his final orders to the Continental Army. The war was over. The army was disbanding. He addressed the men he had commanded for eight years one last time.
A contemplation of the compleat attainment (at a period earlier than could have been expected) of the object for which we contended against so formidable a power, cannot but inspire us with astonishment and gratitude — The disadvantageous circumstances on our part, under which the War was undertaken, can never be forgotten — The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition were such, as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unobserving — while the unparalleled perseverance of the Armies of the United States, through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of eight long years, was little short of a standing Miracle.
On December 23, 1783, Washington stood before the Continental Congress in the Senate chamber of the Maryland State House in Annapolis. He returned his commission — the legal authority he had held as Commander-in-Chief — to the civilian government that had issued it. Some Americans had proposed making him king. He had rejected the idea. The draft of his resignation address is at the Maryland State Archives. The Library of Congress holds the congressional record of the event.
The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place; I have now the honor of offering my sincere Congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the Service of my Country... Happy in the confirmation of our Independence and Sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable Nation, I resign with satisfaction the Appointment I accepted with diffidence.
King George III of Britain reportedly said that if Washington resigned his command and returned to private life he would be the greatest man in the world. The reply of Congress — read aloud to Washington after his address — is at Founders Online: founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-12224