The Worst July 4 That George Washington Ever Had - And How It Led To A New Nation

The Worst July 4 That George Washington Ever Had - And How It Led To A New Nation by Gillian Brockell - Washington Post

Fort Necessity, Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Soon after Gen. George Washington learned of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, he wrote a letter to an old friend. He described how his poorly trained Continental Army was already surrounded by the British military. And he said he’d been thinking of the anniversary “of the escape we had” with “grateful remembrance.”

Washington was writing to the man who’d been his second-in-command in his very first battle, more than 20 years earlier. It had been a blunder-filled disaster. They were forced to surrender.

But what happened that day triggered a chain of events that culminated decades later in the creation of a new nation, of which Washington would be the first president.

A little stage-setting: If all you’ve heard about Washington’s early years is the tale of the cherry tree, here’s what you need to know. His dad died when he was 11, he idolized his older half brother Lawrence and his mother was kind of bossy. She prevented him from receiving an education in England or a British military commission, like Lawrence had. He taught himself to be a land surveyor instead.

As for young Washington’s temperament, it didn’t resemble at all the staid dignitary who stares back at us on the $1 bill.

“Ambition is the distinguishing feature of his personality as a young man. He was also uncertain of himself socially,” says Fred Anderson, author of “The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War.” “And he knew he had a dangerous temper, so controlling that was one of the major enterprises of his life.”

In 1753, when Washington was 21, the colonial governor of Virginia made him a major in the colonial regiment, largely on his older brother’s reputation, and sent him on a mission to scout the forests in what is now western Pennsylvania. There were rumors the French were building forts there in an effort to block the Britain from expanding its empire.

It was a terrific opportunity for the strapping young man to build his reputation. He kept a detailed journal of hacking through the wilderness, parlaying with Native American tribes, and bravely walking into a French fort and ordering its commander to leave…

Read on.