George Washington :: essays research papers

The eldest of vi children from his fathers second marriage, George majuscule was born into the landed gentry in 1732 at Wakefield Plantation, VA. Until reaching 16 years of age, he lived there and at different plantations along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, including the one that later became known as rag Vernon. His statement was rudimentary, probably being obtained from tutors besides possibly also from private schools, and he learned surveying. After he lost his father when he was 11 years old, his half-brother Lawrence, who had served in the Royal Navy, acted as his mentor. As a result, the youth acquired an interest in pursuing a naval career, only his mother discouraged him from doing so.At the age of 16, in 1748, Washington united a surveying party sent out to the Shenandoah Valley by Lord Fairfax, a land baron. For the next few years, Washington conducted surveys in Virginia and present West Virginia and gained a lifetime interest in the West. In 1751-52 he al so accompanied Lawrence on a visit he made to Barbados, West Indies, for health reasons just before his finish. The next year, Washington began his military career when the royal governor appointed him to an adjutantship in the militia, as a major. That same year, as a gubernatorial emissary, accompanied by a guide, he travelight-emitting diode to Fort Le Boeuf, PA, in the Ohio River Valley, and delivered to french authorities an ultimatum to cease fortification and settlement in English territory. During the trip, he tried to better British relations with various Indian tribes.In 1754, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel and then colonel in the militia, Washington led a force that sought to challenge French control of the Ohio River Valley, but met defeat at Fort Necessity, PA - an event that helped trigger the French and Indian War (1754-63). Late in 1754, irked by the dilution of his rank because of the unfinished arrival of British regulars, he resigned his commission. Tha t same year, he leased Mount Vernon, which he was to inherit in 1761.In 1755 Washington reentered military armed service with the courtesy title of colonel, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, and barely escaped death when the French defeated the generals forces in the Battle of the Monongahela, PA. As a vantage for his bravery, Washington rewon his colonelcy and command of the Virginia militia forces, charged with defending the colonys frontier.