First president of the United States and commander in chief of the Continental Army during the revolutionary war. Totally self-tought, Washington was appointed official surveyor of Culpeper County in 1749. In 1753, he was named adjutant with the rank of major in the Virginia militia, subsequently taking part in the French and Indian Wars of that era. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1758.
He was a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second the following year. Congress appointed Washington commander of the revolutionary army in 1775 and he went on to win some dramatic battles at Trenton, Princeton and finally at Yorktown, which proved to be the last battle of the American Revolution. Elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was chosen as its president and was thus the first to sign that document. Elected president in 1788 and for a second term in 1792, he was responsible for the creation of a cabinet, something that had not been envisaged in the Constitution. After 1797, Washington retired to the family estate at Mount Vernon. |
