George Washington was promoted to lieutenant colonel at the age of 22 for his efforts in the Virginia militia at the onset of the French and Indian War.  Within only a year after that, his exploits to defend the Virginia frontier earned him the rank of commander in chief of the Virginia militia.  Once confident that the Virginia territory was safe from French attack, Washington left the army in 1758, but with increasing antagonism from the British, he became a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress and in 1775 was the unanimous choice as commander in chief of the Continental forces.

Washington took command of an undisciplined army urgently in need of  supplies. In late 1776, critically short of men and supplies, Washington almost despaired.  He had lost New York City to the British, enlistment was almost up for many of the troops, and large numbers were deserting.  Civilian morale was waning and Congress had withdrawn from Philadelphia in fear of a British attack.  But with the arrival of French support, Washington honed the army into a legitimate fighting force which ultimately defeated the British under Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, securing American victory in October, 1781.

Washington was unanimously elected as America’s first president in 1792.  By early 1797 when Washington left office after refusing a third term, the country’s financial system was well established, the Indian threat east of the Mississippi had been eliminated, and our territorial and political interests were intact.  

Washington spent his last years in retirement at Mount Vernon but died after a brief struggle with acute laryngitis on December 14, 1799.  At his funeral, Henry Lee said of him, “He was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”