Washington, George
Washington, George (1732–1799), Revolutionary War commander in chief and first president of the United States.Born into a family on the margins of the Virginia aristocracy, Washington advanced rapidly to local prominence owing to his brother Lawrence's brief career in the British military establishment and to Lawrence's marriage into the powerful Fairfax family. Ambitious and intelligent, though lacking formal education, Washington obtained the office of regional militia adjutant, the assignment of warning the French in the Ohio Valley to depart from lands claimed by Virginia, and afterward the position of special aide to Gen. Edward Braddock. Washington's heroic performance during Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela helped earn him the command of Virginia's frontier defenses during the French and Indian War....
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