February 22, 1732, marked the birthday of President—and Commander in Chief—George Washington.

This reading and viewing list features articles, books, and original documents by, and about Washington.

We’ll continue to add to the list. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

“George Washington: Fierce Ambition“ by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn

“Let your Countenance be pleasant but in Serious Matters Somewhat grave.” “Wear not your Cloths, foul, unript or Dusty.” “When Another speaks be attentive your Self.” “Reprehend not the imperfections of others for that belongs to Parents Masters and Superiours.” In 1747, an eager and ambitious George Washington, at the green age of fifteen, was already concentrating on making his way in the world. Meticulously, he copied a list of 110 exacting rules of conduct and civility from the English translation of a French seventeenth-century manual on good manners, the equivalent of a modern self-help book, a kind of How to Be a Gentleman in One Hundred and Ten Easy Lessons. Unlike many other seventeenth-century French maxims, these contained few penetrating psychological insights. But they taught that there was little difference between moral qualities and social ones; they explained that one lived one’s life among others, and that, to be successful in society, one must be polite, modest, pleasing, and attentive to others; one must strive to win their confidence and respect. They gave instructions on how to behave with men of greater rank and how to balance deference to the mighty with one’s own dignity and ambition.

“Washington: The Education of A Soldier“ by Jame MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn

 In March 1775, representatives from Virginia’s counties met to choose delegates to the Second Continental Congress, and once again they elected Washington, Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, and others. They also voted to prepare their colony to defend itself, heeding Henry’s stirring call, “We must fight! Give me liberty or give me death!” Especially after the clash of British troops and American volunteers at Lexington and Concord in April, Americans indeed were experiencing new feelings of militant patriotism. “It is my full intention,” Washington wrote to his brother Jack that month, “to devote my Life and Fortune in the cause we are engaged in, if need be.”

“Colonel Washington appears at Congress in his uniform,” noted John Adams, “and by his great experience and abilities in military matters, is of much service to us.” In May 1775, Washington had taken to Philadelphia the old blue military uniform he had worn only once—for Peale’s portrait—since the French and Indian War. Was it a calculated gesture? Always attentive to the importance of costume, did he wish to communicate a message of military experience and readiness? Neither an intellectual like John Adams nor an orator like Patrick Henry, Washington could offer the unique combination of his past military service, wealth, integrity, and good judgment. Even though he had not excelled during his years in uniform, he had come to understand logistics, strategy, discipline, and leadership. An aggressive, courageous man, he was, as he once said, “bent to arms.”

“George Washington Voted Commander in Chief“ by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn

In March 1775, representatives from Virginia’s counties met to choose delegates to the Second Continental Congress, and once again they elected Washington, Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, and others. They also voted to prepare their colony to defend itself, heeding Henry’s stirring call, “We must fight! Give me liberty or give me death!” Especially after the clash of British troops and American volunteers at Lexington and Concord in April, Americans indeed were experiencing new feelings of militant patriotism. . . .

The situation in the country was dangerous and critical, the Congress declared, and delegates voted that all the colonies be put immediately into a state of defense. In a fateful step, Congress then declared that the volunteer soldiers in Boston would form a new Continental Army, to which six companies of riflemen would be added, and it authorized salaries for the soldiers.

But who would lead that army?

“June 14, 1775: Raising Today’s Army“ by James L. Nelson

The Provincial Congress was worried. It was losing control of the army.

Joseph Warren had warned about this possibility when he first wrote to the Continental Congress urging them to take control of the armed forces and suggesting the possibility of a military government. In a private letter to Sam Adams he was more direct. He warned that “unless some authority sufficient to restrain the irregularities of this army is established, we shall very soon find ourselves in greater difficulties than you can well imagine.”

Rumors and character assassinations were becoming common in the army and swept through the ranks like a communicable disease.

“December 1776: Victory or Death“ by Gerald M. Carbone

General John Sullivan took command of Lee’s Troops outside Morristown, and within a week he had them marching into Washington’s camp on the west side of the Delaware.  Washington had first asked Lee to bring those men on November 17, when they were 6,000 strong; now, on December 20, enlistments for 1776 had expired, and their number had dwindled to about 2,000.

On New Year’s Eve, almost everyone’s term of service would expire, and Washington would be left with an army of about 1,200. “Ten more days will put an end to the existence of our Army,” Washington wrote to Hancock.

“Nathaneal Greene: December 1776″ by Gerald M. Carbone

On December 31, 1776, George Washington brought his horse to a halt before a New England regiment of his veteran troops encamped in Trenton. These men looked less like soldiers than like refugees with ragged clothes stretched across bony frames. Washington told them that they’d done a good job; they were not the “sunshine patriots” of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, they were the loyal sons of liberty to whom all should be grateful. Washington told them that if they’d extend the terms of their enlistment for just six weeks, he would top their regular pay with a bounty of $10.

His regimental officers called for volunteers to step forward and a drummer beat a roll.

Not one man moved.

“Victory & Glory: The End of the Revolutionary War“ by John Ferling

Cornwallis knew there was little hope. Perhaps a hurricane—as at Newport in 1778—might strike the Chesapeake and destroy de Grasse’s fleet. Maybe an epidemic would sweep through the allied ranks. Possibly Clinton would cobble together another fleet and send it south to take on de Grasse yet again. Cornwallis made his army endure a bit longer, hoping against hope for a miracle. By October 17, he was out of hope. Under a white flag, he indicated that he was ready to negotiate a settlement.

Rochambeau and Washington were willing to parley, though unwilling to let the negotiations drag on. Given time, things could go wrong, as Cornwallis prayed might be the case. The settlement was reached in less than twenty-four hours. The guns fell silent. Under a cerulean fall sky on October 19, Cornwallis, in the shambles that remained of Yorktown, signed the Articles of Capitulation. A few minutes later, Washington, Rochambeau, and de Grasse, who had come ashore for this grand moment, signed the document while standing on the blood-soaked soil in one of the recently captured redoubts. That afternoon, six and one half years to the day since the first shot of the war had been fired in Lexington, Massachusetts, the armies gathered for the surrender ceremony on an open plain about two thousand yards north of the tents where Rochambeau and Washington had lived for the past few weeks.

“April 30, 1789: The First Inauguration“ by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn

Slowly the ornate carriage lumbered on its long journey northeastward toward New York. At every stop along the way, outpourings of people crowded around the general, cheering him while church bells rang and cannon boomed. People sang and people wept. Crossing a bridge outside of Philadelphia, he passed under an elaborate arch erected in his honor and was crowned with a wreath of laurels. He rode into Philadelphia on a white horse as twenty thousand citizens struggled to catch a glimpse of their hero. In Trenton women and girls scattered blossoms on the ground before him, singing “Welcome, mighty Chief!”

The little procession—George Washington and two companions—that had left Mount Vernon without ceremony on the morning of April 16, 1789, had turned into a triumphal promenade of republican spirit. A people frustrated by years of war and uncertainty and hardship, a people starved for leadership and direction, citizens denied the power of directly choosing their leaders and often denied any vote at all—these persons were now voting with lungs and legs for their leader, a man on a white horse, a republican hero.

President Theodore Roosevelt on Washington’s Forgotten Maxim by Callie Oettinger

A century has passed since Washington wrote “To be prepared for war is the most effectual means to promote peace.” We pay to this maxim the lip loyalty we so often pay to Washington’s words; but it has never sunk deep into our hearts. Indeed of late years many persons have refused it even the poor tribute of lip loyalty, and prate about the iniquity of war as if somehow that was a justification for refusing to take the steps which can alone in the long run prevent war or avert the dreadful disasters it brings in its train. The truth of the maxim is so obvious to every man of really far-sighted patriotism that its mere statement seems trite and useless; and it is not over-creditable to either our intelligence or our love of country that there should be, as there is, need to dwell upon and amplify such a truism.

In this country there is not the slightest danger of an overdevelopment of warlike spirit, and there never has been any such danger. In all our history there has never been a time when preparedness for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary again and again we have owed peace to the fact that we were prepared for war; and in the only contest which we have had with a European power since the Revolution, the war of 1812, the struggle and all its attendant disasters, were due solely to the fact that we were not prepared to face, and were not ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor and interest; while the glorious triumphs at sea which redeemed that war were due to the few preparations which we had actually made. We are a great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and manufacturers, of farmers and mechanics; a nation of workingmen, who labor incessantly with head or hand. It is idle to talk of such a nation ever being led into a course of wanton aggression or conflict with military powers by the possession of a sufficient navy.

Documents

“First Commander in Chief“ by Callie Oettinger

 The Constitution names the president the commander in chief of the Armed Forces:

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”

George Washington was nominated by John Adams to be the first commander in chief of the United States’ Army.

His hand-written notes on a draft for the U.S. Constitution are presented here.

“British Surrender: George Washington’s Diary and the Articles of Capitulation“ by Callie Oettinger

George Washington’s  October 12 to November 5, 1781, diary entries are windows opening into the mind of the leader, and views of the pivotal battle, ending with the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis’ army.

Click on the images within this post to view all seven of the original pages at a larger size. A transcript of the entries appears below the images.

“President George Washington’s Inaugural Address“ by Callie Oettinger

View President George Washington’s Handwritten Inaugural Address.

“George Washington to Thomas Jefferson: Maintain Neutral Role During War Between France and Great Britain” by Callie Oettinger

April 12, 1793, handwritten letter from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson,regarding the neutral role of the United States in the War Between Great Britain and France.

From Washington: ” . . . give the mature mature consideration.”

Fiction Books

Valley Forge: A Novel (Prologue and Chapter 4) by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

It’s the winter of 1777, a year after Washington’s triumphant surprise attack on Trenton, and the battered, demoralized Continental Army retreats from Philadelphia. At Valley Forge, they discover that their requests for supplies have been ignored by Congress. With no other options, for weeks the army freezes under tents in the bitter cold. The men are on the point of collapse, while in Philadelphia the British live in luxury. In spite of the suffering, Washington endures, joined by a volunteer from Germany, Baron Friederich von Steuben. With precious little time, von Steuben begins recasting the army as a professional corps capable of facing the British head-on—something it has never accomplished before—in the process changing the course of history.

To Try Men’s Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom (Chapter 1) by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

It is the night before the crossing of the Delaware, one of the most iconic events in American history, and General Washington is full of doubt.  The harsh winter and repeated defeats have dimmed his army’s spirit.  The revolution has come down to one desperate salvo as the freezing, hungry rebels slip across the river.

While Washington prepares, Thomas Paine, writing in Philadelphia, captures the army’s grim reality in one line: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Private Jonathan Van Dorn is about to bring the war to his own doorstep. Jonathan must decide between staying loyal to the American cause and sparing his brother, who has joined the British.