This program originally livestreamed on facebook and youtube and is part of a series of Online Events intended to keep visitors connected with mount vernon during its closure to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Bradburn here we are again. Welcome back. My name is doug bradburn. It is my delight to have these opportunities to talk about George Washington. Last wednesday, we were in our museum. This is our Education Center here at mount vernon. It focuses on the life of George Washington. It gives a grand sense of why he matters. Last time, we were looking at his youth, a youth that is oftentimes enwrapped in romance and myth. Of course, he is most known to americans and perhaps the folks around the world as the great military commander, the general who led the americans through the american war for independence, through eight long years of war. His identity as a warrior is a crucial one. We think about who was George Washington, how did he think of himself and his time, and why does it matter today . George washington as a military commander is still studied regularly in the great military disciplines in this country at west point, the naval academy, as well as the war college because washington was a fundamental figure in the establishment of American Leadership in arms. The United States army dates its own birth to his service. The Continental Congresss appointment of him taking over the army. That is important to start thinking about the cultures and traditions that are part of American Military power and leadership today. George washington also was a man who learned a lot of service through the french and i understandian war and also by many mistakes. He had a skirmish that turned into a nasty assassination as the french considerate, and then he lost one of his early commands at the battle of fort necessity, where the french and indian war, he had the virginia regiment and some other troops surrounded by brit wish no native American Allies and ultimately had to surrender his post in that moment. But yet he survived to go on to great things in the french and indian war, and he would go on to become known as a very respected officer and respected colonial officer, particularly by virginians, but also by colonials throughout north america. In part this had to do with his exploits at the battle of the montgomery gala, whats often called braddocks defeat, general edward braddock, the Great British well, he great great. In fact, he was a fairly inexperienced, but longserving british commander who was sent to attack in 1755, and George Washington served as a volunteer on his staff, but at this Point Washington had resigned his commission in the virginia regiment, but braddock, in asking around for informed locals, braddock, in fact, had his great war meeting with a number of royal governors in Carlyle House in alexandria. John carlyle was related to George Washington through marriage, and so washingtons brother, youll remember, married into the fairfax family. John carlyle was also married to a daughter of william fairfax, so George Washington was very much on the radar of people in alexandria when braddock was looking for some expertise, and he agreed to voluntary. Braddock agreed to have him. And it served braddocks army ultimately, because George Washington was able to help lead the retreat after braddocks army was caught by an ambush of well prepared native americans and some of their french allies, mostly native american victory and one of the worst defeats in british history. Braddocks whole army was decimated, really, and washington is able to help guide this retreat through chaos, only a few miles away from the force of the ohio river, which was their goal. And George Washington after that comes back and finds virginia in a position where its completely undefended. One of the things that braddocks army did, where they marched west, they built a big road. They carved out an army trode make it easier for braddock to bring his army out there, but once they were defeated, essentially that road became a highway for native americans to come rushing back into the virginia frontier and spread out and assault the virginian settlers in the shenandoah valley. So without any protection, the colony of virginia begged George Washington to come back into service, to become the head of the virginia regiment again, and he ultimately, reluctantly did come back in to be the colonel of the virginia regiment with a new plan essentially, a Strategic Plan that was intended to just defend the frontier, and virginians had a series of ports, and washington found himself an n an incredibly challenging position for the next few years, which was defensive, where he only had about 1,000 men, sometimes upwards he was supposed to have about 2,000 men, but it never really was that many across multiple in the shenandoah valley, intended to cover 400 miles essentially of frontier. And, of course, native americans arent stupid. Theyre not just going to attack the forts where the troops are. They go around those, and they attack the settlements, and they would carry away captives and steal goods and basically make civilian life miserable and dangerous on that frontier and keep the whole colony on edge, and washington was in a very difficult position of having to defend this frontier. One of the things he did learn throughout that period was how to command men, thousand train men, thousand fight in what was at that time called the indian style in the woods, using light infantry tactics, learning how to track native american groups, and obviously learning a lot about supply and morale and motivation. In fact, in some of the early essences of George Washingtons leader developing in this period. So, for instance, theres an episode at one of the forts that washington is in charge of where he had been away for a while and comes back, and there had been drunken carousing by some of the officers at this fort, and washington has to go through the process of court marshal, where the officers will convene and trilet other officers for misbehavior, and he has to exercise punishment. After that he writes an address to the virginia regiment, officers of the virginia regiment, which basically says that it takes more than the title to make the officer. And that it will make it his duty to serve with the utmost respect to the rules of comportment and training, but he also expects it of the others as well. He also said that he will punish with severity, but at the same time he looks forward to rewarding the merits of the best, of the brave, and the most meritorious. And that notion depicts more than the title to make an officer and that he was going reward merit, but punish poor behavior, so it was a key to understanding washingtons sense of what leadership means in that environment. He puts an emphasis on training and on reading, and in fact, he lists a number of books that officers should read. Youre going to see this throughout his own experience as a military leader, the importance of training, the importance of reading. So the other thing about french and indian war i do want to bring up before we get into the American Revolutionary war more generally is that George Washington really becomes alienated from the british world for the first time during his experience with the french and indian war. He trained the virginia regiment over these three long years of bloody campaign, as he called them, and made them into a very highly regarded, professional regiment. They arent a militia unit. They are an established military unit at the colony wide, at the provincewide level, but they arent whats called the regular british establishment. So theyre not part of the british army per se. Theyre a provincial regiment. What that means is George Washingtons commission as a colonel is not effective when hes around an officer who has a Kings Commission. A Kings Commission at the level captain is supposed to be able to have authority over provincial colonels, which George Washington is seen as a huge insult, an insult to his rank and his honor, and so theres constant concern that these provincials are going to end up serving alongside regular troops and then all their officers would be grade in the face of these british regiments. So washington was trying to get his own commission and, in fact, his whole regiment put on a british establishment recognition, which would equalize his own status within the british army more generally, the British Imperial forces collectively, but would also do the same for all of his fellow officers. He had about 60 to 70 officers in the virginia regiment. Now, this comes to a head a couple of times, you know, throughout the course of the french and indian war, and he fails to get this recognition, although it becomes quite close, but he thinks the great opportunity has emerged with the appointment of a new british commander in chief at about 1756 or 1757, which is the earl of loudon, John Campbell the erm of loudon is made the new commander of chief of all the British Forces in north america. And John Campbell is a scotsman. Hes also a nobleman. Hes the earl of loudon. Hes appointed commander in chief, but hes also appointed the real governor of virginia. The royal governor of virginia. Which is really important. The oil governor of virginia obviously represents the throne, the crown in the virginia colony. Now, virginia is mostly run by what are called Lieutenant Governors, so we have a royal governor in virginia, then he appoints a Lieutenant Governor, and that Lieutenant Governor actually goes and lives in williamsburg and runs the colony on behalf of the actual governor, who most of the time is an absentee governor. He stays in scotland or england collecting his salary for being the royal governor, but not actually doing anything. In this case, all the sudden the royal governor of virginia, the real royal governor, the big cheese, is coming to the colonies. Hes also the commander in chief of all the forces. So heres George Washington thinking, well, this is perfect for me, because i am the colonel of the virginia regiment, soive that connection to this royal governor, plus im obviously serving in this war, so i have that connection to the commander in chief, plus ive got all this experience in fighting in this war. And he has an idea, a strategic idea that he wants to bring to his superiors. He wants to go on the offensive. He cant defend the frontier of virginia over 400 miles with 2,000 men, but he knows that if they could take the forks of the ohio, where the french have built a port at this point, thats really the launching point of native american raids really from everywhere southward and into pennsylvania from the forks, because its a place where native americans are coming actually from canada and from further west and from all over, so coming down to fort, getting supplies, being able to then launch raids into the frontier of pennsylvania, virginia, north carolina, and even further south. So if you can take the fort, you can cut off the whole regions ability to sustain native warfare on the frontier. Washington knows this. Fort duquesne is the high that they have to destroy. And he knows that the only way to really stop the raiding then is to take over that fort, seize the forks of the ohio. So he wants to go on a mission, he wants to convince the new commander in chief, lord loudon, to make this assault on the ohio. And so what does he do . He writes a very flattering letter to lord lou done. He names his new fort after loudon, fort loudon. He writes a flattering letter about the greatest of generals and the greatest of men, were so delighted youre now in charge, i look forward to my chance to meeting you. He actually goes to philadelphia, where loudon is, and tries to set up a meeting. And loudon, of course, you know, hes the commander in chief of the british army. This is like some random colonel trying to talk to the head of the joint chiefs of staff with an idea about what they should be doing. That typically is not way that these sorts of decisions are made. And so washington is put on ice, and here he is cooling his jets for two weeks in philadelphia, trying to get the attention of lord loudon. Hes final allowed in to see him, and what does loudon do . Loudon not only says i have no interest in hearing your ideas, young man washington is only 24 at the time, remember from loudons point of view, very little experience in arms, and hes a pro pro vince yal to begin with, which means he doesnt know anything about warfare from the perspective of a european. But not only that, washington, not only are they not going to go on the offensive, but washingtons virginia blues, this regiment that hes trained over these years, that hes so proud of, hes going to have to lose some of his men, and those are going to be sent to south carolina. And so washington emerges from this meeting completely humiliated and angry, and writes what i call the smoking gun letter that he writes to the Lieutenant Governor of virginia, robert dinwiddie, who hes been working with for years, complains to him, i cannot concede that americans, only because theyre not british, will be denied the rights of british subjects. Essentially saying, you know, how can we how come we arent treated equally with the british . He goes on tonight out theres no other regiment in his Majestys Service that has served three bloody campaigns without recognition. And that idea that americans are lesser than the british come through very powerful until an angry way. I think this is the crucial moment, if anyone was to ask why does George Washington ultimately become a rebel against the king, who he had served in the french and indian war, this experience with lord loudon is one of those moments you can point to and say theres poor George Washington being treated like a dog, and hes never going to forget it. And so ultimately, of course, the french and indian war, washington does participate and one other thing about loudon, which i like. To give you a sense of the character of John Campbell, the earl of loudon, benjamin franklin, who was in philadelphia at the time, has said of lord loudon that hes like st. George, always on horseback, but never going anywhere. So you get the sense that this man, who played being a great soldier, never really did much, and in fact, he didnt. Ultimately George Washington does get to participate in a successful march on fort duquesne. He goes with the campaign in 1758. In that campaign, he believes he has a major impact on helping to lay out the line of march, because he has experience with this sort of fighting. He also, although doesnt get what he wanted from forbes, he wanted forbes to take the same route braddock did, the virginia route, but forbes took a longer, but flatter route through pennsylvania, and ultimately had the same success. E french left the port where they arrived and they were able to secure it. That success basically ended the french and indian war in the south. It was correct. Once he took duquesne, the french had no way to project power basically south of the great lakes in any kind of force. So when that was over, George Washington resigned his commission, you know, its clear his ambition in military was not going to be in the british army, and he resigned his commission, married Martha Washington, and embarks on his next career as a virginia planter. So its really interesting to see that as connected. You know, he is turning his back on a military career that has been denied him essentially as his interpretation throughout idiocy of the british, and now hes really going to become that virginia planter that he never had been. And to do that, he brings Martha Washington to mount vernon and the next phase of his lives begins. Ok, so lets go fast forward to the American Revolutionary war, nd why dont i take a question aa way to get into, it as a way to think about washington as a soldier in the American Revolution. Washington was one of historys great generals. Who were his mentors, and how did he learn strategy . The question is about washington, considering the fact that he is one of the greatest generals, certainly in American History, and i will submit that he is, and we can argue about that and why we have to think of him in that way. So who were his mentors in arms . How did he learn . A couple of interesting things here. George washington obviously learned by doing here, and one of the incredible things you see about him is that he will sail or he will blunder and make mistakes, but he clearly learns from his experiences in the french and indian war, and also in the American Revolution, as well talk about as well. But he was also a great reader of all the military books of the age. He clearly learned a lot from braddock and the officers that surrounded braddock, including people like thomas, who he later will face off against in he boston theater. He p