WASHINGTON, George, American sol dier-statesman, and first President of the United States: b. in the family homestead at Bridges Creek, in Westmoreland County-, Va., 22 Feb. 1732; d. Mount Vernon, 14 Dec. 1799. He was the fifth child of Augustine Washing ton, who belonged to the third generation of Washingtons who had lived in America. Au gustine was a well-to-do planter who might have afforded every school advantage to his son had he not died before George was 12 years of age. The father's death left the son in his mother's care, with a farm on the Rappa hannock as his sole inheritance. This pre cluded any hope of an education in England such as his elder brothers had enjoyed, and he, therefore, received the practical and elementary instruction afforded in colonial Virginia. He learned something in books but more about the forest life, and manly sports, and the habits of a Virginia gentleman. Formal schooling he quit altogether at the age of 16, and began surveying in the employment of Lord Fairfax, an Englishman who came to Virginia to look after his inherited lands, and whose companion ship taught Washington some of the conduct and breeding of a man of the world. Though Washington was a mere boy and almost self taught in surveying, yet he was a good Nvoods man, and he did his work so well on Lord Fairfax's forest lands that for three years he was kept busy at the profession, which in that day approached nearer to woodcraft than ex pert mathematics. Meanwhile he did not neg lect to give considerable time to the study of military tactics and the manual of arms, for which a Virginian of his standing might have use. This life came to an end in 1751, when the failng health of his elder brother Lawrence caused him to seek recuperation in the Baha mas. Thither George went with him, only to bring him badc to die. As executor of his brother's will, he assumed so many cares that his surveying profession had to be abandoned altogether.
Before Lawrence's death he had given George his place in the Virginia militia, and in 1752 Lieutenant-Governor Diawiddie gave the popular young soldier a commission as major and adjutant-general in charge of one of the four military districts of the State. Hardly was
he in charge of his new office when a movement of the French to insure their control of the region between the Mississippi and the Alle ghanies made war between the French and Eng lish in America almost inevitable. From Canada the French had sent 1,500 men to Presque Isle on Lake Erie to erect a fort, intending thence to push through the forest to the Allegheny River and down it to the Ohio. There they would drive out the English, who were beginning to push into that region.
Governor Dinwiddie saw the danger and, after getting authorization from England, he selected Major Washington for a dangemus midwinter journey through the forest to the French fort to command them to depart and not to trespass upon England's claims. The hardy young surveyor made the terrible journey only to be given the hint that the French had come to stay. Upon his return, the Virginia assembly was persuaded to furnish ftmds for a force to be sent against the invaders. Wash ington was made lieutenant-colonel, and under Colonel Fry set out to resist the French ad vance. Fry died on the march, and Washington bore the brunt of the enterprise. A rough and ready fort built by an advance party of back woodsmen near the junction of the Ohio and the Allegheny was taken by the French, who thereupon built Fort Duquesne and awaited the Virginians. In that neighborhood, at Great Meadows, Washington camped. A skirmish took place in which a small body of French under Jumonville were defeated, and then the defenses, which Washington had built .and called Fort Necessity, were attacked, 3 July 1754, by superior French forces. A wretched day of fighting in the rain was followed by a parley, at which Washington sensibly agreed to withdraw from a hopeless conflict. Upon his return to Virginia he was unfairly reduced in rank, and indignantly resigned his commission.