Assessing George Washington’s leadership of the Continental Army is a difficult task. This task is difficult primarily because of his revered position within both American history and society. By stepping away from the reverent posture, and thus bringing George Washington down from the pedestal upon which history has placed him, Washington can be seen as a general who was fortunate to survive and learn from his many mistakes.
Washington Takes Command
George Washington was given the post of commander of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress, taking initial control of his command in Boston. Washington was considered able for the position due to his being one of the few candidates who possessed combat leadership experience. John Grenier, in his work The First Way of War, relates how this experience had come during the French and Indian War when Washington served as aide de camp to British Major General Edward Braddock in 1755.
This experience did not, however, prepare Washington for the way of war as fought between European nations. Richard Frank, in a lecture to the military history program at Norwich University, states that his experience also failed to prepare him for the constant barrage of orders and dictates from the Continental Congress regarding as to how he was to wage war. While the Continental Congress expected Washington to fight via their orders, Russell Weigley, in his The American Way of War, relates how the newly formed government failed to supply him with the materials necessary to fight successfully. Weigley also states that since the Continental Congress did not succeed in finding an effective method to distribute supplies, Washington was forced to employ military tactics with which he was unfamiliar and unsure of.
Washington at War
Washington initially sought to conduct an active, aggressive campaign as seen by the American drive into Canada, in December of 1775, to attack British holdings early in the war. With the failure of this campaign, however, Washington realized that the combination of limited supplies and ill-trained troops he would only be able to wage a defensive war with limited offensive raids. Yet these facts do not discount Washington’s own mistakes in the basics of war, as seen by his failure to secure the flanks of his positions in several battles, such as when he was forced to withdraw from New York.
While General Washington learned his skills in the harsh classroom of war -- suffering defeats, failures, and an interfering Continental Congress -- he continuously sought out ways to attack, as seen with his December 25th, 1776 raid upon the Hessian position in Trenton, New Jersey. Thus George Washington’s leadership of the Continental Army can be seen as a determined ability to make do with what he had, in addition to being able to learn from his mistakes. Added to this was his ability to adapt to the situation presented, as well as the fact that Washington showed that greatest trait of command, the ability to make a decision.
Sources
Frank, Richard. Lecture to Norwich University Military History Program (January 2008).
Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814. Boston: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Weigley, Russell F. The American Way of War. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1977.
Nicholas Efstathiou - My name is Nicholas E. Efstathiou and I have a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature and a Master's in Military History. I have had a ...
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