George Washington

The French began military occupation of the Ohio Country in 1753, driving out British traders and building forts.

Virginia Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie commissioned George Washington to demand the French vacate the Ohio Country.

Washington's party stopped at Logstown to recruit Tanacharison as a guide and spokesman for the Ohio Indians.

Washington and Gist reached the fort on December 11, 1753, to present the British demand for French withdrawal.

The expedition began a difficult trek across the Allegheny Mountains toward the Ohio Country.

Braddock's force was ambushed and defeated by French and Native American troops near Fort Duquesne.

Mason and Washington organized a militia in Fairfax County independent of royal government, with Mason organizing in 1774 and Washington drilling a small force by January 1775.

Lord Howe had informally discussed colonial grievances with Benjamin Franklin in 1774 and 1775 without resolution.

British authorities resolved in late 1775 and early 1776 to send a large military expedition to occupy New York City.

Washington learned from Patterson on July 20 that the Howes' powers were limited to pardons, which the Americans rejected as unnecessary.

British forces occupied western Long Island on August 27, 1776, compelling Washington to withdraw the Continental Army to Manhattan.

British and American representatives met informally at Billop Manor on Staten Island on September 11, 1776, hoping to end the war.

The Americans required British recognition of the July 4 Declaration of Independence; Howe could view the delegates only as British subjects.

The next major British peace effort came in 1778, when the Carlisle Peace Commission was sent to British-occupied Philadelphia.

Delegates from twelve colonies met in Independence Hall on May 10, 1775, after war had already begun at Lexington and Concord.

On June 14, 1775, the Congress voted to form the Continental Army from militia around Boston, naming Washington commanding general the next day.

Georgia, absent at first, endorsed the Congress in July 1775 and adopted the continental ban on trade with Britain.

With all thirteen colonies represented, the Congress approved the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and agreed to the Declaration of Independence two days later.

Knox transported 60 tons of British ordnance by sled across some 300 miles of frozen rivers and mountains to the Boston siege camps.

Knox completed the winter haul of captured cannon from Fort Ticonderoga and reported the weapons train's arrival to Washington in late January 1776.

Washington ordered a fort on the Hudson's west side; construction began in July 1776, and it was renamed Fort Lee in September.

The defeat and capture of Continental troops at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776 left Fort Lee defenseless.

On the night of November 19, 1776, 5,000 British troops were ferried across the Hudson on barges, beginning the invasion of New Jersey.

Washington and Greene ordered Fort Lee's evacuation on the morning of November 20, 1776, as British and Hessian forces invaded New Jersey.

The Continental Army's general retreat began along a road now Main Street; during it Thomas Paine published "The American Crisis".

Four Hessian regiments under Colonel Rall occupied Trenton in mid-December 1776, though the troops found no rest there.

In the week before the battle, American advance parties ambushed Hessian patrols and pickets, keeping the garrison unsettled.

Washington's spy John Honeyman convinced the Hessians no attack was coming, while Abraham Hunt's Christmas hosting lulled Rall.

Washington's 2,400-man main force crossed the Delaware north of Trenton on the night of December 25–26 and split into two columns.

At 8 a.m. on December 26, Washington's columns converged on Trenton, cut off escape routes, and overwhelmed the Hessians after fierce resistance.

The Hessians lost 22 killed including Rall, with 896 captured; the Americans seized tons of provisions and supplies.

British naval fire routed American militia, letting Howe's troops land unopposed on Manhattan on September 15, 1776.

A skirmish between Knowlton's Rangers and British pickets escalated into a running fight in which the outnumbered British withdrew on September 16, 1776.

Captured while gathering intelligence behind British lines, Continental Army captain Nathan Hale was hanged in New York City on September 22, 1776.

A week before the crossing, expiring enlistments threatened the army, but Paine's pamphlet published December 19 lifted morale.

Washington planned three crossings in secrecy, justified the risk as dire necessity, and on December 25 issued logistical orders.

The army arrived at 4 pm on December 25, but most troops reached the crossing point only around 6 pm, after sunset.

On the night of December 25–26, Washington's column crossed the icy river from Bucks County, Pennsylvania to Mercer County, New Jersey.

After Trenton, the army recrossed to Pennsylvania with Hessian prisoners and stores, then crossed a third time at the end of 1776.

Knox hauled captured Ticonderoga cannons to Cambridge in January 1776; the guns later fortified Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston harbor.

Americans bombarded Boston from March 2 to March 4, 1776, then fortified the heights; a British two-hour cannon barrage proved ineffective.

Howe, judging Boston indefensible, sailed for Halifax on March 17, 1776, ending the siege; Bostonians had arranged that the town would be spared.

After the British fleet sailed, Americans reclaimed Boston and Charlestown; more troops entered on March 20, and late-arriving British ships fell into American hands.

American troops resisted a British and Hessian landing at Pell's Point on October 18, 1776, delaying Howe long enough for Washington's army to reach White Plains.

Howe attacked Washington's fortified position near White Plains on October 28, 1776, driving the Americans from Chatterton Hill and forcing a further northern retreat.

On November 16, 1776, British forces captured Fort Washington, the last American stronghold on Manhattan, gaining the surrender of the garrison's remnant.

The pulled-down 4,000-pound statue is said to have been melted into ammunition for the Continental Army to fight the British.

After the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington's troops, Sons of Liberty rushed down Broadway to Bowling Green and toppled the statue of George III.

Ezra Lee piloted the Turtle against HMS Eagle, flagship of the blockade squadron, attempting to attach an explosive charge to its hull; the charge failed and exploded in the East River. The date September 7, 1776 is supplied by the legacy row and event scope, not the cited passages.

After Cooch's Bridge, Washington abandoned Red Clay Creek and deployed at Chadds Ford, guarding multiple fords beginning September 9, 1777.

Armstrong's Pennsylvania militia covered Pyle's Ford; Wayne and Greene held Chadds Ford; Sullivan, Stephen, and Stirling extended northward along the east banks.

Howe demonstrated before Chadds Ford while flanking Washington's right; Knyphausen broke the weakened American center, routing the Continental Army.

Howe's army landed in Maryland on August 25, 1777, and moved north toward Philadelphia, its advance monitored by American light infantry based at Cooch's Bridge.

German troops leading the British advance were ambushed by Maxwell's light infantry near Cooch's Bridge; after seven hours of fighting the Americans retreated across the bridge.

Some traditions claim the Battle of Cooch's Bridge was the first battle in which the United States flag was flown.

After victories at Brandywine and Paoli, Howe outmaneuvered Washington and captured Philadelphia on September 26, 1777.

In October 1777, about 438 Americans were taken prisoner, including the 9th Virginia Regiment; Washington withdrew his intact army to Valley Forge.

Washington resolved to attack the Germantown garrison as his last effort of the year before winter quarters, issuing orders on October 3.

On October 4, 1777, Washington's Continental Army attacked the British at Germantown and was repelled by Howe's forces.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Musgrave's roughly 120 men fortified the stone house Cliveden, and Maxwell's brigade later stormed it.

The Second Continental Congress abandoned Philadelphia, relocating first to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and later to York.

British forces entered Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, after defeating Washington at Brandywine, occupying the revolutionary capital.

The British occupation lasted 266 days; Clinton evacuated Philadelphia on June 18, 1778, consolidating troops in New York.

On September 18, 1777, Hessian troops under von Knyphausen captured and burned the Valley Forge supply magazine despite Hamilton's and Lee's evacuation efforts.

Washington consulted his generals beginning October 29, 1777, and chose Valley Forge for strategic, political, and environmental reasons.

By the end of December 1777, congressional neglect had dried up supplies, leaving Washington unable to feed or clothe his soldiers.

Washington led his 12,000-man Continental Army into winter quarters at Valley Forge on December 19, 1777, beginning a six-month encampment.

Washington's Continental Army and Clinton's British army fought to a draw near Monmouth Court House, New Jersey, on June 28, 1778.

In May 1778 Benedict Arnold rejoined the Continental Army at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, welcomed with applause by veterans of Saratoga.

A Mohawk chief justified the massacre by citing American burning of Native houses, and Senecas declared they would refuse quarter in future fights.

British, Loyalist, and Haudenosaunee forces assaulted the fort and village of Cherry Valley on November 11, 1778, killing over 40 people.

The massacre, alongside accusations of murder at Wyoming, prompted Washington to commission the 1779 Sullivan Expedition against the Haudenosaunee.

Washington appointed Arnold military commander of Philadelphia after the British withdrawal in June 1778.

Arnold's court-martial on profiteering charges began meeting on June 1, 1779, in Philadelphia.

The court-martial was delayed until December 1779 after Clinton's capture of Stony Point forced army activity.

On January 26, 1780, Arnold was cleared of all but two minor charges despite ill-disposed judges.

In March 1778, Enslin faced a general court-martial at Valley Forge for attempting to commit sodomy, and Washington approved the resulting sentence.

Steuben reached Valley Forge on February 23, 1778, and reported for duty as a volunteer.

British forces occupied Stony Point during Clinton's May 1779 Hudson expedition, driving off a small American garrison and using the heights to shell Fort Lafayette.

Before dawn on 16 July 1779, Wayne's trained light infantry stormed the British outpost in a bayonet assault, defeating the garrison in a quick, daring attack.

Putnam opened diversionary fire against Verplanck's Point as the assault began, distracting the British until morning; Wayne's cannons later fired at long range without effect.

The Americans abandoned Stony Point on July 18 after removing captured cannons and supplies; Colonel Johnson was later court-martialed for inadequate defense.

After Connecticut Farms foiled Knyphausen's June 7 advance, Knyphausen and Clinton decided upon a second attempt against Washington's army.

On June 23, 1780, British forces advanced but withdrew before newly arriving rebel forces, yielding a Continental victory at Springfield.

Greene deployed 1,500 Continentals and 500 New Jersey Militia at Springfield and Elizabethtown, blocking Knyphausen's route to Hobart Gap.

British losses for the June 7–23 expedition totaled 25 killed, 234 wounded, and 48 missing; militia casualties were reported at ten killed, forty wounded, and ten prisoners.

After Yorktown and the March 1782 ceasefire, peace negotiations began in April 1782; by August 1782 Washington was headquartered at Newburgh.

Washington created the Badge of Military Merit by order from his Newburgh headquarters on 7 August 1782, authorizing subordinate officers to issue it.

On 18 October 1783 Congress issued a proclamation approving Washington's reductions, under which Knox was to discharge all but 500 infantry and 100 artillerymen before winter.

Congress disbanded the Continental Army on 2 June 1784, excepting small garrisons at Fort Pitt and West Point and other magazines.

The Society's first meeting occurred in May 1783 at a dinner at the Verplanck House, before the British evacuation of New York City.

On May 13, 1783, the Institution of the Society was formally adopted at Mount Gulian, von Steuben's headquarters, regarded as the Society's birthplace.

On June 19, 1783, the General Society adopted the bald eagle as its insignia, following Major Pierre L'Enfant's suggestion.

George Washington was elected the Society's first President General, serving from December 1783 until his death in 1799.

In March 1783, George Washington calmed the soldiers and helped secure back pay, defusing the apparent threat by army leaders.

An anonymous letter circulated in the army camp at Newburgh on March 10, 1783, possibly instigated by members of the Congress of the Confederation.

A June 1783 letter by General Gates illustrated disagreement over the events, writing that their purpose was to pressure Congress.

With independence secured by the Treaty of Paris, Washington disbanded the Continental Army and gave a farewell address to his soldiers on November 2, 1783.

In early December 1783, weeks after addressing his soldiers, Washington bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern and soon resigned as commander-in-chief.

In early December 1783 Washington bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern shortly before resigning his command.

Washington resigned as commander-in-chief before Congress in the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House on 23 December 1783.

The resignation was acclaimed at home and abroad and later extolled by historians as a signal event setting the country's political course.

Congress modified Jefferson's proposal for dividing western territory into new states and passed it as the Land Ordinance of 1784, titled 'Ordinance of Governance' in the legacy record.

George Washington and James Monroe criticized the ordinance, and other politicians questioned its plan for organizing new state governments.

Franklin returned home in 1785, holding a position second only to George Washington as a champion of American independence.

Franklin was elected the sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania on October 18, 1785, replacing John Dickinson.

Work on a hull began in 1785 in Bath by Joseph Barnes, Rumsey's assistant; the source does not label the vessel a steamboat.

In July 1785, Washington recommended Rumsey as superintendent of the Patowmack Company to oversee rock clearing.

On February 21, 1787, the Confederation Congress endorsed holding a convention in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation.

Delegates began arriving in Philadelphia in May 1787; Washington arrived May 9, and the convention formally began on May 25.

Among its first acts, the convention unanimously elected George Washington of Virginia as its presiding president.

A legacy record attributes to Connecticut delegate Oliver Ellsworth a June 20, 1787 motion at the Philadelphia Federal Convention that the government be called the United States.

The settlers named the town for Marie Antoinette, the French queen who had aided the American independence cause.

Forty-eight Ohio Company of Associates men under General Putnam reached the rivers' confluence on April 7, 1788.

By the end of 1788, 137 people populated the Marietta area, and Washington praised the settlement's auspicious start.

The outgoing Congress set the schedule for choosing electors and casting votes.

Two states held popular votes for presidential electors alongside congressional elections in December 1788.

States completed the choice of presidential electors by the January 7, 1789 deadline.

Elections for the first House of Representatives were held alongside the presidential election process.

A legislative deadlock left New York unable to appoint its eight electors by the deadline.

Electors assembled on February 4, 1789 to cast their votes for president and vice president.

Washington won unanimous election and Adams became the first vice president.

Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, 57 days after the First Congress convened.

The election spanned December 15, 1788 to January 7, 1789, the first national presidential election and the only one spanning two calendar years without a contingent election.

A deadlock persisted through January 7, 1789, the final day for choosing electors, so New York failed to appoint its eight constitutionally allocated electors.

Electors assembled on the scheduled day and every one of the 69 present voted for Washington, producing a unanimous election.

John Adams received 34 electoral votes, one short of a majority; under pre-Twelfth Amendment rules the runner-up became vice president without needing a majority.

A legacy record dates the Department of War's establishment of the United States' first regular army to 29 September 1789 at Federal Hall; supplied passages confirm only the department's 1789 reestablishment.

Langdon, as president pro tempore, counted the electoral college votes in the first presidential election, dated by the passages to April 1789.

On April 6, 1789, the Senate achieved its first quorum and chose John Langdon of New Hampshire as its first president pro tempore.

The bicameral 1st United States Congress first met at Federal Hall in New York City on March 4, 1789, starting federal operations under the 1787 Constitution.

The House reached quorum on April 1, 1789, the Senate on April 6; in joint session Congress certified Washington's unanimous election and Adams as Vice President.

John Adams was inaugurated as the nation's first vice president on April 21, 1789, and George Washington as first president at Federal Hall on April 30, 1789.

Between June and September 1789 the Congress enacted the Oaths Act, Tariff of 1789, Departments of State, War, and Treasury, Customs Service, and the Judiciary Act.

On September 2, 1789, Congress decided that power to remove executive officers was vested in the President of the United States.

On September 25, 1789, Congress approved twelve proposed constitutional articles guaranteeing individual rights and limiting federal power, sending them to the states.

A treasury board consisting of three commissioners oversaw the finances of the confederation of former colonies until September 1789.

Congress enacted legislation on September 2, 1789, establishing a permanent Department of Treasury to manage government finances.

On September 11, 1789, Hamilton was nominated, confirmed in the Senate, and sworn in the same day as the first Secretary of the Treasury.

George Washington took the presidential oath in 1789, beginning his term as the first President of the United States.

Hamilton proposed funding the bank through $10 million in stock sales, with the United States government purchasing the first $2 million in shares.

The bank formed part of a three-part expansion of federal fiscal power; Hamilton also proposed raising duties on imported spirits and an excise on whiskey to meet government payment obligations.

The United States Congress chartered the Bank of the United States for twenty years on February 25, 1791, and Washington signed the bank bill into law the same day.

Washington appointed three subscription commissioners on March 19, 1791; the Philadelphia branch opened December 12, 1791, operating from Carpenters' Hall, with Willing elected President in October.

By mid-1789 Adams found the vice presidency inactive and mechanical, calling it the most insignificant office ever contrived.

Adams' term began March 4, 1789, but he only started serving as vice president on April 21 after arriving late in New York.

Early in his term Adams engaged the Senate in a lengthy debate over official titles for the president and executive officers.

Congress approved twelve articles of amendment on September 25, 1789, after House and Senate revisions, and submitted them to the state legislatures on October 2, 1789.

Eleven states ratified various articles between November 1789 and November 1791, with Vermont ratifying all twelve articles on November 3, 1791.

Virginia's ratification of Articles Two through Twelve on December 15, 1791, completed ratification by three-fourths of the fourteen states, making them Amendments One through Ten.

President Washington informed Congress, meeting at Congress Hall in Philadelphia, of the completed ratification on January 18, 1792.

President George Washington appointed Jefferson the nation's first secretary of state, an office created in 1789 with Jefferson as its first holder.

Soon after returning from France, Jefferson accepted President Washington's invitation to serve as Secretary of State.

Jefferson left Paris for America in September 1789, ending his tenure as Minister to France.

President Washington delivered the first regular annual message to Congress in New York City.

Hamilton presented his financial plan to Congress, recommending debt reorganization.

The Supreme Court held its first meeting in New York City.

Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison reached a political agreement on debt and capital location.

General Harmar began the march north from Fort Washington along the Great Miami River in October 1790.

Colonel Hardin led 600 men to surprise Indians at Kekionga but arrived too late to intercept them.

Colonel Hardin's scouting party was led into a swampy lowland by a decoy, resulting in a defeat blamed on Hardin and the militia.

Harmar ordered withdrawal on 21 October; Native leaders considered a final blow but Odawa departed due to a lunar eclipse.

Samuel Hopkins received the first U.S. patent on July 31, 1790, in Philadelphia, for an improved method of making potash and pearlash.

The Senate approved the Residence Act on July 1, 1790, by a vote of 14 to 12, following earlier failed reconciliations.

The House of Representatives approved the act on July 9, 1790, by a vote of 31 to 29, correcting legacy errors.

President Washington signed the Residence Act into law on July 16, 1790, establishing a permanent seat along the Potomac River and designating Philadelphia as the temporary capital.

Congress passed the act organizing the cession as the Territory South of the River Ohio on May 26, 1790, establishing the legal framework for governance.

The territorial House of Representatives convened in Knoxville on February 24, 1794, following elections in December 1793.

Washington brought eight enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia in November 1790 to staff the presidential household.

George Washington began occupying the Philadelphia President's House on November 27, 1790, establishing the executive residence in the temporary capital.

Three commissioners overseeing the capital's construction named the city in honor of President Washington on September 9, 1791.

Simultaneously with the city's naming, the federal district received the name Columbia, a poetic name for the United States.

The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion was laid at noon on October 13, 1792, marking the start of construction.

President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act on February 20, 1792, establishing the United States Post Office Department.

Washington's letter of April 5, 1793 officially approved Thornton's design, making him the Capitol's first architect, months before the cornerstone laying.

President Washington, with eight fellow Freemasons in regalia, laid the Capitol's cornerstone, made by silversmith Caleb Bentley, on September 18, 1793.

After Britain entered the war against France in 1793, the Royal Navy seized nearly 300 American merchantmen, and Congress voted on a trade embargo in March 1794.

Hamilton devised a negotiating framework, and Washington dispatched Chief Justice John Jay to London to negotiate a comprehensive treaty with Britain.

The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation was signed on November 19, 1794, during the Thermidorian Reaction in France, and submitted to the Senate the following June.

Wartime debts and the Canada–US border went to arbitration; Americans gained most-favored-nation trade, and Britain agreed to vacate eight forts on US territory by June 1796.

Washington submitted the treaty to the Senate in June 1795; it was ratified on June 24, 1795 by a 20–10 vote, exactly the minimum needed for concurrence.

After the treaty took effect on 29 February 1796, a bitter House funding fight ensued; Fisher Ames's April 1796 speech preceded a final vote deadlocked at 49 to 49.

Genêt was openly hostile toward Washington's neutrality policy, and his actions endangered the neutrality declared on April 22, 1793.

The Electoral College unanimously re-elected Washington president on February 13, 1793, with Adams returned as vice president.

Washington was sworn into office by Associate Justice William Cushing on March 4, 1793, in Congress Hall in Philadelphia.

News that revolutionary France had declared war on Great Britain in February 1793 did not reach America until the first half of April.

Edmond-Charles Genêt, the Girondins' minister to the United States, was dispatched to America in 1793, arriving by April 1793.

On April 22, 1793, Washington issued a formal announcement declaring the nation neutral in the conflict between France and Great Britain.

The Act ordered forfeiture of any ship fitted out for foreign slave trading, with seizure and condemnation in federal circuit or district courts.

President Washington traveled west in October 1794 toward Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where the militia he ordered mobilized was gathering, to guide the US Army's suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion.

As the federal army marched west into western Pennsylvania in October 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion collapsed without resistance.

In summer 1795 Philadelphia town hall meetings turned to disorder, with rocks thrown, British officials harassed, and a treaty copy burnt.

Madison argued the commercial treaty could not take effect without House approval; Ellsworth's advisory opinion rejected any House right to judge the treaty's merits.

After Ames's speech, the April 29, 1796 vote tied 49–49; Muhlenberg's surprise support produced a 51–48 result funding the treaty.

The treaty was signed at Fort Greenville on August 3, 1795, ending the Northwest Indian War after the Native American loss at Fallen Timbers.

After the Fort Greenville signing, the treaty document was signed by President Washington in Philadelphia and ratified by the United States Senate on December 22, 1795.

The Treaty of Greenville was signed at Fort Greenville, Ohio, on August 3, 1795, following the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

The treaty was signed in Philadelphia by President George Washington and ratified by the Senate on December 22, 1795.

In June 1796, Democratic-Republican leaders met and agreed to support Thomas Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr for vice president.

Federalist John Adams defeated Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson 71–68 in the electoral college in the 1796 presidential election.

With Washington refusing a third term, the 1796 election became the first contested U.S. presidential election and the first in which parties competed for the presidency.

Congress counted the electoral results on February 8, 1797, with Adams reading the votes; he was sworn in as the second president on March 4, 1797.

Power passed from Washington's administration to Adams following the 1796 election, the first contested American presidential contest.

Hamilton convinced at least 7 of 69 electors to withhold votes from Adams, seeking an overwhelming victory for Washington's preferred outcome.

Adams took the presidential oath on March 4, 1797, becoming the nation's second president after the first contested election.

Joel Barlow authored the treaty, which was signed at Tripoli on November 4, 1796, under Ambassador David Humphreys' authority.

Article 11 of the ratified English translation declares the U.S. government not founded on the Christian religion, but the phrase does not exist in the Arabic original.

The treaty was signed at Algiers on January 3, 1797, for a third-party witness, and Humphreys approved it in Lisbon on February 10, 1797.

The Senate ratified the treaty unanimously and without debate on June 7, 1797; it took effect June 10, 1797, with President John Adams' signature.

Adams had occupied the High Street mansion in Philadelphia from March 1797 to May 1800 before moving to the new capital.

On Saturday, November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first president to take residence in the White House, arriving from Philadelphia.

Adams lived in the house only briefly before Thomas Jefferson moved into the 'pleasant country residence' in 1801.

Washington died at Mount Vernon, Virginia, on December 14, 1799, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., with Martha at his bedside.

Washington's funeral was held at Mount Vernon on December 18, 1799, and he was buried in the Washington family vault there.

Due to funding issues, the society decided to build a simple obelisk instead of Mills's original design.

The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848, by the Freemasons, marking the symbolic start of construction.

The monument became the world's tallest structure in 1884, a status it held until the Eiffel Tower's completion in 1889.

The 100-ounce aluminum apex was installed on December 6, 1884, completing the stone structure and marking the monument's completion.