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  George Washington in the uniform of the Continental Army, by Rembrandt Peale.
Courtesy of American Memory at the Library of Congress.

  

Subject Areas
History and Social Studies
   U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government
   U.S. History - Colonial America and the New Nation
 
Time Required
 NOTE: Additional time may be needed for teachers to help students with skills involved in the use of primary sources. The allotments also assume students will use the primary documents.
Lesson One: What Are the Qualities of a Good Military Leader?: Two class sessions.
Lesson Two: Powers and Problems: Two class sessions.
Lesson Three: Leadership in Victory and Defeat: Two class sessions.
Lesson Four: Leadership in Victory: One Last Measure of the Man: One class session.
 
Skills
 Using primary sources
Working collaboratively
Comparing and contrasting
Making inferences and drawing conclusions
Map reading
Critical thinking
Information gathering
Oral interpretation
 
Curriculum Unit
What Made George Washington a Good Military Leader?
 
Additional Data
 Date Created: 12/16/03
 
Additional Student/Teacher Resources
 Blackline Master (PDF file) for this curriculum unit

Congress Expands Washington’s Powers (Interactive assessment tool)
 
Date Posted
 12/16/2003
 
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What Made George Washington a Good Military Leader?

—Curriculum Unit Overview—

…tactics…is only a small part of generalship. For a general must also be capable of furnishing military equipment and providing supplies for the men; he must be resourceful, active, careful, hardy and quick-witted; he must be both gentle and brutal, at once straightforward and designing, capable of both caution and surprise, lavish and rapacious, generous and mean, skilful in defense and attack; and there are many other qualifications, some natural, some acquired, that are necessary to one who would succeed as a general.

—Attributed to Socrates in The Memorabilia (3.1.5-3.1.6) by Xenophon on the EDSITEment resource The Perseus Digital Library

I cannot insist too strongly how I was surprised by the American Army. It is truly incredible that troops almost naked, poorly paid, and composed of old men and children and Negroes should behave so well on the march and under fire. —Attributed to a French Officer in George Washington: Life Before the Presidency on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The American President

Introduction

George Washington's early military career (1754-1758)—during the Seven Years' War—was not uniformly successful. In his first battle, he and his men were ambushed and forced to surrender Fort Necessity on the Pennsylvania frontier. Washington's reputation for leadership and courage was based on his actions in another defeat at the hands of the French. In that battle, at Fort Duquesne (1755, often called the "Battle of the Wilderness" or "Braddock's Defeat"), Washington had two horses shot from under him and eventually had to assume command from the mortally wounded General Edward Braddock. Washington led the surviving British and Colonial soldiers on a successful retreat.

Later (1775-1783), Washington would lead the Patriots to a surprising victory over Great Britain, "…the best-trained, best-equipped fighting force in the Western world. …Although he lost most of his battles with the British, year after year he held his ragtag, hungry army together"—from the EDSITEment resource The American President.

What combination of experience, strategy, and personal characteristics enabled Washington to succeed as a military leader?

In this unit, students will read the Continental Congress's resolutions granting powers to General Washington; analyze some of Washington's wartime orders, dispatches, and correspondence in terms of his mission and the characteristics of a good general; and study—with frequent reference to primary material—four battles. In the final lesson in the unit, students will take one last measure of Washington. They will examine his words in response to a proposal that he become the head of a military dictatorship and a movement among some disaffected soldiers to circumvent civilian authority.

Guiding Questions

  • What qualities made George Washington an effective military leader? These qualities should be reflected in discussions of the following:
    • What was Washington's military background before the American Revolution?
    • What was Washington's approach to military discipline?
    • What was Washington's basic strategy for defeating the British?
    • What were some specific tactics Washington employed in battle?
    • How important was Washington's personal charisma to the success of the Patriots?
  • How were the responsibilities of the Commander-in-Chief affected by conditions during the Revolutionary War?
  • How did Washington's responses to these challenges demonstrate his ability to handle a wide range of problems? These conditions included:
    • The uneasy relationship between civil authorities and the military, including the inability of the military or the Continental Congress to compel individual states to assist the war effort.
    • The advantages of fighting on home soil.
    • The problem of keeping troops supplied.
    • The presence of many colonists loyal to the British crown.
    • The difficulty of defeating the powerful British.

Learning Objectives

After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to:
  • List qualities they believe made George Washington an effective military leader.
  • List some practical lessons Washington may have learned from his early military experiences.
  • Discuss some difficulties Washington faced as Commander-in-Chief.
  • Discuss how Washington responded to the difficulties he faced as the leader of the Continental Army.
  • Give examples of Washington's leadership during one or more Revolutionary War battles.
  • Summarize briefly the Newburgh Conspiracy.
  • Describe Washington's response to the Newburgh Conspiracy.

Preparing to Teach This Curriculum Unit
  • Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
  • Download the blackline masters for this lesson, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
  • For a general introduction to George Washington, the man, read The Surprising George Washington by Richard Norton Smith from Prologue Online Magazine, Spring 1994, Vol. 26, No. 1, available on the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom. For a condensed but complete summary of the life and achievements of George Washington, read the complete entry for George Washington on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The American President.
  • For background on the nature of the Revolutionary War, read the essay The Wars of the American Revolution on Liberty! The American Revolution, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory. You may wish to have students read this essay as well, particularly if they have not had recent background on the Revolutionary War.
  • The qualities that make anyone an effective leader, military or otherwise, are difficult to pinpoint. Washington's many leadership successes commanding the Continental Army, heading the Constitutional Convention, and serving as President of the United States make him an obvious choice as a subject for analysis. But there is no comprehensive list of Washington's leadership qualities to use as a standard to evaluate student responses. The process of historical research is at the center of this unit. Students will benefit in other ways as well. In scrutinizing the challenges Washington faced, they will better understand the Revolutionary War, especially the problems faced by the Patriots.
  • In this unit, students read and analyze a variety of primary documents. The following materials from EDSITEment resources may be useful to teachers seeking expert advice on the use of primary documents:

Unit Lessons

Lesson One: What Are the Qualities of a Good Military Leader?

Lesson Two: Powers and Problems

Lesson Three: Leadership in Victory and Defeat

Lesson Four: Leadership in Victory: One Last Measure of the Man

Selected EDSITEment Websites


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