On this day in 1775 George Washington became Commander-in-Chief of America’s Continental Army. Commissioned in June, Washington officially took command on July 3rd in Cambridge, outside in the encampments built for the siege of Boston.
Historian Joseph Ellis writes in His Excellency (an excellent biograph on GW)-
“[In Cambridge], for the first time, [Washington] encountered the logistical challenges he would face during the ensuing years of the war… And here he demonstrated both the strategic instincts and the leadership skills that would sustain him, and sometimes lead him astray, until the glorious end. The Cambridge encampment, then, was a preview of some tumultuous coming attractions.”
Those “coming attractions” and “glorious end” helped enshrine Washington as an iconic American historical figure.
Our romance with the historical purity of George Washington’s reasons for taking command of the army may have been best expressed by legendary author Washington Irving, who wrote-
“[Washington] spoke of [taking command] not despondingly nor boastfully and with defiance but with that solemn and sedate resolution and that hopeful reliance on Supreme Goodness which belonged to his magnanimous nature. The cause of his country, he observed, had called him to an active and dangerous duty, but he trusted that Divine Providence, which wisely orders the affairs of men, would enable him to discharge it with fidelity and success.”
Best to let a legend like Washington Irving have the last word.
