The patriot army was an army of misfits. They were not formally trained, did not have enough weapons, their number far lesser than the British army. But they had their charismatic captain who was the saviour. This tall man standing at more than six feet had fought the French and Indian war with the British. But now, he was against them and the part of colonist army. This man was none other than the founding fathers of America, George Washington. He was the commander in chief of the colonial army in 1775 when the colonists declared a war against the Britishers. Earlier that year, the Britishers had imposed a stamp tax on the Americans which made them furious and they rebelled.
The war went on for almost six years. American men fought the war and women helped filling the canons with water to cool them or nursing the hurt men. Finally in 1781, with the help of a brilliant strategy by George Washington and the support of France the Americans were free.
At first the Americans were governed by the Articles of Confederation which was written by the Patriots. Soon there was chaos and the governance did not go very well. George Washington then presided over the drafting of the constitution. The Constitution is the supreme law of the country. For Americans, it defined the branches of the government, their powers and limitations. This introduced a position of the president of US. Guess who was wholeheartedly selected by all to hold the office of the first president of the United States of America? It was none other than the George Washington. There has been no other president since George Washington who was unanimously voted. It is very strange that although he planned the nation’s new capital city – Washington, that was named after him, he never got a chance to live there. While he was the president, New York City and Philadelphia were the nation’s capitals.
More facts about George Washington –
- When he was 57 years old, he got all his teeth pulled out and his fake teeth were made out of combination of carved animal bone and human teeth that he bought out of the mouths of his enslaved workers. Eww!
- He was the richest president ever.
- He died of a bacterial infection. Can you believe that?
- He was 6 ft 2 inches and weighed over 200 pounds.