The flawed young man who became a great leader George
Washington’s First War: His Early Military Adventures (Simon &
Schuster, 2011), It can be hard to imagine George Washington as
anything other than the still-life figure on the U.S. dollar
bill. When we think of Washington, we think of him as elder
statesman, president, father of a nation. But Washington was
once a young man, and a complicated one at that. According to
historian David A. Clary, his early years and military
experience, critical to understanding the man he became, have
been neglected by historians. In George Washington’s First War:
His Early Military Adventures (Simon & Schuster, 2011), Clary
chronicles Washington’s adventures from 1753, when he became
embroiled in Britain’s New World conflict with France, through
the defeat of the French at Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh) in
1758. Clary combs through journals and letters written by
Washington and others to reconstruct a picture of a young man
who was in way over his head, who had too much amb