George Washington and Related Topics

Continental Congress

Series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War.

Soon after meeting, this second Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III while also selecting George Washington as the head of the new Continental Army.

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull, depicts the British surrendering to Benjamin Lincoln, flanked by French (left) and American troops. Oil on canvas, 1820.

Siege of Yorktown

A plan of the Battle of Yorktown drawn in 1875

National Park Service map of the W3R Route

Siège de Yorktown by Auguste Couder, c. 1836. Rochambeau and Washington giving their last orders before the battle.

The storming of Redoubt No. 10, by Eugène Lami

Overview of the capitulation of the British army at Yorktown, with the blockade of the French squadron

The surrender of Lord Cornwallis, October 19, 1781, at Yorktown

Surrender of Cornwallis. At York-town, VA Oct. 1781, Nathaniel Currier. D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts

The victory at Yorktown and the American Revolution were honored in Libertas Americana, a 1783 medallion minted in Paris and designed there by US Ambassador Benjamin Franklin.

US Postage Stamp, 1931 issue, depicting Rochambeau, George Washington and De Grasse, commemorating 150th anniversary of the victory at Yorktown, 1781

The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, was a decisive victory by a combined force of the American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, and French Army troops led by Comte de Rochambeau over British Army troops commanded by British peer and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.

Culpeper County, Virginia

County located along the borderlands of the northern and central region of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

US 15/US 29 near Culpeper in Culpeper County

U.S. Route 211 as it passes through Culpeper County

In July 1749, Tureman commissioned 17-year-old George Washington as the first County surveyor.

Thomas Jefferson

American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the 3rd president of the United States from 1801 to 1809.

Wren Building, College of William & Mary where Jefferson studied

House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Jefferson served 1769–1775

U.S. Declaration of Independence – 1823 facsimile of the engrossed copy

Governor's Palace, Governor Jefferson's residence in Williamsburg

Independence Hall Assembly Room where Jefferson served in Congress

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson while in London in 1786 at 44 by Mather Brown

Thomas Jefferson in 1791 at 48 by Charles Willson Peale

Jefferson in 1799 at 57, painted by Charles Peale Polk

President Thomas Jefferson Peale 1805 Reproduction

Barbary Coast of North Africa 1806. Left is Morocco at Gibraltar, center is Tunis, and right is Tripoli.

The 1803 Louisiana Purchase totaled 827,987 sqmi, doubling the size of the United States.

Corps of Discovery, October 1805 (by Charles Marion Russell, 1905)

Black Hoof, leader of the Shawnee, accepted Jefferson's Indian assimilation policies.

1802 portrait of Aaron Burr by John Vanderlyn

HMS Leopard (right) firing upon USS Chesapeake

A political cartoon showing merchants dodging the "Ograbme", which is "Embargo" spelled backwards (1807)

Portrait of Jefferson by Gilbert Stuart, 1821.

The University of Virginia, Jefferson's "Academical Village"

In 1804, Abigail Adams attempted to reconcile Jefferson and Adams.

Lafayette in 1824, portrait by Ary Scheffer, hanging in U.S. House of Representatives

Thomas Jefferson at age 78. Portrait by Thomas Sully hanging at West Point, commissioned by Faculty and Cadets, 1821.

The Jefferson Bible featuring only the words of Jesus from the evangelists, in parallel Greek, Latin, French and English

Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, national bank proponent and Jefferson's adversary

Jefferson's 1795 Farm Book, page 30, lists 163 slaves at Monticello.

Jefferson depicted as a rooster, and Hemings as a hen

Virginia State Capitol, designed by Jefferson (wings added later)

Mount Rushmore National Memorial (left to right): George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Statue, by Rudulph Evans (1947)

alt=Commemorative stone erected at Thomas Jefferson's birthplace in Shadwell, Virginia, on April 13, 1929.|Jefferson's Birthplace

He was previously the second vice president of the United States under John Adams and the first United States secretary of state under George Washington.

Clockwise from left: Continental infantry at Redoubt 10, Yorktown; Washington rallying the broken center at Monmouth; USS Bonhomme Richard capturing HMS Serapis

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, secured a United States of America independent from Great Britain.

Proclamation Line of 1763 (Green line) plus territorial cessions up to 1774

British North America, 1777
post-1763 concessions to Britain
from France (green) and Spain (yellow)

British troops leave Boston, prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775

British regulars and Provincial militia repulse an American attack on Quebec, December 1775

Sgt. Jasper raising the fort's flag,
Battle of Sullivan's Island, June 1776

An American company on line, Battle of Long Island, August 1776

British forced Hudson River narrows to isolate Fort Washington, November 1776

Iconic 1851 painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware

In September 1777, fearing a British Army attack on the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, American patriots moved the Liberty Bell to this Allentown, Pennsylvania church, where the Liberty Bell was successfully hidden under the church's floor boards until the June 1778 British departure from Philadelphia. Today, inside the Zion United Church of Christ in Allentown, the Liberty Bell Museum commemorates the Liberty Bell's successful nine month hiding there.

Charles, comte de Vergennes
French Foreign Minister negotiated
Franco-American treaties Feb 1778

French Adm. d'Estaing's joint expedition with US Gen. Sullivan at Newport, Rhode Island Aug 1778

General Washington commanding the Continental Army

Image of various Continental Army uniforms

Sir Thomas Gage, British Commander, 1763–1775

Sir William Howe, British Commander, 1775–1778

Sir Henry Clinton, British Commander, 1778–1782

Hessian troops surrender after Battle of Trenton, December 1776

Loyalist militia routed by Patriot militia at Kings Mountain withdrew into South Carolina. Victory raised American morale.

Nancy Morgan Hart single-handedly captured six Loyalist soldiers who had barged into her home to ransack it.

1975 Stamp commemorating Salem Poor, Black Patriot cited for bravery at Bunker Hill

Copy of smock issued to Black Loyalists in 1776

Continental soldiers, one from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, left

Col. Joseph Brant, GB led Iroquois Mohawk in war

Col. Joseph Cook, US Iroquois Oneida in war

Treaty of Paris by Benjamin West portrays the American mission of (left–right) John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin, secretary (in red), and Henry Laurens

Military Governors and Staff Officers in British North America and West Indies 1778 and 1784

Washington enters New York City at British evacuation, November 1783

Revolution headstones for Saratoga, mass graves

U.S. motto Novus Ordo Seclorum, "A New Age Now Begins"

alt=Scene from the Second Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry giving his speech, "Give me liberty or give me death!"|Patrick Henry, 2nd Virginia Convention "Give me liberty or give me death!"

upright=.3|alt=Scene from the First Continental Congress, George Washington appointed as Commander-in-Chief for the new Continental Army besieging Boston.|July 1775, Independence Hall, Philadelphia

alt= Sail warships at sea with full sail; in the center middle ground, the US ship; in the background, four French warships in a haze giving it a cannon salute with gunpowder; small boats also in the water in the middle ground.|USS Ranger, Capt. Jones. France gives the US flag its first foreign salute

alt= A sail warship at sea flying a US flag.|USS Alliance, Capt. Barry won the last engagement

alt=1763 Proclamation Line of 1763 by George III to limit colonial western settlement. The Province of Quebec lies north of the Ohio River, west of Lake Erie and the west boundary of Pennsylvania. The Indian Reserve lies west of modern Roanoke Virginia, generally following the Eastern Continental Divide.|The 1763 Royal Proclamation set the western boundary for the 13 Colonies

alt="1768 Boundary Line Treaty Map" for Iroquois Six Nations and tributary tribes north of Fort Stanwix and the Ohio River; and for Cherokee and Creeks south of the Ohio River and west of modern Roanoke, Virginia, the purple line 1768 "Treaty of Hard Labor", is west of the Eastern Continental Divide, the green line for the previous 1763 "King's Proclamation".|The 1768 Indian treaties: Iroquois west of the red line, Cherokees west of the purple

150th anniversary of American independence. Issue of 1926

Despite attempts to achieve a peaceful solution, fighting began with the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, and in June Congress authorized George Washington to create a Continental Army, where John Adams nominated Washington as the commander-in-chief.

Jay Treaty

1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted war, resolved issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783 , and facilitated ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars, which began in 1792.

Thomas Jefferson was harshly critical of the treaty.

The Treaty was designed by Alexander Hamilton and supported by President George Washington.

French and Indian War

Theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes.

Belligerents during the Seven Years' War. Canadians and Europeans view the French and Indian War as a theater of the Seven Years' War, while Americans view it a separate conflict.

The coureurs des bois were French Canadian fur traders, who did business with natives throughout the Mississippi and St. Lawrence watershed.

Map of Iroquois expansion, 1711. By the mid-18th century, the Iroquois Confederacy had expanded from Upstate New York to the Ohio Country.

The Cherokee, c. 1762. The Cherokee were subject to diplomatic efforts from the British and French in order to gain their support or neutrality in the event of a conflict.

Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière, the Governor of New France sent an expedition in 1749 into the Ohio Country in an attempt to assert French sovereignty.

Map of European colonies in North America, c. 1750. Disputes over territorial claims persisted after the end of King George's War in 1748.

Fort Le Boeuf in 1754. In the spring of 1753, the French began to build a series of forts in the Ohio Country.

In 1754, George Washington, of the Virginia Regiment, was dispatched to warn the French to leave Virginian territory.

Washington with his war council during the Battle of Fort Necessity. After deliberations, it was decided to withdraw, and surrender the fort.

In June 1755, the British captured French naval ships sent to provide war matériel to the Acadian and Mi'kmaw militias in Nova Scotia.

British forces under fire from the French and Indian forces at Monongahela, when the Braddock expedition failed to take Fort Duquesne.

British raid on the Acadian settlement of Grimross. Efforts to undermine the French Fortress of Louisbourg resulted in the forcible removal of the Acadians.

In January 1756, John Campbell was named as the new British Commander-in-Chief, North America.

In August 1756, French soldiers and native warriors led by Louis-Joseph de Montcalm successfully attacked Fort Oswego.

Montcalm attempts to stop native warriors from attacking the British. A number of British soldiers were killed after the Siege of Fort William Henry.

British forces besieging the Fortress of Louisbourg. The French fortress fell in July 1758 after a 48-day siege.

A British expedition sent to invade Canada was repulsed by the French at the Battle of Carillon in July 1758.

After a three-month siege of Quebec City, British forces captured the city at the Plains of Abraham.

French authorities surrendering Montreal to British forces in 1760.

The resulting peace dramatically changed the political landscape of North America, with New France ceded to the British and the Spanish.

A copy of the Quebec Act passed in 1774 which addressed a number of grievances held by French Canadians and Indians, although it angered American colonists

The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol.

Page one of the officially engrossed copy of the Constitution signed by delegates. A print run of 500 copies of the final version preceded this copy.

Constitution of the United States

Supreme law of the United States of America.

Signing of the Constitution, September 17, 1787 (1940 by Howard Chandler Christy)

Dates the 13 states ratified the Constitution

Closing endorsement section of the United States Constitution

United States Bill of Rights
Currently housed in the National Archives.

Salmon P. Chase {{refn|group= lower-alpha|The Chase Court, 1864–1873, in 1865 were Salmon P. Chase (chief Justice); Hon. Nathan Clifford, Maine; Stephen J. Field, Justice Supreme Court, U.S.; Hon. Samuel F. Miller, U.S. Supreme Court; Hon. Noah H. Swayne, Justice Supreme Court, U.S.; Judge Morrison R. Waite}}

William Howard Taft {{refn|group= lower-alpha|The Taft Court, 1921–1930, in 1925 were James Clark McReynolds, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., William Howard Taft (chief justice), Willis Van Devanter, Louis Brandeis. Edward Sanford, George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, Harlan Fiske Stone}}

Earl Warren {{refn|group= lower-alpha|The Warren Court, 1953–1969, in 1963 were Felix Frankfurter; Hugo Black; Earl Warren (chief justice); Stanley Reed; William O. Douglas. Tom Clark; Robert H. Jackson; Harold Burton; Sherman Minton}}

William Rehnquist {{refn|group= lower-alpha|The Rehnquist Court, 1986–2005.}}

Although, in a way, the Congressional powers in Article 9 made the "league of states as cohesive and strong as any similar sort of republican confederation in history", the chief problem was, in the words of George Washington, "no money".

George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (1797)

Presidents' Day

Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner (1863)

Washington's Birthday sign, c. 1890–1899

Flag and bunting mark Washington's Birthday in Toronto, Ontario

Procession of events for the centennial celebration of Washington's birthday, Philadelphia, February 1832

Los Angeles streetcar decorated for Washington's Birthday, c. undefined 1892

Washington's Birthday—Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street, etching by Childe Hassam, 1916

Presidents' Day, or Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served in the office of president of the United States and refers also to the federal holiday specifically honoring George Washington, who led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first president of the United States.

Alexander Hamilton

American revolutionary, statesman and Founding Father of the United States.

Coat of arms of the Hamiltons of Grange in Ayrshire, Scotland.

The Hamilton House, Charlestown, Nevis. The current structure was rebuilt from the ruins of the house where it was thought that Alexander Hamilton was born and lived as a young child.

Kings College c. 1756, adjacent to the New York Commons where City Hall Park is today

Alexander Hamilton in the Uniform of the New York Artillery, by Alonzo Chappel (1828–1887)

Aides-de-camp's office inside Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge. General Washington's staff officers worked in this room, writing and copying the letters and orders of the Continental Army.

The Storming of Redoubt #10, an 1840 painting by Eugene Lami

Detail of Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull, showing Colonels Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, and Walter Stewart

Miniature of Hamilton attributed to Charles Shirreff, c. 1790

A Turban Head eagle, one of the first gold coins minted under the Coinage Act of 1792

A painting of a Revenue Marine cutter, which may be of either the Massachusetts (1791), or its replacement, the Massachusetts II

Portrait of Alexander Hamilton by Walter Robertson. Circa 1794

A statue of Hamilton by Franklin Simmons, overlooking the Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey, where Hamilton envisioned using the falls to power new factories

Aaron Burr, Hamilton and Philip Schuyler strolling on Wall Street, New York, 1790

Alexander Hamilton by William J. Weaver, ca. 1794-1806

A statue of Hamilton in the United States Capitol rotunda

Detail of 1802 portrait by Ezra Ames, painted after death of Hamilton's eldest son Philip

Hamilton's tomb in Trinity Church's first burial grounds at Wall Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan

Drawing (c. 1902) of the Burr–Hamilton duel, from a painting by J. Mund

This July 25, 1804 article reflected extreme lamentation over Hamilton's death, and described the plan for his funeral procession and other tributes, including a 30-day wearing of a commemorative black armband ("crape") by members of the Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania of which Hamilton had been President General.

Elizabeth Schuyler, portrait by Ralph Earl

Distinctive unit insignia of the United States Army 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment (i.e. Alexander Hamilton Battery). The crest at center is that of Clan Hamilton, with the addition of 13 gold acorns representing the original 13 states.

USCGC Hamilton (WMSL 753) seal. The two colors on the coat of arms represent the aspects of Alexander Hamilton's life: military and civilian. The white demarcation line is a virtual diagram of the trenches converging on the British redoubt #10 at Yorktown. Surmounting the crossed bayonets symbolizing Hamilton's taking of the redoubt is a Doric column which represents Hamilton's service as a statesman. The crest shows an ermine cinquefoil, which is the principal charge on the Hamilton family coat of arms and is worn by a unicorn, taken from the hand-carved powder horn Hamilton is believed to have owned. The motto, "Vigilant Sentinel," is derived from a quote in Federalist No. 12: "A few armed vessels, judiciously stationed at the entrance of our ports, might at a small expense be made useful sentinels of the law."

A starboard view of the nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine USS Alexander Hamilton (SSBN-617) underway.

Alexander Hamilton on the Series 2004A U.S. $10 bill

The Hamilton Grange National Memorial in St. Nicholas Park

A statue of Hamilton outside Hamilton Hall, overlooking Hamilton Lawn at Columbia University in New York City

Image of the statue of Alexander Hamilton created by William Ordway Partridge, commissioned for the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn. The statue later stood in front of Hamilton Grange when the house was located at 287 Convent Ave.

A view of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge from the south

Lin-Manuel Miranda performs the title role in the 2015 musical Hamilton.

In 1777, he became a senior aide to Commander in Chief General George Washington, but returned to field command in time for a pivotal action securing victory at the Siege of Yorktown, effectively ending hostilities.