ers preceding his twentieth year he spent in
surveying the estate of Lord Fairfax on the northwest boundary of the
colony, an occupation which strengthened his splendid physical
constitution to a high point of efficiency, and gave him practice in
topography,--valuable aids in the military campaigning which speedily
followed.

In 1751, at nineteen, he was made Adjutant in the militia, with the rank
of Major. In the following year he inherited the estate of Mount Vernon.
In the winter of 1753-54, at twenty-one, he was sent by the Governor of
Virginia on a mission to the French posts beyond the Alleghanies. Soon
after his return he led a regiment to the headwaters of the Ohio, but
was compelled to retreat to the colony on account of the overwhelming
numbers of the French at Fort Duquesne. In Braddock's defeat, July 9,
1755, Washington was one of the latter's aides, and narrowly escaped
death, having had two horses shot under him. During the remaining part
of the French and Indian War, he was in command of the Virginia
frontier, with the rank of Colonel, and occupied Fort Duquesne in 1758.
On January 17, 1759, he married a wealthy widow, Mrs. Martha Custis, and
removed to Mount Vernon. The administration of his plantations involved
a large measure of commerce with England, and he himself with his own
hand kept his books with mercantile exactness.

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Washington was appointed by the
Continental Congress, at forty-three years of age, Commander-in-Chief of
the Armies of the Revolution, and assumed their control at Cambridge on
July 3, 1775. In 1776 he occupied Boston, lost New York, then
brilliantly restored the drooping spirit of the land at Trenton and
Princeton. In the year following he lost Philadelphia, and retreated to
Valley Forge. Threatened by the jealousy of his own subordinates, he put
to shame the cabal formed in the interests of Gates, who had this year
captured Burgoyne. For three years, 1778-80, he maintained himself
against heavy odds in the Jerseys, fighting at Monmouth the first year,
reaching out to capture Stony Point the next year, and the third year
combating the treason of Arnold. In 1781, he planned the cooping up of
Cornwallis on the peninsula of Yorktown, with the aid of the French
allies, and received his surrender on October 19th.

Resigning his commission at Annapolis, December 23, 1783, he returned to
his estate at Mount Vernon, but vastly aided the incipient