George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732–December 14, 1799) was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Previously, he led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War for Independence. He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of His Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation.

Washington received his initial military training and command with the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was named a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he was appointed Commanding General of the Continental Army. He commanded American forces, allied with France, in the defeat and surrender of the British during the Siege of Yorktown, and resigned his commission in 1783 after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

Washington played a key role in the adoption and ratification of the Constitution and was then elected president by the Electoral College in the first two elections. He implemented a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in a fierce rivalry between cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he proclaimed a policy of neutrality while sanctioning the Jay Treaty. He set enduring precedents for the office of president, including the title "President of the United States", and his Farewell Address is widely regarded as a pre-eminent statement on republicanism.

Washington enslaved African Americans for labor and trading, including his wife's domestic, enslaved worker Ona "Oney" Judge Staines, and supported measures passed by Congress protecting slavery, in order to preserve national unity. He later became troubled with the institution of slavery and freed his slaves in a 1799 will. He endeavored to assimilate Native Americans into Western culture, but responded to their hostility in times of war. He was a member of the Anglican Church and the Freemasons, and he urged broad religious freedom in his roles as general and president. Upon his death, he was eulogized as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." He has been memorialized by monuments, art, geographical locations, stamps, and currency, and many scholars and polls rank him among the greatest American presidents.

Washington's aides-de-camp

Aides de Camp during the American Revolutionary War were officers of the Continental Army appointed to serve on General George Washington's headquarters staff, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The headquarters staff also included one military secretary, a full colonel.

Washington had a small number of aides-de-camp at any given time, with relatively frequent turnover. A total of 32 men were appointed to these positions, and served between July 4, 1775, and December 23, 1783. Other people worked as volunteer aides or assistants, and helped with office duties when needed.

Headquarters staff

The Second Continental Congress unanimously elected George Washington to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775. He traveled to Cambridge, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, and took command of the Siege of Boston on July 3. His headquarters staff initially consisted of his military secretary, Joseph Reed, and one aide-de-camp, Thomas Mifflin.

The responsibilities of the headquarters staff included managing Washington's military correspondence, making copies of each day's General Orders (to be distributed to the commanding officer at each military post), and making copies of individual orders. The 19-year-old artist John Trumbull, who was skilled at drawing maps, was appointed an aide-de-camp on July 27,<ref name=27July1775/> and served three weeks before being transferred.

Congress had authorized one military secretary and three aides-de-camp for the commander-in-chief, but this number soon proved inadequate. Washington's pleas for Congress to authorize two additional aides were ignored, so he augmented his staff with volunteers. Six aides-de-camp – George Baylor, Edmund Randolph, Robert Hanson Harrison, George Lewis, Stephen Moylan, William Palfrey – were appointed between August 1775 and March 1776, some replacing predecessors who had been transferred. Finally, in January 1778, Congress granted the commander-in-chief the power to appoint headquarters staff as he saw fit.

The military secretary held the rank of colonel in the Continental Army, with a monthly pay of $66 in 1775 (equivalent to about $2,050 in 2018). The aides-de-camp held the rank of lieutenant colonel, with a monthly pay of $33 in 1775 (equivalent to about $1,025 in 2018).<ref name=20June1775/><ref name=Infl1775/> The aides-de-camp wore a green riband across their chests as a rank insignia.<ref name="AutoMY-4"/> Washington referred to the headquarters staff as "my family." Some were the sons of his friends and relatives, but above all he valued talent:

The Secretaries and Aid De Camps to the Commander in chief ought not to be confined to the line for plain and obvious reasons. The number which the nature and extent of his business require, in addition to the many drawn from the line to fill the different offices of the staff, when it is considered, that they ought all to be men of abilities, may seem too large a draft upon the line. But a consideration still more forcible is, that in a service so complex as ours, it would be wrong and detrimental to restrict the choice; the vast diversity of objects, occurrences and correspondencies, unknown in one more regular and less diffusive; constantly calling for talents and abilities of the first rate, men who possess them, ought to be taken, wherever they can be found.<ref name="AutoMY-6"/>

On the battlefield, the aides-de-camp were couriers—delivering Washington's orders on horseback and gathering or relaying intelligence on enemy troop movement.<ref name="AutoMY-7"/> Samuel Blachley Webb was wounded at the October 28, 1776, Battle of White Plains and at the December 26, 1776, Battle of Trenton.<ref name="22July1775"/> John Fitzgerald and John Laurens were both wounded at the June 28, 1778, Battle of Monmouth, where Alexander Hamilton's horse was shot from under him.<ref name="AutoMY-8"/> George Johnston served barely four months, before dying of disease at the Morristown headquarters. Tench Tilghman served longer than any other aide-de-camp: more than seven years, about half of it as a volunteer.

The commander-in-chief's headquarters staff was disbanded on December 23, 1783, when General Washington resigned his commission to Congress, then meeting at Annapolis, Maryland.<ref name=Fitzpatrick/> Aides David Humphreys, David Cobb, and Benjamin Walker escorted him to and from the ceremony.<ref name=Fitzpatrick/> Many members of Washington's headquarters staff earned his trust and friendship. Some later served in his presidential administration.<ref name=Fitzpatrick/>

Additional aides

In 1906, Worthington Chauncey Ford, chief of the Manuscripts Division at the Library of Congress, published a list of Washington's 32 military secretaries and aides-de-camp.<ref name="Ford"/> He added Martha Washington as number 33, acknowledging her unofficial clerical help at Washington's headquarters.<ref name=Ford/>

Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., former editor of The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, adds to the list Washington's nephew, George Augustine Washington—a volunteer aide from September 1779 to May 1781, and from December 1781 to May 1782.<ref name="Grizzard2005"/>

Military secretaries

• Joseph Reed (1741–1785) – Served as Gen. Washington's military secretary from June 19<ref name="AutoMY-9"/> to October 30, 1775.<ref name="AutoMY-10"/> He took leave to prepare a case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Reed rejoined the Continental Army on June 16, 1776, as Adjutant General.<ref name="AutoMY-11"/>
• Stephen Moylan (1737–1811) – Served as Muster Master General from August 14<ref name="14Aug1775"/> to November 1775; and as Gen. Washington's acting-military secretary (in Joseph Reed's absence) from November 1775 to May 1776. He served as a Washington aide-de-camp from March 6 to June 5, 1776, and as a volunteer aide from September 28, 1776 to January 1777.
• Robert Hanson Harrison (1745–1790) – Served as Gen. Washington's military secretary from May 16, 1776<ref name=16May1776/> to March 25, 1781.<ref name="AutoMY-12"/> He had served as a Washington aide-de-camp from November 1775 to May 1776.
• Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740–1809) – Served as Gen. Washington's military secretary from June 8, 1781<ref name="AutoMY-13"/> to December 23, 1783.<ref name=Lefkowitz/>Template:Rp

Appointed aides-de-camp

• Hodijah Baylies (1756–1842) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from May 14, 1782<ref name="AutoMY-15"/> to December 23, 1783.<ref name="AutoMY-16"/> He had graduated Harvard in 1777, was commissioned a lieutenant in Jackson's Additional Continental Regiment, appointed as aide-de-camp to General Benjamin Lincoln, and was promoted to major. He was captured by the British at the siege of Charleston. Exchanged in November 1780, he returned to Harvard for a master of arts degree.<ref name=Lefkowitz/>Template:Rp
• George Baylor (1752–1784) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from August 15, 1775<ref name=15Aug1775/> to January 1, 1777.<ref name="AutoMY-18"/>
• Richard Cary (Template:Circa1746–1806) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from June 21<ref name=21June1776/> to December 1776. He was written about kindly by Congressman John Adams to another Massachusetts delegate, William Tudor, judge advocate to the Continental Army, and was appointed a brigade major.<ref name=Lefkowitz/>Template:Rp Cary resigned to get married.<ref name="AutoMY-20"/>
• Dr. David Cobb (1748–1830)– Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from June 15, 1781<ref name="AutoMY-21"/> to January 1783, and from June<ref name="AutoMY-22"/> to December 23, 1783.
• Col. John Fitzgerald (d. 1799) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from November 1776 to July 1778. Wounded at the June 28, 1778 Battle of Monmouth,<ref name="AutoMY-8"/> he retired from the Continental Army.
• Peregrine Fitzhugh (1759–1811) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from July 2<ref name="AutoMY-23"/> to October 1781.
• Capt. Caleb Gibbs (1748–1818) – Commander of Washington's life-guard,<ref name=16May1776/> he managed the headquarters household accounts from May 16, 1776 to the end of 1780,<ref name="AutoMY-24"/> and served as a supplemental aide-de-camp.
• Col. William Grayson (1740–1790) – Served as Gen. Washington's assistant secretary from July to August 1776, and served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from August 24, 1776<ref name="AutoMY-25"/> to January 11, 1777.<ref name="AutoMY-26"/>
• Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from March 1, 1777 to April 1781.
• Alexander Contee Hanson (1749–1806) – Served as Gen. Washington's assistant secretary from June 21<ref name="21June1776"/> to September 1776.
• Robert Hanson Harrison (1745–1790) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from November 6, 1775<ref name="AutoMY-29"/> to May 16, 1776, and as Gen. Washington's military secretary from May 16, 1776<ref name="16May1776"/> to March 25, 1781.
• David Humphreys (1752–1818) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from June 23, 1780<ref name=Lefkowitz/>Template:Rp to December 23, 1783.<ref name=GWtoRM/> After the war, he was private secretary to Washington at Mount Vernon, and secretary to President Washington in New York City, 1789-90.
• George Johnston, Jr. (1750–1777) – Major in the 5th Virginia Regiment; appointed an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington on January 20, 1777;<ref name="AutoMY-31"/> died of disease at Morristown, New Jersey, May 29, 1777.
• John Laurens (1754–1782) – Served as volunteer aide from August 9<ref name="AutoMY-32"/> to September 6, 1777<ref name="6Sept1777"/>, when he was appointed an extra aide-de-camp. He was officially appointed aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington on October 6, 1777<ref name="AutoMY-33"/>, and held that position until March 29, 1779<ref name="AutoMY-34"/>, when Congress commissioned him to travel home to South Carolina and attempt to recruit a regiment of slaves.<ref name="AutoMY-35"/> On behalf of the United States, Laurens traveled to Europe and negotiated a 10 million-livre loan from the Netherlands, to be guaranteed by France.<ref name="AutoMY-36"/> He returned to the United States in September 1781,<ref name="AutoMY-37"/> rejoined General Washington at the Siege of Yorktown, and helped to negotiate the surrender of British General Cornwallis.<ref name="AutoMY-38"/> He returned to South Carolina in November 1781, and died nine months later in the Battle of the Combahee River.
• George Lewis (1757–1821) – Gen. Washington's nephew.<ref name="AutoMY-39"/> A volunteer aide from November 1775 to December 1776.<ref name="14Nov1775"/> Appointed a lieutenant in the commander-in-chief's life guards in May 1776,<ref name=16May1776/> he transferred to the 2nd Continental Dragoons in December 1776.<ref name=14Nov1775/>
• Dr. James McHenry (1753–1816) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from May 15, 1778<ref name="AutoMY-40"/>, to August 1780.<ref name="AutoMY-41"/> An Irish-born Philadelphia medical student, he served as a surgeon early in the war. Left to join the staff of the Marquis de Lafayette.
• Richard Kidder Meade (1746–1805) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from March 12, 1777<ref name="AutoMY-42"/>, to November 1780; supervised the October 2, 1780 execution of British Major John André.
• Thomas Mifflin (1744–1800) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from June 19<ref name="AutoMY-9"/> to August 14, 1775, when he was promoted to Quartermaster General.<ref name=14Aug1775/>
• Stephen Moylan (1737–1811) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from March 6, 1776<ref name="AutoMY-47"/>, to June 5, 1776,<ref name="AutoMY-45"/> and as a volunteer aide from September 28, 1776 to January 1777.<ref name="AutoMY-46"/>
• William Palfrey (1741–1780) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from March 6<ref name="AutoMY-47"/> to April 1776.
• Pierre Penet (d. 1812) – A French merchant who had supplied arms and materiel, 1775-76.<ref name="AutoMY-48"/> On Washington's recommendation, Congress confirmed him as a brevet aide-de-camp (October 14, 1776).<ref name="AutoMY-49"/> Penet served from October 1776 to January 1783.
• Edmund Randolph (1753–1813) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from August 15<ref name="15Aug1775"/> to November 2, 1775.<ref name="AutoMY-50"/>
• Col. William Stephens Smith (1755–1816) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from July 6, 1781<ref name="AutoMY-51"/>, to June 1782.<ref name="AutoMY-52"/>
• Peter Presley Thornton (1750–1780)<ref name="AutoMY-53"/> – A volunteer aide, August–September 1777; served as an extra aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from September 6, 1777<ref name=6Sept1777/> to [unknown].
• Tench Tilghman (1744–1786) – A Maryland militiaman who spoke fluent French, he served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington for more than 7 years (longer than anyone else).<ref name="Tilghman"/> A volunteer aide from August 8, 1776, to June 21, 1780, Washington confirmed his special status in General Orders.<ref name="AutoMY-54"/> He was appointed an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington on June 21, 1780<ref name="AutoMY-55"/> and served until November 1783.<ref name=Tilghman/> On June 5, 1781, at Washington's request, Congress awarded Tilghman the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, dating his military commission retroactively to April 1, 1777.<ref name="5June1781"/>
• John Trumbull (1756–1843) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from July 27<ref name="27July1775"/> to August 15, 1775.<ref name=15Aug1775/>
• Richard Varick (1753–1831) – Served as Gen. Washington's aide-de-camp and private secretary from May 25, 1781<ref name="AutoMY-56"/>, to mid-December 1783.<ref name="AutoMY-57"/>. Hired after Congress approved Washington's request to have a team specifically designed to organize and catalogue and compose all of his correspondence, Varick was personally hired by Washongton to lead that team. He would go on to serve at Mayor of New York City for eleven years.
• Benjamin Walker (1753–1818) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from January 25, 1782<ref name="AutoMY-58"/>, to December 23, 1783.<ref name=GWtoRM/>
• John Walker (1744–1809) – Served as a Washington aide-de-camp, February 19<ref name="AutoMY-59"/> to March 1777.
• Samuel Blachley Webb (1753–1807) – Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Israel Putnam, and was wounded at Bunker Hill.<ref name=22July1775/> Served as an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington from June 21, 1776<ref name=21June1776/> to January 11, 1777, during which he was wounded at White Plains, and Trenton.<ref name=22July1775/> On January 11, 1777, Washington appointed him commander of a new Connecticut regiment, Webb's Additional Continental Regiment.<ref name="AutoMY-60"/> In December 1777, Webb was captured by the British and held prisoner for three years.<ref name=Lefkowitz/>Template:Rp

Volunteer aides

• George Augustine Washington (1759–1793) – Gen. Washington's nephew. A volunteer aide from September 1779 to May 1781, and from December 1781 to May 1782.<ref name=Grizzard2005/> Estate manager at Mount Vernon, 1780s-1793.
• John Parke Custis (1754–1781) – Gen. Washington's step-son. A volunteer aide from October to November 1781, including during the Siege of Yorktown. Died of camp fever, November 5, 1781.

Possible aides

• Peter Bowman (1761–1835)<ref name="AutoMY-62"/> – "Among the graves of distinguished Revolutionary War soldiers in Onondaga County [New York] is that of Peter Bowman, an aide of Gen. George Washington, who is buried in Belle Isle Cemetery."<ref name="AutoMY-63"/>
• John Hopwood (1745–1802) – Family tradition holds that Hopwood was an aide to Gen. Washington.<ref name="AutoMY-64"/>
• Ebenezer Mann – "Dr. Ebenezer Mann was a Brigade Surgeon at the Battle of Monmouth and Yorktown."<ref name="AutoMY-65"/>
• Albert Pawling (1750–1837)<ref name="AutoMY-66"/> – A family history claims he was an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington.<ref name="AutoMY-67"/> Major Albert Pawling was an officer in Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment, and tendered his resignation on February 25, 1779.<ref name="AutoMY-68"/> Washington tried to persuade him to reconsider, but was unsuccessful.