George Washington Military Timeline

George Washington’s Military Career

1753
George Washington is sent into the Ohio Valley to take a message from the governor of Virginia to French military forces, demanding that they leave.

1754
George Washington is appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia militia; defeats the French and their Indian allies at Great Meadows.  He is involved in a skirmish, which results in the death of a French diplomat and starts the French and Indian War; surrenders Fort Necessity.  Is very sick and surrenders his commission; begins renting Mount Vernon from the widow of his half-brother, Lawrence Washington.

1755
Washington serves as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock during a disastrous campaign against the French; becomes commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces.

1756
Commands Virginia’s forces, trying to protect settlements along the frontier from the French and their Indian allies; goes on military business to New York and Boston

1758
Washington is very ill; begins courting a young widow named Martha Dandridge Custis, who is eight months older than himself.  Takes part in General John Forbes expedition to take Fort Duquesne.  Is elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and resigns his military commission

1763
The French and Indian War ends; George Washington is a trustee of the town of Alexandria, Virginia

1765
George Washington serves as a commissioner for settling Virginia’s military accounts

1770
George Washington and a friend from the days of the French and Indian War go to see their western lands on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers

1775
George Washington is chosen as a delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress; while there, he is selected to command the Continental Army; goes immediately to take command of the army at Cambridge, Massachusetts; begins a siege of the city of Boston

1776
British evacuate Boston; Battle of Long Island; Battle of Harlem Heights; Battle of White Plains, New York; Loss of Forts Lee and Washington; Washington and the army retreat through New Jersey; Battle of Trenton, New Jersey; Congress gives Washington dictatorial powers; George Washington receives an honorary doctorate (LL.D.) from Harvard College

1777
Battle of Princeton, New Jersey; Washington goes into winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey; Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania; Battle of Germantown, Pennsylvania; Washington goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

1778
George Washington’s leadership of the Continental Army is threatened by the Conway Cabal; Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, New Jersey; a French fleet arrives to help the Americans; the Rhode Island campaign fails; Washington goes into winter quarters at Middlebrook, New Jersey

1779
Washington captures Stony Point; Washington sends General Sullivan against the Iroquois; Washington goes into winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey

1780
French forces under General Rochambeau arrives in Newport, Rhode Island; British General Gates defeated at Camden, New Jersey; General Benedict Arnold’s plot to turn over the American garrison to the enemy is foiled; Washington goes into winter quarters at Tappen, New Jersey; George Washington becomes a member of the American Philosophical Society

1781
Pennsylvania troops mutiny; George Washington meets French General Rochambeau; the American and French armies head south; Washington, with the help of the French, successfully defeats the British at Yorktown, the last major battle of the war; Washington’s 27 year old stepson dies of camp fever contracted at Yorktown

1782
George Washington is in Newburgh, New York; Washington rejects the opportunity to become king; a provisional peace treaty is signed

1783
George Washington peacefully breaks up a mutiny by the officers in the Continental Army; the American Revolution ends; George Washington resigns his military commission in Annapolis, Maryland; comes home to Mount Vernon on Christmas day

1783-1799
George Washington serves as President-General of the Society of the Cincinnati

1787
George Washington is chosen to preside over the Constitutional Convention; He signs the new Constitution

1794
The Whiskey Rebellion breaks out in western Pennsylvania; Washington leads troops to the area to quell this revolt against paying taxes to the federal government

1798
When war threatens with France, Washington is named commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States of America