The Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis served as one of George Washington’s principal officers in the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War.

Camp Followers

Camp followers were the thousands women who travelled with and worked for the Continental and British armies during the American Revolution. Many of them were daughters, wives, or sisters of soldiers. For example, Martha Washington lived with George in the military’s winter quarters, hosted events for visiting diplomats and officers, and helped fundraise to purchase clothing for soldiers. Lucy Knox, wife of General Henry Knox, also joined her husband in camps and organized social events. Many other army women were related to lower-ranking soldiers, and historians only have access to some of their names from military records. Some officers, including George Washington, were frustrated by camp followers who sold alcohol or convinced soldiers to desert. However, these women also provided essential support to troops by mending clothes, cooking meals, selling goods, and caring for sick and wounded soldiers.

Daniel Morgan

Daniel Morgan, a brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War, was one of the Continental Army’s most valuable tacticians and commander of several of the most successful rifle corps of the war.

Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson is best known for disguising herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army from May 1782 to October 1783. She was also one of the first women to receive a pension for her military service and the first woman to go on a national lecture tour of the United States. 

Edward Braddock

General Edward Braddock commanded British forces in the unsuccessful 1755 campaign to expel the French from the Ohio Valley near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Fabian Strategy

Carthaginian general Hannibal’s invasion of Italy during the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE) provided posterity with two alternative examples of effective military strategy.

Fort Duquesne

Constructed by the French in 1754 at the heart of the Ohio River Valley, Fort Duquesne was an important landmark during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).  Because of its strategic location on the land where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River, the British made several attempts to take the fort from the French and gain control of the Ohio Country.  In 1758, an expedition led by General John Forbes finally succeeded in capturing Fort Duquesne, and Fort Pitt was established by the British on the site.

Fort Necessity

Site of one of Washington's earliest military encounters

Frederick the Great

The story of Frederick’s youth is a known chronicle of suffering.”

French and Indian War

George Baylor

General George Washington named George Baylor an aide-de-camp in the General Orders for August 15, 1775.

Jumonville Glen Skirmish

On May 28, 1754 Virginia Regiment Lieutenant Colonel George Washington and Mingo chief Tanacharison led a party of roughly forty men in a raid against twenty-nine French soldiers in present-day western Pennsylvania killing ten and capturing twenty-one. The attack represented to opening salvoes of the French and Indian War.

Pontiac's Rebellion

Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763-1765) was an armed conflict between the British Empire and Algonquian, Iroquoian, Muskogean, and Siouan-speaking Native Americans following the Seven Years’ War. Also known as “Pontiac’s War” or “Pontiac’s Uprising,” the violence represented an unprecedented pan-Indian resistance to European colonization in North America, in which Indigenous nations – Ottawa, Delaware, Potawatomie, Shawnee, Mingo (Seneca), Wyandot, Ojibwe, Huron, Choctaw, Piankashaw, Kickapoo, Tunica, Peoria, and Mascouten – challenged the attempts by the British Empire to impose its will and abrogate Native sovereignty. Although the war originated in the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley, the violence spread as fast west to the Illinois Country and as far east to western Virginia. Even though the conflict ended in a stalemate after two years of intense fighting, the British Empire was forced to reconsider its policy toward Native Americans, ultimately recognizing Indigenous autonomy. However, the American colonists resented the empire’s change of heart, given that such conciliatory measures ran counter to their anxieties and hostility toward Native Americans, which contributed to the growing disillusionment that culminated in revolution.

Prisoners of War

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years’ War was a conflict between France and Great Britain that began in 1754 as a dispute over North American land claims in the region around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This conflict eventually spread into other parts of world, including Europe, Africa, and Asia. When the Treaty of Paris ended the war in 1763, France ceded Canada to Britain and India became dominated by British interests.