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George Washington

George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732 to Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington. Washington grew up on his father's estate near Pope's Creek along the Potomac River, where he never had any formal education, but was taught by tutors. Washington studied mathematics, surveying, classic literature, and "rules of civility" by which he lived his life.
In 1743, when George was 11, his father died. Soon after this, his half brother, Lawrence, asked George's mother if George could come and live with him, so that he could teach George to be a gentleman. Mary eventually agreed, and George went to live at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's plantation on the Potomac. George loved Mount Vernon, and loved living with Lawrence, who had become George's mentor and best friend. While living with Lawrence, George decided that he wanted to be a surveyor. He got his first surveying job in 1748, when Lawrence's father-in-law, Lord Fairfax, asked George to survey his land in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1749, he was appointed surveyor for Culpeper County, Virginia.
Not long after this, Lawrence fell ill with tuberculosis, and George and he traveled to Barbados, hoping that the warm weather would cure him. This did not work, and Lawrence died in 1752 soon after they returned to Mount Vernon. After Lawrence's death, George inherited Mount Vernon and all of Lawrence's land.
By this time, tensions between the British and French were getting high and war was to break out soon. Washington was always looking for an adventure and new land, so he joined the war. He got his first assignment in October 1753, when Virginia governor Robert Dinwiddie gave him orders to go to the Ohio River Valley and tell the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf that they were on British territory. The French ignored this warning, and Washington went home empty-handed.
In 1754, the French and Indian War broke out, and once again, the new...