Washington’s courage thrilled his men. But he was not an enlisted man’s general. He did not interact personally with them, and would not let his officers do so either. Officers under his command who supped or slept in enlisted men’s headquarters were routinely punished. To Washington’s mind, discipline and hierarchy were central to maintaining unit cohesion and integrity. No warm, outgoing person,
notes one historian, Washington bound men to him by his own sense of justice and dedication.
Yet how his troops viewed him, and in what ways their opinions may have changed over time, is uncertain. Although nineteenth-century history books and old soldiers’ memoirs resonate with references to the commander-in-chief’s inspirational presence, diaries and other accounts written in wartime rarely mention him.
Place | City | |
---|---|---|
Nathan Hale Homestead | Coventry | Built in 1776 and restored. |
Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park | Groton | The site of the Battle of Groton Heights (1781). |
Yale University Art Gallery | New Haven | Home to one of the finest collections of early American art anywhere, it was founded in 1832 when John Trumbull gave more than one hundred of his portraits and historical paintings to Yale. Renovation and expansion completed in 2012. |
Nathan Hale Schoolhouse | New London | The schoolhouse where Nathan Hale taught. |
Shaw Mansion | New London | Built by Nathaniel Shaw; used by both Washington and Lafayette during the war. |
General William Hart House | Old Saybrook | Built in 1767 and restored to its original condition, it is Old Saybrook Historical Society’s museum and headquarters. |
Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum | Wethersfield | Three separate homes comprising a single museum, including the homes of Silas Deane, a member of the Continental Congress, and Joseph Webb; Washington and Rochambeau met there to lay out strategy. |
General George Washington: A Military Life (2005)