Washington

by Douglas Southall Freeman

  BOOKS BY

  DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN

  R. E. LEE (4 volumes, illustrated)

  WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY

  LEE (Illustrated)

  AN ABRIDGMENT IN ONE VOLUME BY RICHARD HARWELL OF THE

  FOUR-VOLUME R. E. Lee

  LEE OF VIRGINIA (Illustrated)

  THE LIFE OF THE GENERAL TOLD FOR YOUNG ADULTS

  LEE’S LIEUTENANTS (3 volumes, illustrated)

  GEORGE WASHINGTON (7 volumes, illustrated)

  WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY

  WASHINGTON (Illustrated)

  AN ABRIDGMENT IN ONE VOLUME BY RICHARD HARWELL OF THE

  SEVEN-VOLUME George Washington

  TOUCHSTONE

  Rockefeller Center

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Abridgment copyright © 1968 by Charles Scribner’s Sons

  Introduction by Michael Kammen copyright © 1992 by Macmillan

  Publishing Company, a division of Macmillan, Inc.

  Afterword by Dumas Malone copyright © 1954

  by Charles Scribner’s Sons

  Unabridged work entitled George Washington by Douglas Southall Freeman

  published in seven volumes. Copyright 1948, 1951, 1952, 1954, © 1957

  Charles Scribner’s Sons.

  The seventh volume was written by Dr. Freeman’s research associates,

  Mary Wells Ashworth and John Alexander Carroll.

  The Afterword, “The Pen of Douglas Southall Freeman,” appeared in

  slightly different form in volume VI of George Washington by Douglas

  Southall Freeman.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part

  in any form.

  First Touchstone Edition 1995

  First Collier Books Edition 1992

  TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks

  of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  7 9 10 8 6

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Harwell, Richard Barksdale.

  Washington: an abridgment in one volume by Richard Harwell of

  the seven-volume George Washington by Douglas Southall Freeman/

  with a new introduction by Michael Kammen; afterword by Dumas

  Malone.–1st Collier Books ed.

  p. cm.

  Includes index.

  1. Washington, George, 1732–1799. 2. Presidents–United States–

  Biography. I. Freeman, Douglas Southall, 1886–1953. George Washington.

  II. Title.

  E312.H36 1992

  9734'1'092–dc20 92-31779 CIP

  [B]

  ISBN: 0-684-82637-2

  eISBN: 978-1-4391-0533-7

  This condensation of Douglas Southall

  Freeman’s George Washington is dedicated

  to Mary Wells Ashworth in gratitude for

  her interest and encouragement and with

  the conviction that Dr. Freeman would

  like this volume so dedicated.

  R. B. H.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Editor’s Note

  CHAPTER / 1

  CHAPTER / 2

  CHAPTER / 3

  CHAPTER / 4

  CHAPTER / 5

  CHAPTER / 6

  CHAPTER / 7

  CHAPTER / 8

  CHAPTER / 9

  CHAPTER / 10

  CHAPTER / 11

  CHAPTER / 12

  CHAPTER / 13

  CHAPTER / 14

  CHAPTER / 15

  CHAPTER / 16

  CHAPTER / 17

  CHAPTER / 18

  CHAPTER / 19

  CHAPTER / 20

  CHAPTER / 21

  CHAPTER / 22

  CHAPTER / 23

  CHAPTER / 24

  CHAPTER / 25

  Afterword: The Pen of Douglas Southall Freeman

  Index

  List of Illustrations

  FAMILY LIFE / BETWEEN PAGES 136-137

  1. Lawrence Washington

  2. Martha Dandridge Custis

  3. Martha Washington

  4. John Parke Custis

  5. The Washington Family

  6. Washington in 1777-1778

  7. George William Fairfax

  8. Washington in 1787

  9. Washington in 1796

  10. Washington in 1785

  MILITARY LIFE / BETWEEN PAGES 374-375

  11. Washington’s Election as Commander in Chief

  12. Benjamin Lincoln

  13. Anthony Wayne

  14. Charles Lee

  15. Joseph Reed

  16. John Sullivan

  17. Benedict Arnold

  18. Baron von Steuben

  19. Comte de Rochambeau

  20. Marquis de Lafayette

  21. Horatio Gates

  22. Thomas Mifflin

  23. Joseph Trumbull

  24. Henry Knox

  25. Nathanael Greene

  26. Washington at Yorktown

  POLITICAL LIFE / BETWEEN PAGES 594-595

  27. Washington’s Welcome at Trenton Bridge

  28. Edmund Randolph

  29. John Jay

  30. Alexander Hamilton

  31. John Adams

  32. John Marshall

  33. Tobias Lear

  34. Thomas Jefferson

  35. James Madison

  36. James Monroe

  37. L’Enfant’s Plan for a “Federal City”

  List of Maps

  BETWEEN PAGES 14-15

  1. The Thirteen Colonies

  BETWEEN PAGES 38-39

  2. The Forks of the Ohio, 1754-1759

  BETWEEN PAGES 106-107

  3. Washington’s Tour of the Frontier, 1756

  BETWEEN PAGES 136-137

  4. The Region of George Washington’s Activities, 1732-1759

  BETWEEN PAGES 142-143

  5. Washington’s “Burgess Route”

  BETWEEN PAGES 150-151

  6. The Proclamation Line of 1763

  BETWEEN PAGES 228-229

  7. Boston, 1775-1776

  BETWEEN PAGES 238-239

  8. The Invasion of Canada, 1775-1776

  BETWEEN PAGES 268-269

  9. New York, 1776

  BETWEEN PAGES 286-287

  10. The Long Island Approaches to the Brooklyn Defenses

  BETWEEN PAGES 320-321

  11. The New Jersey and Philadelphia Campaigns, 1776-1778

  BETWEEN PAGES 360-361

  12. The Hudson Highlands, 1776-1783

  BETWEEN PAGES 374—375

  13. Cape Ann to Baltimore

  BETWEEN PAGES 470-471

  14. The March to Yorktown and the Battle of Chesapeake Capes

  BETWEEN PAGES 480-481

  15. Yorktown, 1781

  BETWEEN PAGES 594-595

  16. Washington’s Southern Tour, 1791

  Introduction

  Early in 1945, less than a year after Douglas Southall Freeman began work on his massive narration of Washington’s life, a distinguished historian and friend wished Freeman good luck with the daunting project and closed with the following words: “It is a great subject, and one in which both the subject and the author are worthy of each other.”1 That assertion is deceptively simple and meaningful because the subject and the author were both complex and fascinating men. Washington is demonstrably the most important figure in all of American history. He presided over the creation of the American republic, as a civilian, after having made its creation possible as a soldier.

  Freeman is equally worthy o
f our attention because he ranked among the three or four most popular writers of history and biography during the middle decades of the twentieth century. The cultural climate in this country between 1945 and Freeman’s death in 1953 profoundly affected both what Freeman wrote and, even more, why the project was received so positively. Its appearance struck such responsive chords that the series became a notable event in the history of American publishing. As Freeman’s longtime editor remarked to him in October 1948, when Volumes I and II appeared: “The press you are getting on publication is something I have never seen equalled, either for promptness or for unanimity of praise.”2

  Just as George Washington endures as a towering figure in our founding as a nation—despite his apparent blandness and unapproachability—Freeman’s biography endures because of its clarity, its judiciousness, its scrupulous attention to detail as well as context, and above all because of its empathy. Whereas Freeman’s four-volume biography of Robert E. Lee (1934-1935) had been an intense labor of love, the author embarked upon his Washington with dutiful respect. By 1949, however, when Freeman got deeply immersed in Volumes III and IV, his esteem for Washington’s character and greatness had been considerably enhanced. The more he learned about Washington, working through one crisis after another, the more Freeman appreciated him. Even though Washington successfully suppressed his innermost feelings in most situations, the public crises that he confronted were deeply felt at a personal level.

  Like Washington, Freeman was a courtly Virginian. Although he was a newspaper editor by profession, military affairs and history fascinated him. Late in September 1945, with the Washington enterprise well launched, Freeman flew from Washington, D.C., on a trip around the world in order to meet with officers and men in “our various armies of occupation in Europe and Asia” along with officials of many other nations. His travels took him to England, Germany, Egypt, India, China, Japan, Guam, Pearl Harbor, the west coast of the United States, and finally home to Richmond, where he immersed himself in this biographical project that he hoped would be “definitive.” In June of 1949, at the age of sixty-three, he retired as editor of The Richmond News Leader (a position that he had held since 1915) in order to concentrate his full attention and energies on the biography.

  In addition to his total identification as a Virginian and a strong fascination with historical biography, other features of Freeman’s life help provide us with clues to his affinity for George Washington. Early in the autumn of 1952, a month prior to the publication of Volume V, Freeman acknowledged to a friend that ever since 1908 he had devoted his most meaningful hours to writing and public speaking on the subjects of politics and military history.3 A lifelong Democrat, he nevertheless supported Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency in 1952 and contributed an important essay on “Ike” to Life magazine that fall. Freeman believed that a successful high command in the military provided excellent preparation for national leadership.

  Unlike the tightly controlled dignity and reserve of George Washington, Freeman’s personal warmth won him many friends and admirers. A biographical sketch found among his papers and presumably written by a staff member informs us that he had “a wonderful sense of humor and everyone in his household shares in the fun and daily laughter that abounds in his presence. Each morning at the breakfast table he announces his choice of the Hymn for the day, and that is sung at intervals, or a phrase of it hummed whenever he or anyone of the family feels the urge to do so.”4 Freeman loved classical music, played recordings while he worked, and started taking piano lessons at the age of sixty-three.

  Despite these cheery and attractive aspects of his temperament, however, Freeman subjected himself to a regimen that might have astonished the equally self-disciplined George Washington. From 1947 until his sudden death in 1953 Freeman kept a daily diary that enables us to trace his progress on the great biographical project week by week if not day by day. It is not an introspective or intimate journal. Rather, it is a log of hours invested in the Father of His Country and precious minutes wasted on mindless intruders. Saturday, June 6, 1953, provides us with a representative entry: “By every test, this has been a bad week. I miscalculated the time lost. . . . To cap it all, a deaf old jackass came here today and took almost an hour to ask me when he should fly the Confederate flag on his Confederate bank.”

  Freeman rose every morning at 2:30 and was customarily at work by 3 A.M. His stated goal (in his diary) was to work on Washington eight hours each day, seven days per week. At the end of each week he tallied the number of hours actually logged; and from time to time he calculated the grand total to date. On June 7, 1953, six days prior to his death of a massive heart attack in the late afternoon, he recorded a total of 15,693 hours invested in the project. I’m not at all certain whether George Washington, who also rose early and kept a diary, would have applauded or would have been appalled by Freeman’s compulsiveness.

  Despite such assiduity, however, Freeman could not have completed six volumes in as many years by working alone. (He had earned a Ph.D. in history at Johns Hopkins in 1908, working in the customary self-reliant fashion.) In October 1944 he hired Dr. Gertrude R. B. Richards as a coworker. She remained his chief research associate throughout the project; but, after he gained financial support from the Carnegie Corporation, Freeman added Mrs. Mary Wells Ashworth to the staff as an associate early in 1948 and Mrs. Geneva Bennet Snelling as project librarian in 1952. Like George Washington, Freeman did not tolerate incompetence. Hence his shock in 1946 when Gertrude Richards discovered major gaps and errors in the massive thirty-seven-volume editorial project undertaken by John C. Fitzpatrick of the Library of Congress, The Writings of George Washington (1931-1940).5

  Freeman began to serve as a local radio commentator as early as 1925, when radio programming was still in its infancy. In 1929 he started to make weekly broadcasts, called “Lessons in Living,” each Sunday. Eventually these informal sessions occurred daily and came to be regarded as one of the oldest radio features of continuous record in the United States. Whenever an occasion arose, Freeman urged military preparedness—prior to World War II but particularly during the Cold War, the period when Washington was in preparation. Had he lived into the age of television, viewers would have felt comfortable with his open, likable face, his alert, inquisitive, somewhat bemused expression, his solid build and balding head planted on a short neck, and his slightly rumpled appearance. Photographs of Freeman show a man comfortable in the company of others.

  Early in March 1953 Freeman arranged a radio interview for a broadcast devoted to Parson Mason Locke Weems, whose biography of Washington first appeared in 1800 and undoubtedly sold more copies thereafter than any biography in all of American publishing history. It is the source for most of the best-known Washington myths, including the story of little George, his hatchet, and the defenseless cherry tree.6 Freeman’s broadcast occurred on March 10, 1953, just three months before his death. Here is part of his response to the question, What effect has Weems’s Washington had on the writing of American history and biography?

  The answer may seem a paradox: Weems was absurdly in error with respect to detail; [but] he was fundamentally correct in his interpretation of the basic character of the man. In this, “the wheel has come full circle.” After the American Revolution, the average citizen of the young republic looked on Washington as the saviour of the country. No man in the history of the United States ever was brought so soon to a state just below that of apotheosis. . . . To regard him as the perfect patriot, the ideal American, was an imperative in the code of the average man. That continued until long after the death of the last of those who had known Washington in the flesh. The final entombment of the demigod came in the noble biography of Washington Irving, which was completed in 1859—just before the emergence of the new national and regional heroes of the Civil War. Washington was half forgotten by 1870 and, when praised in the familiar strains, was regarded as something of a bore. No man, it was said in substance, could be as n
early perfect as he was represented to be. That mental attitude prepared the way for the debunkers who did their utmost and their worst to prove Washington an unworthy man. . . . The debunkers have had their day. . . . Now that substantially all the historical evidence regarding Washington has been assembled, it is manifest, I think, that Parson Weems was far more nearly accurate in his appraisal than the debunkers have been.7

  In the fall of 1951, after Volumes III and IV of Freeman’s work appeared, he received a long and rambling but laudatory letter from Rupert Hughes, the last of the debunkers, who never completed his own George Washington (1926-1930), a three-volume work that ended its narration abruptly at Yorktown in 1781.

  Hughes lavished praise on Freeman and urged him to complete the saga that Hughes himself had left undone.

  It has been said that every biography is really an autobiography. In so far as that is true you are building a glorious autobiography. Your research is astounding, but your calm, sane, kindly yet critical evaluations of the sources and the documents demonstrate a magnificent mind and a sterling honesty, a very winning character. Please hurry up the next two installments of your great Whodunit as I can hardly wait to learn how you will extricate Washington from his appalling and unending perplexities.

  Freeman responded in his distinctively tactful fashion to the seventy-nine-year-old debunker. Hughes had done more than anyone else, he said, to prepare the way for a new study of Washington because he had performed two essential services. “One of them was to sweep away the debris, the other was to open entirely unknown sources for the use of your successors.”8

  In contrast to this courtly pas de deux, Freeman had a concerned and revealing correspondence with Allan Nevins in the fall of 1948 after Nevins wrote a rave review of Volumes I and II for The New York Times, First Freeman asked Nevins, a veteran biographer, for counsel on the problem of detail, and then revealed why the subsequent volumes in the series would be more discriminating. Freeman felt that including minor details caused the early volumes to “drag.”

  At the same time I included it [detail] in these volumes because Washington is Washington and everything about him in that period of meager knowledge of his life seems justified. . . . From 1774 onward I eliminate a greater part of the small detail, but the old problem remains: If you include too much you bore and if you include too little you fail to give verisimilitude to the picture.9