and it was he who tried, to rally the broken
English army on the stricken field near Fort Duquesne. On that day
of surprise and slaughter he displayed not only cool courage but the
reckless daring which was one of his chief characteristics. He so
exposed himself that bullets passed through his coat and hat, and the
Indians and the French who tried to bring him down thought he bore a
charmed life. He afterwards served with distinction all through the
French war, and when peace came he went back to the estate which he had
inherited from his brother, the most admired man in Virginia.

At that time he married, and during the ensuing years he lived the life
of a Virginia planter, successful in his private affairs and serving the
public effectively but quietly as a member of the House of Burgesses.
When the troubles with the mother country began to thicken he was slow
to take extreme ground, but he never wavered in his belief that all
attempts to oppress the colonies should be resisted, and when he once
took up his position there was no shadow of turning. He was one of
Virginia's delegates to the first Continental Congress, and, although
he said but little, he was regarded by all the representatives from
the other colonies as the strongest man among them. There was something
about him even then which commanded the respect and the confidence of
every one who came in contact with him.

It was from New England, far removed from his own State, that the demand
came for his appointment as commander-in-chief of the American army.
Silently he accepted the duty, and, leaving Philadelphia, took command
of the army at Cambridge. There is no need to trace him through the
events that followed. From the time when he drew his sword under the
famous elm tree, he was the embodiment of the American Revolution, and
without him that revolution would have failed almost at the start. How
he carried it to victory through defeat and trial and every possible
obstacle is known to all men.

When it was all over he found himself facing a new situation. He was the
idol of the country and of his soldiers. The army was unpaid, and the
veteran troops, with arms in their hands, were eager to have him take
control of the disordered country as Cromwell had done in England
a little more than a century before. With the army at his back, and
supported by the great forces which, in every community, desire order
before everything else, and are ready to assent to