George Washington and the Revolutionary War: A Historiography

George Washington suggested that when historians reflect on the battles of the Revolutionary War, Washington himself would made out to be a fictitious actor in a play with a supporting cast that would be ignored, “it is more than probable that posterity will bestow on their labors the epithet and the marks of fiction” (Jones, 2002 p. 90). Washington was
referring to the victory of the Continental Army against the British after the battle of Yorktown. After Yorktown, Washington went back his beloved Mount Vernon where he believed he would live out the rest of his life having already made his contributions to public service. In his reflections over the events of the Revolution, Washington was afraid that his role in the war would overshadow the contributions of his countrymen and supporters. Washington was prophetic in his predictions of grandeur. Washington remains the center of many varying historiographic studies two hundred years after Washington’s service in the Revolutionary War. 

Robert E. Jones’ book, George Washington: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader, looks at Washington’s enduring character in the face of obstacles to help rally the country to victory. Washington served as the General of the Continental Army from the years 1775 to 1783. Jones portrays Washington as a tireless, ambitious, driven, proud, and insecure General who often doubted himself but helped propel the United States of America to become the strong republic that it came to be after the Revolution. Jones believes Washington’s civic disposition and civic actions helped the young republic develop a backbone and reputation “Since he had assumed command, he had often acted as if the colonies were already independent, and by so doing he helped to bring about Congresses’s decision” (Jones, 2002, p. 52). The decision Congress made was the ratifying the Declaration of Independence.