GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FIRST WAR: His Early Military Adventures

1-200940

'I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.' So wrote the young George Washington to his brother, something that David Clary notes no veteran soldier would say.

In this biographical history, Clary describes how the ambitious new lieutenant colonel was papering over the fact that his men and Indian allies had ambushed a force of French Canadians on a diplomatic mission, killing their leader Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville and setting off the French and Indian War of 1754-63. Clary's vivid portrait follows the future president from the start of his career, suffering repeated blunders and defeats in the wilderness, yet learning from each of his mistakes.