If George Washington Was Such a Bad Leader, How Was He So Successful?

As part of my growing quarantine reading list, I recently finished 1776, David McCullough's account of the most pivotal year of the Revolutionary War. Beginning with the aftermath of the Battle at Bunker Hill, the book takes readers through the disastrous defense of New York and the Continental Army's long retreat to Pennsylvania, and to their year-end raid of Trenton and follow-up Battle of Princeton: small but decisive victories that laid the groundwork for the eventual defeat of the British.

For good reason, the central character throughout the book is General George Washington, a questionable choice for leadership when the war broke out, and a man whose lack of experience and conviction nearly led to an early end to the revolution. Despite his initial success in Boston, his subsequent string of tactical mistakes and indecisive behavior resulted in a the near decimation of his army and abandonment of crucial strategic ground to his enemy. Worst of all, his losses caused a collapse in needed support and confidence from his supporters, and provided a huge morale boost to British.

But as the year went on and the Continental Army suffered defeat after defeat, the new General's drive for victory only grew, and mistakes he suffered early on quickly because lessons he would learn and be sure not to repeat. He turned aggressive and launched two daring attacks at the end of the retreat to keep the enemy on their heels and provide his army a needed boost in confidence. He joined the army in the field during their attacks, abandoning his history of directing from afar. And he leaned on the Major Generals that showed success in the past to lead future battles and direct strategy.

In the end, during the gloomiest parts of the year as winter set in and his once healthy, strong army was reduced to numbers that were a fraction of where they were at the beginning of the year, Washington -- out of pride, conviction and belief in his cause -- never wavered, and strove for victory at every cost, an apt metaphor for current times.

And despite the aura and mythology that surrounded Washington the day he because President, what 1776 reminds us all is that great historical figures are simply normal people who, when faced with great adversity, reached deep within themselves to find something that helped them rise to the challenges before them to get them through the darkest of times and to earn their place in history.

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The following passage comes at the end of 1776, and is a nice summary of George Washington during this crucial time of his life:

He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.

Again and again, in letters to Congress and to his officers, and in his general orders, he had called for perseverance—for “perseverance and spirit,” for “patience and perseverance,” for “unremitting courage and perseverance.” Soon after the victories of Trenton and Princeton, he had written: “A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.” Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed. As Nathanael Greene foresaw as the war went on, “He will be the deliverer of his own country.”

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