was the commander in chief of the Continental army during the American Revolution, and later the first president of the United States. He symbolized qualities of discipline, nobleness, military orthodoxy, and persistence in hard times that his contemporaries particularly valued as marks of complete political leadership. Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the eldest son of Augustine Washington, a Virginia planter, and Mary Ball Washington. Although Washington had little or no formal schooling, h ....