Blooding at Great Meadows: Young George Washington and the Battle that Shaped the Man

By Alan Axelrod

Book Overview

We all know George Washington as the Father of the American Nation; few know him as a 22-year-old Virginia lieutenant colonel who led three-hundred of his soldiers to fight a far-more-experienced... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762427698
• ISBN13: 9780762427697
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Running Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Ground rules training for a future leader

I found this book to be quite interesting and insightful on how George Washington entered into the military career and the harsh lessons he had to endured in learning his craft. The book traces Washington's interest in the military aspects from his boyhood days when he was heavily influenced by his half brother, Lawrence Washington and his slight military career. The author made it clear that George Washington not only wanted a military career but push hard to get one. The core of the book lies from the time when Washington was sent as a emissary from Royal Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to the French in the Ohio territory and ends with Braddock's defeat. During those two events, was the proving grounds for George Washington as he learned from his mistakes and from the mistakes of others while learning valuable lessons on the art of war in his native land where regular European way of war and frontier style of warfare both interlaced with each other. The book centered a lot around his Fort Necessity campaign that reflects heavily on his inexperience as a military commander. The book didn't go too deeply into the surrender terms where Washington ended up confessing that he "assassinated" the French emissary during his first battle. That probably deserves a book on its own since it does smear dishonor on Washington's good name just by his consent even with ignorance. (Of course, the question is, even if he did knew, would he had sign it because if he did not, that battle could have been a massacre of his troops against overwhelming French and Indian forces.) I think the book did a good job overall reflecting on the early experiences Washington had as a young man and how that experience helped shape him as a commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The book proves to be well written and nicely researched. If there was one element of the book that I thought was lacking, was that there was no maps, no illustrations, not even a photograph of what Fort Necessity looks like from the modern reconstruction at the National Battlefield site mentioned in the book. Now I been to that site and I know the locations of the places mentioned in the book. But I also know that many others do not. (At least my hardback book didn't have these stuff.) Still, the book deserves a four star rating since I thought it was insightful and accomplished basically what the author wanted to convey to his reader.

The Makings of America's 1st Commander-in-Chief

If you want to learn how George Washington was able to prevail and ultimately triumph as the military leader of a rag tag, underfunded, outmanned, ill-disciplined, mix of men known in history as the Continental Army, you must see the man in light of his experiences at the outset of the French and Indian War in North America. Mr. Axelrod takes us back to the years 1754-55. Here in the swamp of Western Pennsylvania known as Great Meadow, Washington not only suffered one but two ignominious defeats by the French for control of the Ohio territory. Not only did he exhibit poor tactical skills but he failed, due to his naivete and youth, to recognize the critical necessity of procurement,distribution, maintenance, and replacement of materiel and personnel for successfully waging war in the frontier wilderness. Additionally he had little skill in dealing with the duplicitous Indians who waffled in their allegiance between the French and the English. In spite of these shortcomings, Great Meadows fathered the "Father of His Cotuntry". In these two decades prior to the War of Independence, Washington had learned valuable lessons as a soldier and most importantly as a leader of men. He forged the intellectual instinctive, emotional, and spiritual implements that were to unfailingly service him both in victory and defeat as commander-in chief of America's 1st army. Win or lose, he managed to prevail even against all that was thrown against him, both governmentally at home and militarially from abroad. "Blooding at Great Meadows" gives us an intimate portrait of the rise in character of the one who was to become our 1st truly national hero and the events that changed the geopolitical landscape of our continent. You will find it, I'm sure, to be fascinating and enlightening study.

An amazing scrutiny of life-shaping events in a legendary national leader

Written by historian and creative consultant to television documentaries David Drummond, Blooding at Great Meadows is the unabridged audiobook version of the true story of George Washington long before he was the leader of the American Revolution and father of our country. Blooding at Great Meadows examines George Washington as a twenty-two year-old lieutenant colonel, who led four hundred American militiamen against a larger, more experienced French army and paid a steep price for the effort. Washington lost a third of his men, and the Battle of Great Meadows ignited the French and Indian War. In the crucible, Washington forged his intellect, his tactical skill, and his spirituality, all of which would be put to test in the future. Read by David Drummond, Blooding at Great Meadows is an amazing scrutiny of life-shaping events in a legendary national leader, highly recommended. 7 CDs, 9 hours.