Page 74 - ASM Book 9/2020

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Washington: A Fearless Commander-in-chief
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Most generals stayed safely behind the battle
where they used messengers and drummers to convey instructions to field commanders. But not Washington. He fearlessly led from the front.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote: “He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern.”
G Washington’s Two War Horses
eorge Washington rode two horses during the American Revolution – Nelson and Blueskin. He preferred Nelson because he was a calm horse. Cannon fire and the startling sounds of battle did not effect him. Nelson was a tall chestnut with a white blaze on his face and two white feet. He was 15-years old when Washington received him as a gift from fellow Virginian Thomas Nelson.
Blueskin is the horse we most often see in Washington’s war portraits. He was a gray stallion with Arabian heritage. Colonel Benjamin Tasker Dulany of Maryland gave the horse to Washington.
Both horses retired to Mount Vernon after the war. Nelson lived to the age of 27. History does not record how old Blueskin was when he died.
George Washington’s Continental Army, with the help of volunteer militias, lost more battles
than they won.
Yet, they defeated the strongest, the best organized and the best equipped army on earth.
eneral Washington was never wounded during his long years of leading the Continental Army. Dressed in his colorful general’s uniform and standing 6 feet 3 inches tall, he made a distinctive and easy target for Redcoats and Hessians. He and his staff often found holes in his cloak and hat, but he never suffered a wound.
Blueskin Nelson