George Washington's Virginia

George Washington was first and foremost a Virginian. Born in the state's Tidewater region, he was reared near Fredericksburg and took up residence at Mount Vernon along the Potomac River. As a young surveyor, he worked in Virginia's backcountry. He began his military career as a Virginia militia officer on the colony's frontier. The majority of his widespread landholdings were in his native state, and his entrepreneurial endeavors ranged from the swamplands of the Southeast to the upper Potomac River Valley. Historian John Maass explores the numerous sites all over the Commonwealth associated with Washington and demonstrates their lasting importance.

John R. Maass received a BA in history from Washington and Lee University, an MA in U.S. history from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a PhD in early American history from the Ohio State University. He is a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. His publications include North Carolina and the French and Indian War: The Spreading Flames of War (The History Press, 2013), Defending a New Nation, 1783-1811 (U.S. Army, 2013), The Petersburg and Appomattox Campaigns, 1864-1865 (U.S. Army, 2015) and The Road to Yorktown: Jefferson, Lafayette and the British Invasion of Virginia (The History Press, 2015). He was an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves and has contributed scholarly articles to the Journal of Military History, Virginia Cavalcade, Army History, the Journal of Backcountry Studies and the North Carolina Historical Review. He lives with his family in the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax County, Virginia.