Appointed Major General by the Continental Congress in 1775, George Washington, the future President of the United States of America, was one of the most significant and influential witnesses to the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Published in England in 1795, twelve years after the end of the conflict, this two-volume collection of the letters he wrote to Congress during the war provides unique insights into both the military strategies employed and the evolving values that underpinned them. Opening in June 1775, Volume 1 leads readers through the first eighteen months of conflict. Volume 2 demonstrates a gradual shift in emphasis away from an army in battle, hampered by weather and terrain, towards the political negotiations and nation-building that followed. Organised chronologically, the substantial body of material reproduced here reveals the thoughts of a man engaged in warfare, politics and the forging of an independent nation.