Major Washington

A historical novel about the Seven Years’ War, a conflict that shaped a young George Washington decades before the American Revolution.

On May 28, 1754, the colonial militia surrounded a party of French-Canadian soldiers. With 15 minutes of rifle fire, the colonists slaughtered the French, then allowed Indian guides to take the corpses’ scalps. Observing this grisly scene was a towering young major named George Washington. In the aftermath of the Battle of Jumonville Glen, Washington retreated to Fort Necessity, where he was soon forced to surrender, signing a document claiming responsibility for the assassination of French troops. The result would be the Seven Years’ War—the greatest international conflict the globe had ever seen. It would also be the making of a statesman.

In this rousing historical novel, Michael Kilian reconstructs the events in Washington’s life that led to that pivotal day at Jumonville Glen and molded the man who would create a country.