10 Facts and curiosities about US Presidents #1 - George Washington

Hi everyone,

between many things that I enjoy to read and learn are sometimes quite simple subjects that I try to explore a bit and take notes. Under the tag #uspresidents every couple of days I will try to post some facts and oddities about The United States presidents. Let's start with the very first one.

George Washington
Born Feb 22, 1732, Bridges Creek, Virginia – died Dec 14, 1799, Mount Vernon, Virginia
In office: April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797
Political party: none

(Bonus fact: it's his real hair, not a wig.)

1. In 1976 he has been awarded (posthumously) the rank General of The Armies of The United States. The rank is informally equated to that of a six-star general and is currently the highest possible operational rank of the United States Armed Forces. G. Washington has been the first person awarded with the rank and followed only by John J. Pershing - really interesting personage, check him!

2. In 1789 his presidential salary absorbed nearly 2% of the whole country budget(!) He actually had to borrow money to attend his own first inauguration though.

3. He's the only one US president who did command troops on battlefield while holding the office - in September 1794 during Whiskey Rebellion.

4. He owned a whisky distillery himself. Quite a prosperous one.

5. Despite the fact that he expressed his concerns about slavery many times, Washington has been an active slave holder for 56 years. He inherited his first slaves when he was just 11 years old. At the time of his death, the Mount Vernon enslaved population consisted of 317 people.

6. Washington was an inveterate letter-writer. - studies determine the number of letters he wrote himself between 18 000 to 20 000.

7. He was unsuccessful (losing more battles than he won) yet lucky commander. Having lost most of the battles under his command, he has survived the Braddock disaster of 1755, where he got caught in the crossfire between British and Native American soldiers. Two horses were shot from under Washington, and his coat was pierced by four musket balls, none of which hit his actual body.

8. Washington didn't have wooden teeth. When he attended his first inauguration, he only had one tooth left though. When he was 57, he had all his teeth pulled. From then on, he wore ivory false teeth set in a silver plate.

9. He might have been infertile.

10. On the day he died, Washington was treated with four rounds of bloodletting, which removed 5 pints of blood from his body. It seems that it proved to be too much.

Please, leave a comment if such a listings/ curiosities you would find interesting. I could easily make it 20 instead of 10 as I tend to note a lot of things, but I tried to do some selection - I can always post some more in the comments. Any suggestions well appreciated!