This coming September will mark the 229th anniversary of the end of the American Revolutionary War. In the centuries since that conflict, the United States and the United Kingdom have buried the hatchet, joining forces to fight countless conflicts together, including two World Wars. But this weekend, the Brits revealed that some wounds never heal as the Daily Mail reports that Britain's National Army Museum voted George Washington as the greatest military enemy ever to face Britain.
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George Washington's legacy in American history has no equal, as he is universally recognized as the "Father of his country." As the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Washington led his troops to an improbable victory over the vastly larger and more experienced British Army, which was known then as the greatest fighting force the world had ever seen. Washington is credited with restoring momentum to the floundering patriot cause when he strategized a daring night-time crossing of the Delaware River in an effort to capture New Jersey in December 1776. Continental Army victories in Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781 ensconced Washington's status as an American military genius and war hero.
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According to historian Stephen Brumwell, the American Revolutionary War was "the worst defeat for the British Empire ever," so it's no surprise that the architect of that defeat is still one of Britain's most despised historical figures.
Britain's National Army Museum conducted an online poll of around 8,000 people which produced a short-list of five men to compete for the title of Britain's greatest military enemy. One important criterion for the contest was that each commander needed to have personally led an army on the battlefield against British forces, ruling out potential front-runner Adolf Hitler. Washington won this battle against Irish independence hero Michael Collins, French Emporer Napoleon Bonaparte, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
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