Lieutenant Colonel William Washington

William Washington was born in 1752 in Stafford County, Virginia, a distant cousin of the commander in chief, and initially prepared for a career in the ministry before the outbreak of war redirected his ambitions. He received a captain's commission in 1776 and first saw significant action at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, where he was wounded leading a charge against Hessian artillery. That experience of aggressive mounted action shaped the combat philosophy he would apply throughout the war, and he transferred to the cavalry arm where his instincts found their fullest expression.

Washington came into his own during the Southern Campaign of 1780-1781, commanding the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons under Nathanael Greene as the Americans waged a grinding war of attrition against Cornwallis across the Carolinas. At the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781, his cavalry played a decisive tactical role alongside Daniel Morgan's infantry in the double-envelopment that destroyed Banastre Tarleton's force — one of the most complete American victories of the war. Washington's dragoons also fought at Guilford Courthouse in March, where they covered Greene's withdrawal after a costly engagement that nonetheless bled Cornwallis's army to a shadow of its former effectiveness. He continued operations through the summer, fighting at Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, where he was wounded and captured by the British in September 1781.

Washington spent the final months of the war as a prisoner and was exchanged shortly before the peace. He settled in South Carolina after the war, married into a prominent Charleston family, and served in the state legislature. His cavalry campaigns in the South became case studies in the effective use of mounted troops as both a striking force and a screening element, and military historians have credited him, alongside Henry Lee, with keeping Continental mounted operations viable in a theater that was desperately short of resources. He died in 1810, recognized as one of the war's most capable cavalry commanders.