Citizen and Soldier Blooding at Great Meadows By Alan Axelrod Running Press 170 pages

By Christopher Prawdzik

"Lessons learned" is a phrase military officials, pundits and media types often use to describe the positive result behind a negative experience. Blooding at Great Meadows illustrates this in grand form.

Examining the Battle of Great Meadows, which ultimately sparked the French and Indian War in July 1754, author Alan Axelrod illustrates a Lt. CoI. George Washington, who lost the obscure Pennsylvania battle, but who used the experience to shape his character.

Mr. Axelrod notes the young Washington's inexperience-he was only 22 years old at the time.

As a result, the book expresses how such greatness is often preceded by an inauspicious start. It also suggests the importance of the citizen-soldier in the country's development.

Before examining Great Meadows, the author notes a group of Revolutionary War veterans who created the Society of the Cincinnati after the fight for independence.

The group's name came from Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, "who (according to semilegendary history) left his farm in 458 B.C. when the Roman Senate called on him to rescue a consular army surrounded on Mount Algidus by the Aequie, tribesmen of central Italy," Mr. Axelrod writes.

"Given all the powers of an absolute dictator," he continues, "Cincinnatus defeated the invaders in a single day; then, his duty done, he promptly resigned the dictatorship and returned to his farm."

The first president wasn't much different.

"Washington had left his farm-Mount Vernon-to rescue his country and, having rescued it, duly renounced the tyrant's power, quietly returning instead to his plantation," Axelrod writes about his actions as general and president.

These facts reveal a man who never lost sight of the role, importance and duty of a citizen-soldier throughout his life.

© 2007 National Guard Association of the United States Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.