From the American Revolution Time

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When it comes to sportsmen of the Revolutionary era, one can’t help but give a tip of the cocked hat to old George himself.  He was, after all, far from a dissipated and overindulged Tidewater planter.  By all accounts he was a hardworking manager; in the saddle before dawn and inured to physical exertion.  He was also gifted with a frame and constitution that rendered him remarkably athletic.  George Washington Parke Custis observed that Washington’s powers “were chiefly in his limbs: they were long, large, and sinewy,” and the general was perfectly built for such vigorous pursuits as riding, shooting, and … ahem … chopping down trees.  He may never have chopped down that tree, but as a middling planter’s son reared in eighteenth century Virginia, he almost certainly knew how to handle an axe.

In other words, he was a pretty strong guy.  Artist Charles Willson Peale, who painted several portraits of Washington, left an amusing anecdote of one of his visits to Mount Vernon prior to the Revolution.  Peale recalled that one afternoon he and several other young men, stripped to their shirtsleeves, were occupying themselves with “pitching the bar,” a throwing contest utilizing an iron rod, when Washington showed up and asked “to be shown the pegs that marked the bounds of our efforts.”  Washington, who didn’t even bother to take off his jacket, reportedly flashed a smile and gave the bar a heave.  The rod, said Peale, “whizzed through the air, striking the ground far, very far, beyond our utmost limits.”  While the young men stood dumbfounded, Washington simply sauntered off and quipped “When you beat my pitch, young gentlemen, I’ll try again.”[16]

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