An army's ability to fight and win does not depend solely on weapons and training.  It also rests on the character of its commander.  George Washington cut a formidable presence.  In the 1750s, a contemporary described him as "measuring six feet two inches in his stockings and weighing 175 pounds”.  By the time he became president, the 57-year-old Washington was certainly less agile, but even more imposing at upward of 200 pounds.  He had survived an array of harrowing situations from the battlefields of the French and Indian War to the harsh winter of Valley Forge, rendering him a larger-than-life figure.