It seems George has suffered some here, but it needs some clarifacation, given the subordinates he had, almost no support from Congress, and being finacially in dire straights, he accomplished more then any thought possible.
He fought the whole war with only a few goals in mind, harrass the british while preserving his forces.
Let's review this.
Knox did not come up the artillery plan for Dorchester hieghts, only the field disposition of the guns, from a discussion with Isreal Putnam and Washington on how best to deal with the British.
Washington oppossed the invasion of Canada, a disaster. (1775)
He had formal orders to defend New York from Congress, as it was the largest city in the colonies, but did not have the force needed to do it.
His underlings failed him at Brooklyn hieghts (they failed to detect a British flanking movement), yet skillfully extracted his forces from Long Island, and then Manhatten, led the British on a merry chase through new Jersey, before turning on them at Princeton, one of the most brillant manuvers of the age, and then Washington escaped encirclement by Cornwallis, and struck at Trenton, before retiring to Morisstown for the winter.(early 1777)
His handling of a major defeat and withdrawl with a force that had little or no military training is a tremendous feat of arms, as was rallying them to counterattack, accross a river in the dead of winter, is one of the boldest and finest accomplishments in war, let alone his age.
The 1777 campaign was forced on him by congress, who ordered Philidelphia be protected.
At Brandywine, Washington had a good plan, covering the four stream crossings, and leaving reserves to smash the British flank when the crossing began.
Once again, an underling erred, and left the most distant crossing undefended, and here the British crossed, and were now in postion to roll up Washington's flank and destroy his army!
A young general, appointed by Congress, whom could barely speak English, rallied the panicing Americans long enough for Washington to pull off a fighting withdrawl, and with it, LaFayette's reputation was made.
Washington also sent his best subbordenent, Arnold, to upper New York, where he defeated the British at Saratoga (and didn't get the credit for it).
Washington retired to Valley Forge, and kept his Army together (there was NOT heavy desertion, most of his army was made up of short term enlistments, 6 months or one year, and included state militias, which always retired to home at the end of a campaigning year)
Washington realized he needed better organization, and had Nathenial Greene made head of his commisariat, and the newly arrived Von Stueban his drill master.
As a result, in the spring of 1778 the Americans were the strongest they would be in the war.
France also entered the war at this time, and Washington wanted a combined offensive against New York, but before this could be discussed, the British began to withdraw accross New jersey to NY, and Washington was etermined to engage them, and hopefully overwhelm their rear guard.
He wanted Greene on one wing, and LaFayette on the other, but the recently exchanged General Charles Lee (who thought the war unwinable) demanded the command based on senority.
Washington reluctantly agreed, and Lee's conduct was horrendous, ordering a retreat when his force was winning!
A livid Washington caught up to him on the battlefield, and cursing a blue streak (this was confirmed at Lee's court martial by sworn testimony), grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and had to be restrained from thrashing the foolish Lee.
The British escaped at Monmouth, the battle was a draw.
He spent most of 1779 trying to get the French to commit to an offensive (they always backed off, or half-heartedly agreed, like the ill-fated Savannah attack and the Providence campaign.
Gates, the "hero" of Saratoga (he really wasn't, he just took the credit) had been placed in command of the Southern department, and led it to a series of dsisasters, one loss after another, so Washington sent his two best men to fix this, Greene to command the Southern department, and LaFayette to raise a force in Virginia.
Greene led the Brits on a merry chase, and eventually, the Brit commander Cornwallis retired to Yorktown to regroup and set up a fleet base on Clinton's orders (he disliked the postion).
When Washington got wind of this, he got the French to agree to a joint land/sea attack, marched his forces from the NY aera to Virginia undetected by the British, the French landed 5,000 men at Yorktown and fought off a British fleet attack (the famous battle of the Chessapeake), and Washington forced Cornwalliss' surrender.
This whole campaign was Washington's idea, and he pulled it off with forces seperated by thousands of miles apart with poor communications.
With this, the war was effectivly won, by George Washington's plan.
Not a good general?
I think not!