George Washington was born into slavery around 1839 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and eventually made his way to Massachusetts. He enlisted in the Union army on December 5, 1864, in Springfield, Massachusetts, for a period of three years. Although he attempted to enlist in the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the army placed him in its sister unit, the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. His enlistment record describes him as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with black hair, black eyes, and a "colored" complexion. He spent the majority of his service performing garrison and guard duty in South Carolina, and he mustered out in Charleston on August 29, 1865. 

After leaving the army, Washington returned to Springfield and began living with a woman named Louisa Walker. Although he called her his wife, the couple never legally married. Many of Washington’s friends disliked Louisa, calling her “a bad woman” and “a hard ticket and intemperate.” She believed her first husband had died, and when she discovered that he was still alive, she left Washington to return to him. Washington then married Annie Walker in Springfield in 1874. Friends described Annie as “a good, nice, Christian woman.” After the war, Washington worked primarily as a porter in a hotel and served as a deacon in his church. He lived in Springfield until 1886, when he briefly moved to Chicago, Illinois, before settling in Baltimore, Maryland. Washington died of rheumatism and Bright’s disease in Baltimore on June 26, 1888.