The
Continental Army was an
army formed after the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the
United States of America. Established by a resolution of the
Continental Congress on
June 14,
1775, the army was created to coordinate the military efforts of the
Thirteen Colonies in their struggle against the armed forces of
Great Britain. The Continental Army worked in conjunction with local
militias and other troops that remained under control of the individual states. General
George Washington was the Commander-in-Chief of the army throughout the war.
Most of the Continental Army was disbanded in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris ended the war. The remaining units possibly formed the nucleus of what was to become the United States Army.
When the American Revolutionary War began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the colonial revolutionaries did not have an army. Previously, each colony had relied upon the militia, made up of part time citizen-soldiers, for local defense. As tensions with Great Britain increased in the years leading up to the war, colonists began to reform their militia in preparation for the potential conflict. Training of militiamen increased after the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774. Colonists such as Richard Henry Lee proposed creating a national militia force, but the First Continental Congress rejected the idea.[1]
After Lexington and Concord, thousands of militiamen from New England gathered to oppose the British troops who had been bottled up in Boston. On June 7, 1775, the Second Continental Congress decided to proceed with the establishment of a Continental Army for purposes of common defense, adopting the forces already in place outside Boston as the first units of the army. On June 15, the Congress elected, by unanimous vote, George Washington as commander-in-chief. Washington accepted the position without any compensation, except reimbursement of his expenses.
