The Beginning of the Continental Army

After the Lexington and Concord skirmishes in 1775, the colonists saw that they could have success fighting the British troops. The Massachusetts Committee sent a circular letter to the towns in the province, which said: " We conjure you, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred; we beg and entreat you, as you will answer it to your country, to your consciences, and, above all, to God himself, that you will hasten and arrange, by all possible means, the enlistment of men to form the army, and send them forward to headquarters at Cambridge with that expedition which the vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demands." The letter had a positive effect on the colonists; many volunteer men went to Boston as soon as they could. General Artemas Ward was the chief commander of the gathered volunteers which were like 20,000 men. Ward was a senior who took in charge the local militia and wanted to help with the volunteers for war, but he was aged and didn’t have the military ability or energy to be the chief commander.

The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts agreed that it would be the best for the organization and regulation of the volunteer men for war, if the Continental Congress assumed it. John Adams suggested that the troops had to be adopted and the rest of the Continental Congress accepted. They needed to choose a new chief commander for the troops, and Thomas Johnson, from Maryland, proposed George Washington, from Virginia, for chief commander. By unanimous vote he was chosen in June 15, 1775. Like this the Continental Army was formally formed. The president of the Congress, John Hancock, announced to Washington his new job. George accepted his new task. He formally assumed to be chief commander on July 2, in Boston. His assistants were: his assistants: Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam, as major-generals. Seth Pomeroy, Richard Montgomery, David Wooster, William Heath, Joseph Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, and Nathaniel Greene, as  brigadier-generals. Horatio Gates was appointed as adjutant-general.