Honoring the Past, Defending the Future: The Thrilling Tale of the Birth of the U.S. Army

On June 14, 1775, 249 years ago today, the Second Continental Congress “Resolved, That six Companies of expert Riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each Company consist of a Captain, three Lieutenants, four Sergeants, four Corporals, a Drummer or Trumpeter, and sixty-eight Privates,” and “That each Company, as soon as completed, march and join the Army near Boston, to be there employed as Light-Infantry, under the command of the chief officer in that Army.”

It marked the inception of a heroic, proud, and glorious history—the chronicles of the United States Army.

Those early patriots enlisted with the following words: “I, ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙, have this day voluntarily enlisted myself, as a Soldier, in the American Continental Army, for one year, unless sooner discharged. And I do bind myself to conform, in all instances, to such Rules and Regulations as are, or shall be established for the government of the said Army.”

At the time, they were not fighting to ensure national survival—the colonies were not an independent nation yet—but to protect their rights. Many still hoped for reconciliation with the motherland, but recent conflicts had forced Congress to prepare for war. A preexisting militia in New England had already confronted the British Army at the battles of Lexington and Concord. Three days later, they would face off again at Bunker Hill. Adopting the New England army as an official American army, the delegates in Philadelphia urged the colonies to send troops to assist the soldiers who held the British under siege in Boston.

The American colonies, though, were largely unaccustomed to working as a single sovereign body, a fact Benjamin Franklin, editor of the “Pennsylvania Gazette,” bemoaned two decades earlier in his “Join or Die” cartoon. Originally designed to unite the colonists against the French in the French and Indian War, the image of the severed snake became a favorite symbol of the Revolutionary War and pre-war Era. Repurposed to galvanize the 13 colonies against the Crown, the cartoon may have derived from the popular myth that “a snake cut into pieces could come back to life if its various parts were reunited before sunset.”

Indeed, the once disparate regions were coming to life as one with the birth of the American Army. Over the next eight months, the newly formed ragtag militia entrapped the world’s most formidable fighting force in the provincial town of Boston. Under the leadership of General George Washington, the twenty-five-year-old Henry Knox secured 59 cannons from Fort Ticonderoga in New York, which he then dragged 300 miles back to Boston. In a move that caught the British off guard, Washington’s troops moved these cannons overnight to Dorchester Heights south of the city, where they overlooked British Commander William Howe’s Army. Upon discovering the artillery the following morning, Howe reportedly exclaimed, “These fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.”

Forced to evacuate the city due to the now ever-present threat of bombardment, Howe moved to capture the City of New York for his next military headquarters. By the end of August 1776, the Redcoats had taken the city, which they would occupy for the next seven years. Although New York City would serve as a better command post than Boston (New York, John Adams cautioned, acted as “a kind of key to the whole continent,” for which “no effort to secure it ought to be omitted”), the Americans’ survival in Massachusetts helped solidify the new Continental Army as a legitimate, respectable fighting force.

“Had the Americans blundered and been beaten at Boston … in all likelihood, the rebellion would have collapsed, and American independence would have evaporated before it could gain serious momentum,” surmised one historian.

Nevertheless, it seemed Washington’s Army could only do one thing: survive. Often saved by “providential” shifts in the weather, the Americans became known for their uncanny ability to pull off eleventh-hour escapes. Even so, they were often on the run. As 1776 drew to a close, Washington knew he needed to hand his men, backers in Philadelphia, and the American people a victory. His plan: transport thousands of troops across the Delaware River during an intense winter storm.

The plan appeared doomed to fail from the start. But when, on December 26, 1776, the Continental Army defeated a garrison of Hessian mercenaries in the battle of Trenton, inflicting nearly 1,000 casualties and losing zero lives, Washington’s men claimed their first official victory. One week later, they clinched a second stunning win in the Battle of Princeton.

As David McCullough concludes his unmissable modern classic, “1776,” “Especially for those who had been with Washington and who knew what a close call it was at the beginning—how often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference—the outcome seemed little short of a miracle.”

But these impossible victories were only the beginning: not only did the patriots at Boston, Trenton, and Princeton ensure that the spirit of liberty endured beyond 1776, but they also inaugurated a daring band of patriots who would fight to defend it for generations.

This year, as we celebrate their 249th birthday, our Army has designated the theme “Honoring the Past, Defending the Future.” May we remember the millions, beginning with Washington’s men, who have served in the United States Army, and may it inspire us to take action today to preserve the liberty they fought to defend.