06/24/2026
Wednesday’s America 250 minute
The U.S. ARMY BIRTHDAY, June 14, 1775, because that is the day the Continental Congress first established the Continental Army.
The U.S. ARMY BIRTHDAY: America’s Senior Service
America's Revolutionary War began on 19 April 1775 with exchanges of musketry between British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen at Lexington and Concord. As their fellow citizen soldiers from New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island responded to the alarm, a state of war existed between the four colonies and the British government. Called the Army of Observation, a force of New Englanders surrounded Boston and had the British troops who occupied it under siege, but they needed help. They appealed to delegates who represented all thirteen colonies to join them in the struggle for American liberty.
When the delegates to the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on 10 May, they soon learned that armed men commanded by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain in New York. The constitutional crisis, in which Americans sought a redress of grievances from the British king and Parliament, had become open hostilities. The delegates realized that even though many desired reconciliation, they would now have to address the new military situation. The Congress took the next step that eventually transformed a local rebellion into a war for independence when it established the Continental Army: the force we know today as the U.S. Army. (U.S. Army Center of Military History)
The Congress met and agreeable to the order of the day, resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to take into consideration &c. After some time spent thereon, the president resumed the chair, and Mr [Samuel] Ward reported, that not having yet come to a conclusion they desired him to move for leave to sit again. At the same time they desired him to report some resolutions which they had come into.
The resolutions being read, were adopted as follows:
Resolved, That six companies of expert rifflemen, be immediately raised in Pensylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates.
That each company, as soon as compleated, shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army.
That the pay of the Officers and privates be as follows, viz. a captain @ 20 dollars per month; a lieutenant @ 13 1/3 dollars; a serjeant @ 8 dollars; a corporal @ 7 1/3 dollars; drummer or [trumpeter] @71/3 doll.; privates @ 6 2/3 dollars; to find their own arms and cloaths.
That the form of the enlistment be in 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 sad. Army.
Upon motion, Resolved, That Mr. [George] Washington, Mr. [Philip] Schuyler, Mr. [Silas] Deane, Mr. [Thomas] Cushing, and Mr. [Joseph] Hewes be a committee to bring in a dra't of Rules and regulations for the government of the army.
Journals of the Continental Congress --WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1775
Image: "Nation Makers" by Howard Pyle, 1903.
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