The Continental Army was the army of the Thirteen Colonies and the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was established by a resolution of Congress on June 14, 1775. The Continental Army was created to coordinate military efforts of the Colonies in their war for independence against the British, who sought to keep their American lands under control. General George Washington was the commander-in-chief of the army throughout the war.
The siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town of Boston, Massachusetts Bay. Both sides had to deal with resource, supply, and personnel issues over the course of the siege. British resupply and reinforcement was limited to sea access, which was impeded by American vessels. The British abandoned Boston after eleven months and transferred their troops and equipment to Nova Scotia.
The Battle of Quebec was fought on December 31, 1775, between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of Quebec City early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came with heavy losses. General Richard Montgomery was killed, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner. The city's garrison, a motley assortment of regular troops and militia led by Quebec's provincial governor, General Guy Carleton, suffered a small number of casualties.
When the United States and the United Kingdom went to war against each other in 1812, the major land theatres of war were Upper Canada, Michigan Territory, Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton . Each of the separate British administrations formed regular and fencible units, and both full-time and part-time militia units, many of which played a major part in the fighting over the two and a half years of the war.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge. They marked the outbreak of armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in America.
The Massachusetts National Guard is the National Guard component for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded as the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia on December 13, 1636, it contains the oldest units in the United States Army. What is today's Massachusetts National Guard evolved through many different forms. Originally founded as a defensive militia for Puritan colonists in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the militia evolved into a highly organized and armed fighting force. The Massachusetts militia served as a central organ of the New England revolutionary fighting force during the early American Revolution and a major component in the Continental Army under George Washington.
The siege of Yorktown was the culminating act of the Yorktown campaign, a series of military operations occupying much of 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. The siege was a decisive Franco-American victory: after the surrender of British Lt. Gen. Charles, Earl Cornwallis on October 17, the government of Lord North fell, and its replacement entered into peace negotiations that resulted in British recognition of American independence with the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
The Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War also known as the Northern Department of the Continental Army was a theater of operations during the American Revolutionary War.
During the American Revolutionary War, the New York Provincial Company of Artillery was created by the New York Provincial Congress in 1776 to defend New York City from British attack.
1st American Regiment, also known as Jackson's Continental Regiment of 1783–1784, was the last unit in the Continental Army, retained after the close of the American Revolutionary War. This regiment, under the command of Colonel Henry Jackson of Massachusetts, was not the same unit as Jackson's Additional Continental Regiment of 1777, which had become the 16th Massachusetts Regiment in 1780 and had been disbanded in 1781. Equally, this regiment should not be confused with the First American Regiment of 1784–1791, which was originally commanded by Colonel Josiah Harmar, has remained in service to the present, and is now the 3d United States Infantry Regiment.
Robert Troup was a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York. He participated in the Battles of Saratoga and was present at the surrender of British General John Burgoyne.
Twenty-four current units of the Army National Guard perpetuate the lineages of militia units mustered into federal service during the War of 1812. Militia units from nine states that were part of the Union by the end of the War of 1812, plus the District of Columbia, are the predecessors of eighteen units that currently exist in the Army National Guard. Two of the four units derived from Virginia militias are in the West Virginia National Guard; at the time of the War of 1812, West Virginia was still part of Virginia. Only two current units, the 155th Infantry, a component of the Mississippi National Guard derived from militia units organized in the Mississippi Territory and the 130th Infantry, a component of the Illinois National Guard derived from militia units formed in the Illinois Territory, are from states or territories west of the Appalachians. Unfortunately, no militia units from the states of Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio or Tennessee, or from the Indiana, Michigan, Missouri or Louisiana Territories, where militia units played a major role in the fighting, have survived as units in the modern Army National Guard.
The 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment also known as Lamb's Continental Artillery Regiment was authorized on 1 January 1777 as Colonel John Lamb's Continental Artillery Regiment. As originally constituted, the regiment included 12 artillery companies from New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. The bulk of the regiment served in the Hudson Highlands, though some companies fought with George Washington's main army from 1777 to 1779.
Hercules Mulligan was an Irish-American tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty.
