who made up the members of the continental army
Continental Army The Continental Army consisted of soldiers from all 13 colonies and, after 1776, from all 13 states. When the American Revolutionary War began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 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, or the raising of temporary "provincial regiments" during specific crises such as the French and Indian War of 1754â€“63. As tensions with Great Britain increased in the years leading to the war, colonists began to reform their militias in preparation for the perceived potential conflict. Training of militiamen increased after the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774. Colonists such as Richard Henry Lee proposed forming a national militia force, but the First Continental Congress rejected the idea.[1]
Valley Forge The army’s situation improved when a five-man congressional delegation arrived on January 24. The delegates consisted of “Francis Dana of Massachusetts, Nathaniel Folsom of New Hampshire, John Harvie of Virginia, Gouverneur Morris of New York, and Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania.”[30] According to historian Wayne Bodle, they came to understand through their visit “how vulnerable the new army could be to logistical disruption, owing to its size, its organizational complexity, and its increasing mobility.”[31] Washington and his aides convinced them to implement recommended reforms to the supply department. In March 1778, Congress also appointed Nathanael Greene as Quartermaster General, who reluctantly accepted at Washington’s behest. One of the Continental Army’s most able generals, Greene did not want an administrative position. Yet he and his staff better supplied the troops at a time when the weather began to improve, and with it, road conditions. The Schuylkill River also thawed, allowing the Continental Army to more easily to transport convoys from the main supply depot at Reading.[32]