Continental Army

The Continental Army was the fighting force of the thirteen British colonies in the American Revolutionary War. It was created in 1775 by the First Continental Congress. Most of the army was disbanded in 1783 after the conclusion of the war. The army was officially closed by a resolution of Congress in 1784. A Legion of the United States partly replaced it in 1792, and the United States Army replaced it in 1796.

Congress elected George Washington as the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army when it was formed. He led the army until it was disbanded.

Continental Army Media

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  George Washington, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775, by the Second Continental Congress

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  An illustration of the Continental Army's Assistant Quartermaster General John Parke and Ezekiel Cheever, civilian commissary of artillery, giving instructions to a captain of artillery on the docks of New London, Connecticut in 1776

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  1781 illustration of Continental Army soldiers during the Yorktown campaign, including a black infantryman (on the far left) from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, one of the regiments in the Continental Army with the largest number of black patriot soldiers. An estimated four percent of the Continental Army were black.

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  James Monroe, along with George Washington, one of the two future U.S. presidents who served in the Continental Army

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  A 1778 illustration showing a Stockbridge Mohican Indian patriot soldier with the Stockbridge Militia in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, taken from Hessian officer Johann Von Ewald's war diary

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  Washington's headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, which is still standing, one of the centerpieces of Valley Forge National Historical Park

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  Continental Army Plaza in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in New York City

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  An illustration depicting Major General Artemas Ward, one of Washington's key officers

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  Rank insignia of General for the Continental Army (1775)

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  Continental Army-Major general