The Continental Army
Meanwhile, the Continental Congress was creating a Continental Army. On June 16 they named Artemas Ward a major general, and second in command to George Washington. Over the next nine months he helped convert the assembled militia units into the Continental Army.
After the British evacuation on March 17, 1776, Washington led the main army to New York City. Ward took command of the Eastern Department on April 4, 1776. He held that post until March 20, 1777, when his health forced his resignation from the army.
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Famous quotes containing the word army:
“Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a name of his own,—because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own.”
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