Two-hundred and fifty years ago, the representatives of the Second Continental Congress agreed: “Resolved, that six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia […] that each company, as soon as completed, 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.” And so the Army was born.
250 years after June 14, 1775, the U.S. Army is the oldest national institution in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are in the ranks. The Army has equipment and soldiers are trained in missions and specialized skills that the Continental Army soldiers could never imagine. And today is the Army’s birthday.
Since its foundation the Army has played a major role in the growth and defense of the United States. 107 years ago, the Army helped smash through German lines to help force the armistice in World War I. 80 year ago during World War II, soldiers advancing through Europe liberated several concentration camps, including Dachau and Buchenwald. Soldiers have fought around the globe, in dozens of conflicts. Thousands are overseas now, celebrating the 250th birthday of the Army.
The Army’s origins go back to the Second Continental Congress. Weeks after colonial militiamen fought British regulars at Lexington and Concord, the gathering of colonial representatives decided they needed a formalized force to deal with violence by British regular forces. And so the earliest version of the American infantry were formalized, a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed. The next day, June 15, the same body voted to name George Washington head of the new Continental Army. After the infantry, more parts of the Continental Army were formed. The next month, Washington was leading the Continental Army to fight in the Siege of Boston.
After the revolution, the period of the Articles of Confederation and the adoption of the United States Constitution, Congress formalized the Army in 1789, in part due to the urging of Washington.
For much of its existence, the Army was not particularly large. That stemmed from both some of the founding principles of the country, with fears of a large standing army being misused. Some of the founding fathers thought militia could handle any threat. And for the early decades, and in much of the world, naval power saw far greater focus. The United States would build up the Army in times of war, mustering forces when needed. Soldiers in the Union Army successfully ended the Civil War. And in 1917 when the United States entered World War I, the Army rushed to expand, taking a force of little over 300,000 to more than 2 million.
But the modern scale of the Army as we know it today came with the advent of World War II. The force swelled to 8 million Americans in uniform, with soldiers fighting across the Pacific islands, North Africa, and Europe, pushing back the Axis advance. Postwar, with Cold War tensions building and the United States a superpower, the country decided to keep its standing army large. And today the Army . It’s a far cry from the initial group of infantry companies created 250 years ago.
Happy birthday to the U.S. Army and the soldiers that make it.
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