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The Continental Congress as promptly responded, by adopting the militia about Boston, as “The American Continental Army.”
On the fourteenth day of June, a Light Infantry organization of expert riflemen was authorized, and its companies were assigned to various Colonies for enlistment and immediate detail for service about Boston.
On the fifteenth day of June, 1775, Congress authorized the appointment, and then appointed George Washington, of Virginia, as “Commander-in-Chief of the forces raised, or to be raised, in defence of American Liberties.” On presenting their commission to Washington it was accompanied by a copy of a Resolution unanimously adopted by that body, “That they would maintain and assist him, and adhere to him, with their lives and fortunes, in the cause of American Liberty.”
It is certain from the events above outlined, which preceded the Revolutionary struggle, that when Washington received this spontaneous and unanimous appointment, he understood definitely that the Colonies were substantially united in the prosecution of war, at whatever cost of men and money; that military men of early service and large experience could be placed in the field; that the cause was one of intrinsic right; and that the best intellects, as well as the most patriotic statesmen, of all sections, were ready, unreservedly, to submit their destinies to the fate of the impending struggle. He had been upon committees on the State of Public Affairs; was constantly consulted as to developments, at home and abroad; was familiar with the dissensions among British statesmen; and had substantial reasons for that sublime faith in ultimate victory which never for one hour failed him in the darkness of the protracted struggle. He also understood that not statesmen alone, preëminently Lord Dartmouth, but the best soldiers of Great Britain had regarded the military occupation of Boston, where the Revolutionary sentiment was most pronounced, and the population more dense as well as more enlightened, to be a grave military as well as political error. And yet, as the issue had been forced, it must be met as proffered; and the one immediate and paramount objective must be the expulsion of the British garrison and the deliverance of Boston. It will appear, however, as the narrative develops its incidents, that he never lost sight of the exposed sea-coast cities to the southward, nor of that royalist element which so largely controlled certain aristocratic portions of New York, New Jersey, and the southern cities, which largely depended upon trade with Great Britain and the West Indies for their independent fortunes and their right royal style of living. Neither did he fail to realize that delay in the siege of Boston, however unavoidable, was dangerous to the rapid prosecution of general war upon a truly military plan of speedy accomplishment.