Washington Takes Command of the Continental Army
WASHINGTON did not go to his home at Mount Vernon after his appointment to the chieftainship of the Continental Army but six days after that appointment (June 21), he left Philadelphia for the east. He was accompanied by Generals Lee and Schuyler. They were escorted to New York by Philadelphia light-horsemen. At Trenton they met a courier riding in haste to give the Congress news of the battle of Bunker's Hill. He relieved the mind of Washington of a great burden of anxiety by assuring the general that the militia behaved nobly in the battle, for of such materials the Continental Army was composed.
Washington arrived in New York on Sunday afternoon, the 25th of June, where he was received by the Provincial Congress, and addressed by their President, Philip Livingston, in a highly conservative speech; for the royal governor, Tryon, had just arrived also, and public sentiment in New York was almost equally divided in favor of the two distinguished men. After returning the salutation in a few words, Washington retired to his lodgings, where he spent the whole evening with Schuyler in consultation about operations in the Northern Department, over which the latter was placed. It was then the most important field, for it had a broad frontier on unfriendly Canada, a wily and treacherous foe in the Indians within its bosom, and a demoralizing element of loyalty to the crown pervading its more influential society.
On Monday morning Washington and Lee, accompanied by Schuyler, rode to New Rochelle, where they conferred with the veteran soldier, General Wooster. There Schuyler left them, when they journeyed on toward the New England capital, receiving the warmest greetings of the people who flocked to the highways to catch a glimpse of the eminent Virginian. These officers reached Watertown, seven miles from Boston, on the morning of the 2d of July, where they received congratulatory addresses from James Warren, President of the Provincial Congress in session there. They arrived at Cambridge early in the afternoon, when Washington established his headquarters in the fine house provided for him, now the residence of Professor Longfellow the poet. At nine o'clock the next morning (July 3), he appeared, with his suite, under a large elm tree yet standing at the northerly end of Cambridge Common. The Continental forces were drawn up in line, when Washington, with uncovered head, stepped a few paces forward, drew his sword, and took formal command of the Army. In that important office he served without intermission almost eight years, when he resigned his commission into the custody of the Congress, from which body he received it.
On the 4th of July, Washington issued his first general order, in which he recommended sobriety, harmony, order, and the constant exercise of patriotism and morality, and a humble reliance upon God. On the 9th, he held his first council of war; and ten days afterward Adjutant-General Gates reported present, fit for duty, 13,743 men, and an enrollment of 16,770, all from the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Some riflemen from Maryland, Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania, led by Daniel Morgan, a man of sturdy frame and unflinching courage, who had seen service in the French and Indian War, joined the army soon afterward.
Washington immediately began the siege of Boston by so disposing his forces as to confine the British to the peninsula and the adjacent islands and shores. He arranged his army in three grand divisions, each division containing two brigades. The right wing was placed under General Artemas Ward, with brigadiers Thomas and Spencer. They were stationed at Roxbury. The left wing was commanded by General Lee, and consisted of the brigades of Sullivan and Greene. These occupied Winter and Prospect Hills. The centre was commanded by General Putnam. One of his brigades was commanded by Health, and the other by a senior officer of less rank than a brigadier, for Pomeroy had declined the office conferred upon him by the Congress. The Americans cast up strong lines of intrenchments between the extremities of the army. The British were strongly intrenched on Bunker's Hill, about half a mile from the battle-ground on Breed's Hill. Their sentries occupied Charlestown Neck; floating batteries were moored in Mystic River, near Bunker's Hill, and a twenty-gun ship was anchored at the ferry between Boston and Charlestown. On Copp's Hill, in the city, the British had a strong battery. The bulk of the army under General Howe (who had succeeded Gage in the chief command) lay upon Bunker's Hill, and some cavalry and a small corps of Tories remained in the city. Such was the relative position of the belligerent forces during the summer and early autumn of 1775.
Meanwhile the civil powers of the General Congress and of the province were strengthened by consolidation. In Massachusetts a House of Representatives was organized under the original charter, which vested executive powers in a council chosen by the people, in the absence of the governor and his lieutenant. That body, therefore, assumed such powers, as a single executive committee, vested with all the functions of Committees of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety. Under such a government the people of Massachusetts lived, until they formed a State Constitution in 1780.