Thousands of armed Americans formed an impromptu army that ringed Boston, trapping General Thomas Gage’s troops there. One day they learned that patriots had seized Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York on another day, that a British agent was arrested in Philadelphia harbour. The session unfolded like a Shakespeare history play, with messengers dashing in with news of offstage conflicts that required immediate attention. A resolution in late May acknowledged that hostilities had begun and directed that ‘these colonies be immediately put into a state of defence.’ Congress was, as a Pennsylvanian said, ‘preparing for the worst that can happen, viz., a civil war.’ Congress drafted ‘an humble and dutiful petition’ to George III, almost out of habit, but war was the reality. Now their duties were far more grave, carrying immediate life-and-death consequences for their neighbours. They were adept at arguing over tone, commas, and clauses. Most of them had experience reviewing budgets and revenues, enacting laws, and drafting addresses to the king or Parliament. The delegates’ micromanagement was the beginning of their education on how to oversee a war. No other continent-wide authority existed in America. The congressional debates might have alarmed an aspiring commander.Ī legislative body with sixty-five members and little military experience was a poor place to resolve tactical decisions, but there was little alternative. Washington’s first committee responsibilities ranged from which parts of New York should be fortified to the essential matter of securing adequate gunpowder supplies to fight the British. Despite statements about how unworthy he felt for command, he pursued command avidly. Yet no delegate seems to have found the uniformed Washington ridiculous. Possibly he wore the uniform to show his commitment to the cause, although the image calls to mind the guest who arrives with a guitar slung over one shoulder, hoping that someone will ask for a song. The image of Washington in full uniform, striding the streets and attending congressional sessions, carries the strong whiff of a man intent on high command. Even prickly John Adams found that ‘by his great experience and ability in military matters is of much service to us.’ The bloodshed in Massachusetts, Richard Henry Lee wrote, ‘excited such universal resentment against this savage ministry and their detestable agents,’ that ‘here never appeared more perfect unanimity among any set of men.’ Events loomed so large, a Connecticut delegate confided to his wife, ‘ I tremble when I think of their vast importance.’Īs Congress turned to business, Washington spent evenings and early mornings chairing four different committees on military matters, always wearing his militia uniform. The fighting at Lexington and Concord shadowed their sessions with a dark foreboding and welded them together. On May 10, anxious delegates convened in the Pennsylvania State House. To prevail, Washington wrote, Americans would rely on ‘the unconquerable resolution of our citizens, the conscious rectitude of our cause, and a confident trust that we should not be forsaken by heaven.’ Soldiers, he well knew, generally preferred more tangible advantages. The sword of war was to be forged on the anvil of necessity. her troops had harvested laurels in every quarter of the globe. Washington later said he had felt the ‘utmost diffidence’ about commanding American forces, because ‘the situation required greater abilities and more experience than I possessed to conduct a great military machine.’ He knew that machine would be ‘little more than a mere chaos’ confronting Britain’s huge resources:Įr fleets covered the ocean, and. He was the only delegate with significant fighting experience and the leading soldier from the largest colony. Washington knew he would soon command Virginia’s military, and perhaps more. As he entered Philadelphia on May 9, 1775, to attend the American colonies’ Second Continental Congress, Washington brought his Virginia militia uniform and six copies of the British Army’s standard drill manual to help him train raw troops.
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