978-1-4222-3353-5

A Glorious Cause

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wounded in the day’s fighting. About 50 colonists had been killed and about 40 wounded. The Revolutionary War had begun. The city of Boston sat at the end of the Shawmut Peninsula. A narrow neck connected it to the mainland. Relatively small numbers of soldiers could easily block the neck. And by April 20, some 15,000 colonial mili- tiamen had arrived at the shoreline around the peninsula. Many were fromMassachusetts. But many others had marched from the other New England colonies, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. The militias had Boston’s redcoat regiments hemmed in.

An Army and a Commander

On May 10, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. As had been the case the year before, all the colonies except Georgia were represented. Georgia finally sent a delegation in July. A month earlier, on June 14, Con- gress had voted to create an army for the colonies. At first, the Conti- nental Army would consist solely of the New England militias besieging Boston. But additional units would be raised from all the colonies. To lead the Continental Army, Congress chose George Washington. During the French and Indian War, he’d served as a colonel in Virginia’s militia regiment. That made him as qualified for command as just about

George Washington was a respected Virginia planter who had commanded American soldiers during the French and IndianWar. In June 1775 the Continental Congress chose Washington to lead an American army that was formed in Massachusetts.

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