June 13, 2025.

250 years ago, on June 14th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved that six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania,

two in Maryland and two in Virginia, that each company consists of a captain, three lieutenants,

four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and 68 privates, and 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 thus, Congress established the Continental Army. The First Continental Congress, which met in 1774,

refused to establish a standing army, afraid that a bad government could use an army against its people.

The Congress met in opposition to the British Parliament's closing of the Port of Boston and imposition of martial law there,

but its members hoped they could repair their relationship with King George III, and simply sent entreaties to the King to end what were known as the intolerable acts.

In 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord changed the equation.

On April 19th, British soldiers opened fire on colonists, just as patriot leaders feared they might.

In the aftermath of that deadly day, about 15,000 untrained Massachusetts militiamen converged on Boston

and laid siege to the town, where they bottled up about 6,500 British regulars. The battles of

Lexington and Concord made it clear the British government endangered American liberties.

The Second Continental Congress met in what's now called Independence Hall in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, to address the crisis in Boston.

The delegates overcame their suspicions of a standing army to conclude they must bring the various state militias into a continental organization to stand against King George III.

With the establishment of the Continental Army, a British officer, General Charles Lee, resigned his commission in the British Army and published a public letter

explaining that the King's overreach had turned him away from service in His Majesty's Army

and toward the Patriots. Whenever it shall please His Majesty to call me forth to any honorable service

against the natural hereditary enemies of our country,

or in defense of his just rights and dignity, no man will obey the righteous summons with more

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