Summer 1775: Washington Takes Command of the Continental Army

“They are by no means such Troops, in any respect, as you are led to believe of them from the [Accounts] which are published.”[1]

So declared General George Washington to his cousin, Lund Washington, nearly two months into his command of the newly formed Continental Army outside Boston. Appointed by the Continental Congress on June 15, 1775 to command this army of New England troops, Washington arrived in Cambridge on July 2. It was an appointment he neither sought nor desired, and he shared his unease at the appointment with his wife:

I have used every endeavour in my power to avoid it . . . But, as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this Service . . . it was utterly out of my power to refuse this appointment without exposing my Character to such censures as would have reflected dishonour upon myself, and given pain to my friends.[2]

He repeated his concerns to Burwell Bassett, a relative through his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis.

It is an honour I wished to avoid, as well from an unwillingness to quit the peaceful enjoyment of my Family as from a thorough conviction of my own Incapacity & want of experience in the conduct of so momentous a concern. But the partiality of the Congress added to some political motives, left me without a choice.[3]