Editing Continental Army (section)

==Operations==
[[File:Stockbridge 1778.jpg|thumb|A 1778 illustration showing a [[Mohicans|Stockbridge Mohican]] Indian patriot soldier with the [[Stockbridge Militia]] in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]], taken from [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessian]] officer [[Johann Ewald|Johann Von Ewald]]'s war diary]]
During the [[siege of Boston]] in June 1775, the Continental Army in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] is estimated to have numbered between 14,000 and 16,000 men from [[New England]], though the actual number may have been as low as 11,000 because of desertions. Until [[George Washington]]'s arrival in Cambridge, the Continental Army was commanded by [[Artemas Ward]]. The [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] in [[Boston]] was increasing by fresh arrivals, then numbering about 10,000 men. The British controlled Boston and defended it with their fleet, but they were outnumbered and did not attempt to challenge the American control of New England. Washington selected young [[Henry Knox]], a self-educated strategist, to take charge of the artillery from an abandoned British fort in upstate New York, and dragged across the snow to and placed them in the hills surrounding Boston in March 1776.<ref name="DeSantis" /> The British situation was untenable. They negotiated an uneventful abandonment of the city and relocated their forces to Halifax in Canada. Washington relocated his army to New York. For the next five years, the main bodies of the Continental and British armies campaigned against one another in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These campaigns included the notable battles of [[Battle of Trenton|Trenton]], [[Battle of Princeton|Princeton]], [[Battle of Brandywine|Brandywine]], [[Battle of Germantown|Germantown]], and [[Battle of Springfield|Morristown]], and others.

The army increased its effectiveness and success rate through a series of trials and errors, often at a great human cost. General Washington and other distinguished officers were instrumental leaders in preserving unity, learning and adapting, and ensuring discipline throughout the eight years of war. In the winter of 1777–1778, with the addition of [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben|Baron von Steuben]], a Prussian expert, the training and discipline of the Continental Army was dramatically upgraded to modern European standards through the ''[[Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States]]''.<ref>Stephen C. Danckert, "Baron von Steuben and the Training of Armies." ''Military Review'' 74 (1994): 29–34 in EBSCO</ref> This was during the infamous winter at [[Valley Forge]]. Washington always viewed the Army as a temporary measure and strove to maintain [[civilian control of the military]], as did the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress]], though there were minor disagreements about how this was to be carried out.

Throughout its existence, the Army was troubled by poor logistics, inadequate training, short-term enlistments, interstate rivalries, and Congress's inability to compel the states to provide food, money, or supplies. In the beginning, soldiers enlisted for a year, largely motivated by patriotism; but as the war dragged on, bounties and other incentives became more commonplace. Major and minor mutinies—56 in all—diminished the reliability of two of the main units late in the war.<ref>John A. Nagy, ''Rebellion in the Ranks: Mutinies of the American Revolution'' (2008).</ref>

The French played a decisive role in 1781 as Washington's Army was augmented by a [[Expédition Particulière|French expeditionary force]] under Lieutenant General [[Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau|Rochambeau]] and a squadron of the French navy under the [[Jacques-Melchior Saint-Laurent, Comte de Barras|Comte de Barras]]. By disguising his movements, Washington moved the combined forces south to [[Virginia]] without the British commanders in New York realizing it. This resulted in the capture of the main British invasion force in the south at the [[Siege of Yorktown]], which resulted in the American and their allied victory in the land war in North America and assured independence.