Editing Continental Army (section)

==Officers and men==
{|align=right class="wikitable"
!colspan=4|Continental Army Strength
|-
!Year !! January!! July || December
|-
| 1775 || - || 23 239 || 21 535 
|-
| 1776 || 15 608||  25 606 || 11 423
|-
| 1777 || ..|| .. || 25 985
|-
| 1778 ||20 868  || 28 638  || 33 411
|-
| 1779 || 33 535 || 26 394  || 18 700
|-
| 1780 ||21 261 || 15 674  || 8 742
|-
| 1781 ||6 853 || 10 265  || ..
|-
| 1782 ||10 687 || 12 392  || 13 973
|-
| 1783 ||12 031 || 2 760<br><small>June</small>  || -
|-
|Source:||<ref>Lesser 1976, ''passim''</ref>
|-
|}
[[File: Soldiers at the siege of Yorktown (1781), by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger.png|thumb|left|A 1781 illustration of Continental Army soldiers during the [[Yorktown campaign]], including a black infantryman (on the far left) from the [[1st Rhode Island Regiment]], one of the regiments in the Continental Army with the largest number of [[Black Patriot|black patriot]] soldiers. An estimated four percent of the Continental Army were black.]]
[[File:James Monroe (1758-1831).jpg|thumb|left|[[James Monroe]], along with [[George Washington]], one of the two future [[President of the United States|U.S. presidents]] who served in the Continental Army]]
The Continental Army lacked the discipline typically expected of an army. When they first assembled, the count of how many soldiers George Washington had was delayed a little over a week. Instead of obeying their commanders and officers without question, each unit was a community that had democratically chosen its leaders. The regiments came from different states and, due to being compromised of volunteers, were uneven in numbers. While this could have been remedied by reassigning soldiers, many held a belief borne of American [[republicanism]] - if separated from the officers they had chosen, soldiers did not believe they should have to serve. Relying on the willingness of his volunteer army to fight, George Washington had to sacrifice this logistical weakness in favor of compromise. 3
<ref>{{cite book|last=Lengel|first=Edward G.|title=A Companion to George Washington|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1118219966|author-link=Edward G. Lengel|date=2012|pages=137–146|language=en}}</ref>

Soldiers in the Continental Army were volunteers; they agreed to serve in the army and standard enlistment periods lasted from one to three years. Early in the war, the enlistment periods were short, as the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress]] feared the possibility of the Continental Army evolving into a permanent army. The army never numbered more than 48,000 men overall and 13,000 troops in one area. The turnover proved a constant problem, particularly in the winter of 1776–1777, and longer enlistments were approved. As the new country (not yet fully independent) had no money, the government agreed to give grants to the soldiers which they could exchange for money.<ref name=":0" /> In 1781 and 1782, Patriot officials and officers in the [[Southern Colonies]] repeatedly implemented policies that offered slaves as rewards for recruiters who managed to enlist a certain number of volunteers in the Continental Army; in January 1781, Virginia's [[Virginia General Assembly|General Assembly]] passed a measure which announced that voluntary enlistees in the [[Virginia Line]]'s regiments would be given a "healthy sound negro" as a reward.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|first=John U.|last=Rees|title='They Were Good Soldiers': African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775–1783|publisher=Helion & Company|date=2019|isbn=978-1911628545}}</ref>

The officers of both the Continental Army and the state militias were typically yeoman farmers with a sense of honor and status and an ideological commitment to oppose the policies of the [[The Crown|British Crown]].<ref name="Cox"/>  Meanwhile, the enlisted men largely came from the working class or minority groups, namely English, Ulster Protestant, or African descent. Up to a fourth of Washington's army were of [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish (English and Scottish descent) Ulster origin]], many being recent arrivals and in need of work.<ref name="Neimeyer, pp 36-38">Neimeyer, ''America Goes to War,'' pp. 36–38.</ref> They were motivated to volunteer by specific contracts that promised bounty money; regular pay at good wages; food, clothing, and medical care; companionship; and the promise of land ownership after the war. By 1780, more than 30,000 men served in the Continental army, but the lack of resources and proper training resulted in the deaths of over 13,000 soldiers.<ref>{{cite web |date=January 26, 2017 |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/fighting-man-continental-army |title=The Fighting Man of the Continental Army  |website=[[American Battlefield Trust]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529220513/https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/fighting-man-continental-army |archive-date=May 29, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1781–1782, threats of mutiny and actual mutinies were becoming serious.<ref name="Neimeyer" /><ref>{{cite book|first=David Hackett|last=Fischer|title =Washington's Crossing|date=2004|pages=7–30|isbn=978-0195170344|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjxRXWdXeREC&pg=PA7}}</ref> 

The Continental Army was racially integrated, a condition the [[United States Army]] would not see again until the [[Executive Order 9981|late 1940s]]. During the Revolution, [[African Americans in the Revolutionary War|African American slaves]] were promised freedom in exchange for military service by both the Continental and British armies.<ref name="PBS" /><ref>{{cite book|first=Jack D.|last=Foner|title=Blacks and the military in American history|date=1974|pages=3–19|publisher=Praeger|isbn=978-0275846404}}</ref><ref>Neimeyer, ''America Goes to War,'' pp. 65–88.</ref> Approximately 6,600 people of color (including African American, indigenous, and multiracial men) served with the colonial forces, and made up one-fifth of the Northern Continental Army.<ref>Benjamin Quarles, ''The Negro in the American Revolution'' (1961) [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28%27%27The%20Negro%20in%20the%20American%20Revolution%27%27%29 online]</ref><ref name="DAR" />

In addition to the Continental Army regulars, state militia units were assigned for short-term service and fought in campaigns throughout the war. Sometimes the militia units operated independently of the Continental Army, but often local militias were called out to support and augment the Continental Army regulars during campaigns. The militia troops developed a reputation for being prone to premature retreats, a fact that General [[Daniel Morgan]] integrated into his strategy at the [[Battle of Cowpens]] and used to fool the British in 1781.<ref name="Pugh" />

The financial responsibility for providing pay, food, shelter, clothing, arms, and other equipment to specific units was assigned to states as part of the establishment of these units. States differed in how well they lived up to these obligations. There were constant funding issues and morale problems as the war continued. This led to the army offering low pay, often rotten food, hard work, cold, heat, poor clothing and shelter, harsh discipline, and a high chance of becoming a casualty.<ref>E. Wayne Carp, ''To Starve the Army at Pleasure: Continental Army Administration and American Political Culture, 1775–1783'' (1990).</ref>