Author Description

This volume completes the Center of Military History's trilogy of special studies on the War of American Independence (the Revolution). As part of the Army's contribution to the Bicentennial, the center undertook three separate but related projects to produce significant monographs on previously unexplored aspects of the Revolutionary War. Dr. Mary C. Gillette's ‘The Army Medical Department’. 1775-1818 was published in 1981 as was Dr. Erna Risch's ‘Supplying Washington’s Army’. Each has increased the information available on the war by detailing the support furnished to the fighting man. The Continental Army now directs us to the basic military organization used during the war and to the forming of the Army's traditions and first tactical doctrine. This book traces the birth of the Army and its gradual transformation into a competent group of professionals and emphasizes for the first time the major influences of eighteenth century military theorists on that transformation. It should join the other two volumes as a basic reference on the military history of the Revolution.The Continental Army is the first volume of the Army Lineage Series published under a revised format. Hereafter, lineage volumes will include lengthy, footnoted narratives, along with lineages and bibliographies. In a sense, a study of the Continental Army, the forerunner of today's Regular Army, is a fitting choice for beginning a new series. Later volumes will detail the development of specific branches of the army from those early days to the present. The U.S. Army Center of Military History regards this series as essential to its mission of helping today's Army prepare for tomorrow by better understanding its past. In addition, the narratives herein make accurate information available to those in the Army as well as the general public. Furthermore, the lineages should help to foster unit esprit-de-corps. We hope that this volume with its new format will prove as popular as earlier volumes in the series.