Mobilizing for a Revolutionary War

The Second Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from the thirteen colonies that acted as a temporary national government. While they gathered in Philadelphia in May 1775, the focus of the American rebellion underwent a radical shift.

Originally convened to review British tax policies and organize boycotts, the delegates were suddenly forced to pivot from debating policy to managing a war.

Faced with immediate military threats, the Congress took the decisive step of forming a Continental Army.

The Congress began operating as a de facto sovereign government—meaning they functioned as a real, independent leadership in practice before they were officially recognized by law—to oversee the defense of the colonies against Great Britain.

By June 1775, nearly two months after the initial clashes at Lexington and Concord—the opening battles of the war where British troops and colonial "Minutemen" first exchanged fire during a British attempt to seize hidden munitions.

The American colonial militia had the British army trapped under siege within Boston. Upon discovering a British plot to seize the heights surrounding the city, the rebels raced to occupy the high ground first.

Though history has immortalized the name Bunker Hill as a turning point that shattered the myth of British military invincibility, proving that colonial militias could stand their ground against a professional army and convincing the British that it would be a costly affair.

The actual combat of Bunker Hill actually unfolded on the slopes of Breed’s Hill. On the night of June 16, the militia was ordered to fortify Bunker Hill but instead dug in on the more provocative Breed’s Hill, positioned closer to the British lines.

The British took the hill, but at a devastating cost. Their regulars suffered 1,054 casualties—more than double the American loss of approximately 450.

The high toll, particularly among the officer ranks, shattered illusions of an easy victory over "provincial" forces and convinced British officials that only a full-scale invasion could crush the resistance.

While the fighting raged in Massachusetts, the political landscape in Philadelphia was being transformed. On June 15, 1775, just two days before the battle, Congress unanimously appointed 43-year-old Virginia delegate George Washington as commander-in-chief.

Despite his experience in the French and Indian War, Washington humbly confessed, "I do not think my self equal to the Command."

By placing a Virginian at the head of an army that mostly hailed from New England, Congress ensured the military was truly "continental." This term reflected their goal to unite all thirteen colonies under one cause, not just a local rebellion is Massachusetts.

When Washington arrived in Cambridge two weeks later to take command, the persistent New England militiamen who had held the line at Bunker Hill formed the foundational core of this new national army.

The legacy of this moment was preserved by those who witnessed it. American artist John Trumbull observed the Battle of Bunker Hill from a militia encampment at Roxbury.

He created sketch maps of the British and American lines and later painted iconic scenes like The Death of General Warren, turning a tactical defeat into an enduring symbol of American "mettle" and heroic sacrifice.