The Army

1784 June 2. Congress passed a resolution disbanding the last remnants of the Continental Army.

1784 June 3. Congress passed a resolution establishing the peacetime First American Regiment of 700 men, to be furnished by four states. The first commandant of the Federal corps was Josiah Harmar and the troops consisted of eight companies of infantry and two of artillery. The length of service was one year. These men were to occupy posts vacated by the British on the northwest boundaries of the country and to discourage settlers or “squatters” from moving into the Ohio country.

1785 April 12. Since the first enlistment was due to expire, Congress passed another resolution raising the same number of men for three years. Many of the men did not re-enlist.

1786 October 20. Due to the threat of Shay’s Rebellion (mostly poor farmers in central and western Massachusetts who were angered by crushing debt and taxes), Congress authorized an additional 1,340 men (from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia) for a total of 2,040 non-commissioned officers and privates.

1787 April. Shay’s Rebellion was crushed in January 1787 so Congress cut the size of the army back to the original strength but retained two additional batteries of artillery that had been raised in Massachusetts.
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1787 July 21. Militia in the district of Kentucky to be ready if the Indian situation worsened.

1787 October 3. Because the three year enlistments were about to expire, Congress passed a resolution calling again for the same number of men to continue in service for another three years. Only a small number of men remained in the military so officers were sent back to their home states to recruit new men.

1788 August 12. Militia on frontiers in Virginia and Pennsylvania to be ready if the Indian situation worsened.

1789 Congress gave President Washington the authority to call upon state militias to supplement the Federal corps without asking permission of the legislators.

1789 September 29. The Constitutional government centralized the direction of American’s first army.

1790 April 30. Congress increased the strength of the army to 1,216 noncommissioned officers and privates for a three year term.

1790 Men from southern states entered the officer coprs.

1791 March 3. Congress nearly doubled the regular army by adding a second infantry of 912 men. It also empowered President Washington to raise a Corp of Levies, 2,000 six-month volunteers. Recruitment didn’t progress quickly.

1791. There was an effort in the early 1790s to dramatically increase the size of the first U.S. Army. Jacob Kingsbury and Ebenezer Denny and other officers received orders to recruit men from certain areas. Below is Captain Patrick Phelan’s recruiting advertisement that began to appear in Massachusetts newspapers:

Attention:

All faithful, old soldiers who have heretofore served their country in the field, are desirous again to engage in so honorable a service – and all young men who feel an ambition for a military life, and who wish to provide, at the expiration of their time, an estate for a family, in the western country, at an easy rate, are desired to apply to the subscriber at Worcester – where they shall receive a generous bounty, kind treatment, and the following clothing yearly.

Columbia Sentinel

2 April 1791

( Boston, Massachusetts)

1791 October. As Gen. St. Clair prepared for the upcoming battle with the Indians, he found that many of his men were militia and six-month recruits who were not trained for the task at hand. Capt. John Armstrong said they were “the worst and most dissatisfied troops I ever served with.”

1792. At the recommendation of Secretary of War Henry Knox, Congress agreed to recruit and train a "Legion of the United States" - a force of four self contained mini-armies. The Legion was under the command of Major General Anthony Wayne. The Legion boosted a paper strength of 5,120 rank and file divided into four 1,280 man sub-legions. By June 1794, only 3,578 men were enlisted in the Legion.

1796. After the death of General Anthony Wayne in 1796, the Legion of the United States no longer existed but a smaller force was maintained and called the United States Army.

From: William H. Guthman. March to Massacre; A History of the First Seven Years of the United States Army, 1784-1791. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970 and Gregory J. W. Urwin. The United States Infantry: An Illustrated History, 1775 – 1918. London: Blandford Press, 1988.

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