CHAPTER XX.-REVIEW OF CAMPAIGN OF ARMY OF THE POTOMAC FROM Review of the campaign of the Army of the Potomac from the beginning of the second period of 1862 to its retreat to Harrison's Landing.. Second session Provisional Congress Third session Provisional Congress Financial and internal tax laws Fourth session Provisional Congress CHAPTER I. MILITARY POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF 1775. As early as the year 1774 several of the colonies began to make preparations for an armed conflict with Great Britain. In Massachusetts, although the royal governor had countermanded the summons convening the colonial assembly, the members came together and resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, with John Hancock as president. This congress adopted an organization for the militia and appointed several general officers; it also named a committee of safety to organize the militia, commission their officers, and direct their operations when called into the field; and a committee of supplies, charged with procuring arms and provisions. The committee of safety appointed by a Second Provincial Congress which met in 1775 consisted of eleven persons and had authority to raise and support such a military force as it might deem proper to resist the execution of the acts of Parliament. Under the powers thus conferred, companies and regiments of militia were organized throughout the colony and a third part of the militia, called "minute men," agreed to hold themselves in readiness to march at a minute's warning. Such were the crude preparations when the movements of the British troops on the 19th of April, 1775, precipitated the conflict at Lexington and Concord and inaugurated the American Revolution. During the retreat to Boston, a distance of 20 miles, the killed and wounded on the British side numbered 223, while their angry pursuers, though without organization or leaders, by taking advantage of every obstacle along the route, lost but 88 men. Three days later April 22, 1775-the first step was taken toward organizing a combined defense against the mother country. On that day the congress of Massachusetts unanimously resolved that an army of 30,000 men was necessary for the defense of the colony and decided to raise at once 13,600 men, hoping that the remainder of the force required would be supplied by the authorities of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. The Massachusetts troops were organized by giving a captain's commission to anyone who could enroll a company of 59 men, and the commission of a colonel to anyone who could get together ten such companies. This system, under which ability to raise men is made the sole qualification for command, deserves particular attention, since it has come down to our own times and has been employed, without exception, at the beginning of all our wars. |