Servant of the Nation: Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Army

The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.

—General George Washington, Address to the Continental Army, August 27, 1776.

Today, June 14, 2025, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army. On this date in 1775 in Philadelphia, John Adams, a delegate from Massachusetts, had convinced his colleagues in the Second Continental Congress that the provincial militia that had fought in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and were then laying siege to British-controlled Boston required support from all the colonies. Congress resolved:

That six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates; That each company, as soon as completed, shall march and join the Army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that Army;

Congress also resolved “that a General be appointed to command all the continental forces, raised, or to be raised, for the defense of American liberty.” A debate followed, then Congress put forward only one name, George Washington.

Two days later, soon after Congress approved a plan to organize the command and staff departments of the Army, president of the Congress John Hancock, who had desired the command himself, announced the unanimous vote in choosing George Washington to serve as “General and Commander-in-Chief.” Washington, who had stayed away from the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall), returned on June 16. He stated with his characteristic humility that “I am truly sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. I, this day, declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal the command I am honored with.” Fortunately for our nation, Washington was humble, but he also understood well his and the Continental Army’s role in winning our nation’s independence and preserving our nascent democracy.

The soldiers who march in the parade in Washington tomorrow will carry weapons much different from those that the first ten regiments of riflemen in the Continental Army carried. But what soldiers share across those two- and one-half centuries is their commitment to take risks and make sacrifices so their fellow citizens can live in freedom. George Washington’s words to Connecticut Troops before their enlistment ran out during the Siege of Boston in 1775 could be spoken to today’s American fighting men and women:

More human glory and happiness may depend upon your exertions than ever yet depended upon any sons of men. He that is a soldier in defense of such a cause, needs not title; his post is a post of honor, and although not an emperor, yet he shall wear a crown—of glory—and blessed will be his memory!

Let us draw inspiration from the soldiers who fought to win and preserve our freedoms across the past 250 years. We might resolve to take up “the great task remaining before us” that President Abraham Lincoln urged upon his fellow Americans at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863, to pursue “a new birth of freedom” and ensure “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”