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Lecture —The Formation of the Continental Army
October 15, 2025 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
In 1775, the rebellious Americans had to form a standing army to protect their rights and defend themselves against occupying British forces. On June 14, 1775, shortly before the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution that authorized the creation of an army that represented unity between the thirteen colonies, called the Continental Army, and appointed Gen. George Washington as its commander-in-chief. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of its inception, historian Holly Mayer, Ph.D., explores the Continental Army’s formation, the soldiers that made up its ranks and the challenges experienced by the Congress, George Washington and his generals as they strived to create an effective fighting force.
Registration is requested. To attend the author’s talk in-person, or to watch virtually, please use the appropriate link below.
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About the Speaker
Holly Mayer, Ph.D., is professor emerita of history at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. From 2021-2022, she served as the Charles Boal Ewing Chair in Military History at the United States Military Academy, West Point, and was the Harold K. Johnson Chair of Military History at the U.S. Army War College from 2016-2017. Her interest in the social, cultural and military histories of late eighteenth-century North America influenced her books, Congress’s Own: A Canadian Regiment, the Continental Army, and American Union (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021), and Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution (University of South Carolina Press, 1996). In 2013, she was awarded a fellowship, the Society of the Cincinnati Scholars’ Grant, to conduct research in our library for Congress’s Own. In addition to authoring these books and various journal and anthology essays, Dr. Mayer was recently the editor of Women Waging War in the American Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2022) and was co-editor (with David E. Shi) of For the Record: A Documentary History of America (W.W. Norton & Company, multiple editions).