Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/36

 There were splendid examples of patriotic unselfisliness. Twelve companies of riflemen reported near Boston, some of them having marched a distance of 800 miles. These were the first troops raised upon authority of the Continental Congress, and were soon recognized as the six best corps in the army. In spite of cold and starvation and suffering they fought throughout the war, and formed the backbone of those gallant troops which finally achieved our independence. But they had eight years’ service, my son, and became veterans.

The Continental Congress, bear in mind, had no authority whatever to raise or pay or equip a single soldier. Congress could merely pass resolutions and appeal to the sovereign states.

Minutemen volunteered, quite a bunch of them. They came in a minute and stayed about a minute. Each day Washington had a different army from the one of yesterday, and generally smaller. Which explains his letter of November 28, 1775: