The Army was first established by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1775. This resolution created the Continental Army, which represented all 13 colonies, and placed George Washington as Commander-in-Chief. After the Revolution ended, the Army was disbanded. Only a few troops were retained to protect points of interest; the states maintained their own militias.

George Washington

By 1789, President Washington appointed General Henry Knox to prepare a military policy to create a centrally coordinated militia system. Unfortunately, this policy was rejected by Congress in 1792 in favor of the continued state-based militia whereby troops would be raised from the civil population in times of emergency. However, Congress did grant Washington the ability to expand the small regular army to help protect borders and frontiers.

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During the first half of the 19th century, the militia system remained in place. It was not until the Civil War that the regular army was expanded, and a volunteer system (supplemented by conscription) substituted for the earlier practice of need-based militia. Between 1860 and 1865, the number of troops increased from 16,000 to one million, with an additional 500,000 serving in the Confederate Army. On July 2, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act which legalized enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army, although African American soldiers had already served with distinction in the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and were already serving in the U.S. Navy. By the end of the Civil War, 180,000 black men had enlisted.