Disbandment of the Continental Army

Background. The Continental Army was founded on 14 June 1775 by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to coordinate the mutual defense of the United Colonies against Great Britain during the Revolutionary War, and was periodically supplemented by state troops and volunteer militia. By 1781–1782 threats of mutiny and actual mutinies had become serious, and the Continental Army of 1783–1784 would be succeeded by the United States Army.

Congressional Action of Late 1783. Congress issued a proclamation on 18 October 1783 approving Washington's reductions of the army. Thomas Mifflin, who had returned to Congress in 1782, was elected president of the Congress the following year and served as that body's presiding officer from November 1783 to June 1784. A legacy record describes the disbandment of the Continental Army as the Confederation Congress's first act of business on 3 November 1783, but the supplied passages do not state this date or framing, so it is retained only as an unconfirmed legacy assertion.

Demobilization and Residual Force. Washington ordered Henry Knox, his choice as commander of the peacetime army, to discharge all but 500 infantry and 100 artillerymen before winter set in, because most remaining infantrymen's enlistments were due to expire by June 1784. The army was formally disbanded by Congress on 2 June 1784, except for 25 privates at Fort Pitt and 55 privates, with a small artillery detachment, at West Point and other magazines. A small residual force remained at West Point and some frontier outposts until Congress created the United States Army by resolution of 3 June 1784.