George W, Commander in Chief

Chapter 3
The next day, June 15, Congress chose George Washington, a Virginian, to be Commander in Chief.
From the trials and tribulations of eight years of war he was to learn the essentials of strategy, tactics, and military organization.
The army of which Washington formally took command on July 3, 1775, he described as "a mixed multitude of people . . . under very little discipline, order or government." Out of this "mixed multitude," Washington set out to create an army shaped in large part in the British image.
Lacking an executive, Congress had to rely on committees and boards to carry out its policies - unwieldy devices at best and centers of conflicting interest and discord at worst. In June 1776 it set up a Board of War and Ordnance, consisting of five of its members, the lineal ancestor of the War Department. In 1777 Congress changed the composition of the board, directing that it henceforth be made up of persons outside Congress who could devote full time to their military duties. Neither of these devices really worked well, and Congress continually handled administrative matters by action of the entire membership or by appointment of special committees to go to camp. In 1781 the board was replaced by a single Secretary at War.