Second Continental Congress Convenes

May 10, 1775

The Congress reassembled in Philadelphia's State House. It adopted the New England militias, sent an 'Olive Branch Petition' to George III (who refused to read it), and named George Washington commander-in-chief. A continent was improvising a country in committee rooms, one vote at a time. Washington left for Cambridge before the ink dried, arriving to find a ragged army besieging the British garrison in Boston.