What was us army first fight?

Answer 1

During the Revolutionary War the first battles, Lexington and Concord, were fought by the local militia units against the British. Those local militia units then settled down to besiege Boston, more or less spontaneously, with the British trapped in town. About two months later the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, agreed to adopt this Army as its own and to take responsibility for it. This was on June 14, 1775, the date the Army regards as its birthday. The next day George Washington was commissioned to take command of that army. On June 17, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought, so I suppose you'd have to count that as the first battle the US Army fought, even though word of these events in Philadelphia had not yet reached Boston, and neither had General Washington, and the Battle was fought under the same local leaders who had been in charge since the siege began in April.

But the Army created by the decision in Philadelphia, with Washington as its commander, was called "The Continental Army", not the US Army. Independence was not Declared for another year.

The "US Army" was created under that name by an Act of the Confederation Congress (the successor to the Second Continental Congress, which created the COntinental Army back in '75) on June 3, 1784, to replace the disbanded Continental Army. It was a tiny, tiny little force, less than one hundred men to start with. Within a few years the infant nation had to strengthen its Army to deal with the Northwest Indian Wars, which took place mostly in Ohio and Indiana, which were part of the "Old Northwest". There were several small defeats, at Heller's Corner, the Hartshorn's Defeat, before the big disaster at Pumpkin Fields, all this in 1790, under command of Josiah Harmer. This entire 1790 campaign is usually called "Harmer's Defeat". In 1791 the Army tried again, this time under Arthur St. Clair, who did no better. St. Clair was disastrously routed in a battle known as the Battle of the Wabash, or the Battle of the Wabash River, or the Battle of the Thousand Slain. This was the greatest victory the Indians even achieved against the US Army. Finally, under yet another commander, the tough Revolutionary War veteran "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the US Army obtained a victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794.