Events

The Continental Congress resolved on June 14, 1775, to organize and fund a unified military force from the ragged collection of New England militia companies besieging British-held Boston. The decision created what would become the Continental Army, and it was driven as much by political necessity as military logic. Massachusetts militiamen had been fighting since Lexington and Concord in April, but Congress needed the other colonies invested in the conflict if the revolution was to succeed. Delegates from the southern and middle colonies were wary of funding what appeared to be a New England war. John Adams of Massachusetts strategically championed the appointment of George Washington, a Virginian, as commander-in-chief the following day. The choice was partly military, Washington being one of the few delegates with significant command experience from the French and Indian War, and partly political, binding Virginia and the southern colonies to the cause. Washington accepted the commission but refused a salary, asking only that Congress cover his expenses. The army Washington inherited was barely an army at all. Roughly 17,000 men were camped around Boston, organized into independent militia units with separate officers, varying terms of enlistment, and almost no standardized equipment, training, or discipline. Many soldiers had enlisted for only a few months and planned to return home for harvest. Desertion rates were staggering. Washington spent his first months imposing basic order on what he privately described as "a mixed multitude of people under very little discipline." June 14 is now celebrated as the birthday of the United States Army. The force that began as an improvised siege camp outside Boston would, six years later, defeat the most powerful military on earth at Yorktown.

Reverend Elijah Craig is traditionally credited with distilling the first bourbon whiskey from corn in Georgetown, Kentucky, around 1789, though the claim has been disputed by historians for over a century. The association of Craig's name with bourbon's origin appears to date from an 1874 newspaper article, and no contemporary documents confirm that he was the first to age corn whiskey in charred oak barrels, the process that defines bourbon's distinctive flavor and amber color. What is less disputed is that corn-based whiskey production became widespread in Kentucky and neighboring states during the late eighteenth century. Scotch-Irish and German settlers brought distilling traditions to the frontier, where corn grew far more abundantly than the rye and barley used in Eastern whiskeys. Distilling was also a practical solution to transportation costs. A horse could carry roughly four bushels of corn to market, but the same horse could carry the equivalent of twenty-four bushels if the corn was first converted to whiskey. The name "bourbon" itself is contested. The most common theory links it to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where Craig lived and operated his distillery. Another theory holds that the whiskey was named for Bourbon Street in New Orleans, a major destination for Kentucky spirits shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Bourbon County was originally a vast territory that encompassed much of eastern Kentucky, so many early distillers technically operated within its borders. Congress declared bourbon a "distinctive product of the United States" in 1964, legally requiring that it be made from at least 51 percent corn, aged in new charred oak barrels, and produced in America. Kentucky today produces roughly 95 percent of the world's bourbon supply, an industry worth over $9 billion annually.