New York Line

Officers of the Continental Army below the rank of brigadier general were ordinarily ineligible for promotion except in the line of their own state.

These "dictatorial powers" included the authority to raise sixteen additional Continental infantry regiments at large.

Early in 1777, Washington offered command of one of these additional regiments to William Malcolm of New York, who accepted.

Still other Continental infantry regiments and smaller units, also unrelated to a state quota, were raised as needed for special or temporary service.

The New York Line was created in consequence of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen on May 10, 1775.