ONLY SOME REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS WERE CONTINENTALS.  They were authorized by the Continental Congress, paid by Congress, and led by officers whose commissions were signed by the president of Congress.   They were not the only full-time, professional (“regular") troops. There were state regulars as well. Most of Virginia's Continentals began as provincial (“state" after Independence) troops before transitioning into Congressional pay. The first Virginia Continentals were two companies of riflemen sent to Boston in the summer of 1775. Virginia then produced 15 regiments in three authorizations of troops between 1775 and 1777. The Virginia Continental Line contracted in 1778 and 1779 as recruiting got harder and enlistments expired. Virginia implemented a draft in 1777 and grew increasingly dependent on it through the end of the war.   Most of the Line was captured at Charleston in 1780.  The numbered regiments were preserved on paper to track officer seniority, but late war field operations were conducted by various  “detachments," “battalions," and ad hoc “regiments."