Artemas Ward was an American major general in the American Revolutionary War and a Congressman from Massachusetts. He was considered an effective political leader, President John Adams describing him as "universally esteemed, beloved, and confided in by his army and his country". During the siege of Boston, Ward directed his forces from his sickbed, but later moved his headquarters to Cambridge. Soon, the New Hampshire and Connecticut provisional governments both named him head of their forces participating in the siege. Most of his efforts during this time were devoted to organization and supply problems. Additional British forces arrived in May, and in June, Ward learned of their plan to attack Bunker Hill. He gave orders to fortify the point, setting the stage for the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

Meanwhile, the Continental Congress was creating a Continental Army. On June 17 they commissioned Ward a major general, and second in command to George Washington. Ward was one of the original four major generals in the Continental Army along with Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler and Israel Putnam. Over the next nine months he helped convert the assembled militia units into the Continental Army. After the British evacuation on March 17, 1776, Washington led the main army to New York City. Ward took command of the Eastern Department on April 4, 1776. He held that post until March 20, 1777, when his health forced his resignation from the army. Ward was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780 and 1781, and from 1791 to 1795 was elected twice to the United States House of Representatives after being an unsuccessful candidate in 1788.