What were continentals

The minute men were an elite group of militiamen who met and trained hard in the sixteen months between the Boston Tea Party and the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Many people, including members of the Continental Congress, have confused them with ordinary militiamen. The latter never approached the minutemen's state of battle readiness. As a result the militia performed disastrously in the opening years of the Revolution.