The company was organized at New York City in the spring of 1776. Its first commander was Captain Alexander Hamilton. On March 17, 1777, the company, then commanded by Captain John Doughty, was assigned to Lamb's Continental Artillery Regiment. In August 1779 it was numbered the 2nd Company in the 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment. On June 20, 1777, the Continental Congress resolved to raise a Corps of Invalids. The Invalids, a body of physically disabled Continental Army veterans, were organized as a regiment of eight companies under the command of Colonel Lewis Nicola. They were intended to serve as guards at magazines, hospitals, and similar establishments. It was also hoped that the corps could serve as a military school, but this seems not to have happened. On January 3, 1784, the Commanding General of the Army, Major General Henry Knox, submitted to Congress a list of Continental Army officers remaining in service, and a return showing the organization of Jackson's Regiment. The regiment consisted of 775 officers and men:  The First American Regiment served in garrison at West Point, New York, until its disbandment. When the British Army evacuated New York City as a result of negotiations between George Washington and Sir Guy Carleton, Colonel Jackson had immediate command of the 800-man column that marched into New York City on November 25, 1783, under General Washington, to formally take possession of the city for the United States. On June 2, 1784, Congress resolved:  Captain Doughty received the brevet rank of major on September 30, 1783. He was the major of artillery appearing in the return submitted by General Knox. The Congressional resolve of June 2, 1784, caused Major Doughty's Artillery Company to continue in service, as his company was the unit retained. To his company belongs the distinction of being the only element of the Continental Army to continue in service after the war as an element of the United States Army. On the following day, June 3, 1784, the Continental Congress resolved to raise a new regiment, the First American Regiment of 1784-1791 (which exists today as the 3rd Infantry, a.k.a. "The Old Guard"), consisting of eight infantry companies and two artillery companies. Captain Doughty furnished the senior company. The 2d Artillery Company, First American Regiment, was raised in Pennsylvania and commanded by Captain Thomas Douglass, who had been an officer in Thomas Proctor's 4th Continental Artillery Regiment from April 1, 1777 to January 1, 1783 and served as a captain in the First American Regiment from August 1784 to October 1785.