The Army was formed on June 14, 1775, when the Second Continental Congress patched together various amateur militia so the Thirteen Unified American Colonies could fight British forces, making it the oldest military force of the U.S. because it existed before independence. The Navy began on October 13, 1775, when the Continental Congress ordered two armed sailing vessels to intercept supplies bound for the British army in America; after being disbanded following the war, it was reestablished after the Constitution empowered Congress on April 30, 1798, to provide and maintain a navy, and the Department of the Navy was established on the eve of hostilities with France in the quasi-war. The Continental marines were established on November 10, 1775, for ship-to-ship fighting, shipboard security and discipline, and support for landings, expeditionary actions, and amphibious operations; since June 30, 1834, the Marine Corp has been a component of the U.S. Navy and has taken part in all U.S. wars, often among the first to fight. The Air Force began on August 1, 1907, as part of the U.S. Signal Corps within the Army with three men and initial aircraft of kite balloons before obtaining its first official airplane from the Wright Brothers, and it became a separate military branch on September 19, 1947. The Coast Guard was created on August 4, 1790, with ten cutters to enforce federal tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of federal revenue, and it was the nation’s only armed force at sea until the Navy Department was launched eight years later. The site itself was an old Indian village and a river crossing used by the armies of Celeron, Harmar, Wayne, and Harrison; it was the location of Madore Trading Post in 1810, a government grant to Anty Shane, a half-breed scout, in 1817, Shane’s Trading Post in 1820, its sale to Col. Wm. B. Hedges, the naming of the village as Shanesville in 1820, Shanes Crossing in 1866, and its commemoration as a park in 1960.