Project sponsored by the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
Recent posts: Finding the Maryland 400
Help Support the Maryland 400!
In August 1776, a group of soldiers—the Maryland 400—helped hold back the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn, allowing the rest of the Americans to escape the field. The Marylanders lost a quarter of their men that day, but their stand saved the Continental Army, allowing it to live and fight another day. For […]
Revolutionary Book Review: George the Drummer Boy
The first book I ever read about the American Revolution was a children’s book called George the Drummer Boy, by Nathaniel Benchley, with illustrations by Don Bolognese. It tells the story of a drummer in the British Army who is stationed in Boston in 1775. His unit is chosen to march out of Boston to […]
A New Podcast Tells the Story of the Maryland Line
We are excited to share that a new podcast about the Revolutionary War, and Maryland’s soldiers, has been launched by Mission History. The series tells the story of the events that brought two armies, including nearly 2,000 soldiers from Maryland, to Camden, South Carolina in August 1781. The battle fought at Camden was one of […]
A Beating in Baltimore: Communal Violence during the Revolution
Today’s post comes from Marshall Cooperman of St. John’s College in Annapolis, who was part of the Maryland State Archives’ intern class of 2023. Marshall’s project team worked on cataloging a large collection of Revolutionary-era correspondence, and he came across the letters that tell this story while doing that work America in 1776 was a […]
Category Archives: Biographies
A Tale of Two Jeffers: How Pension Information Differentiates Revolutionary War Soldiers
The first biography I wrote for Finding the Maryland 400 covered the life of Jacob Jeffers, a soldier who served in Maryland’s Fourth Independent Company during the Battle of Brooklyn. Jeffers later served in the Second Maryland Regiment until his … Continue reading
A Veteran Remembers
The last officially recorded fact about Joseph Steward’s military service is that he enlisted in the Second Company of the First Maryland Regiment, commanded by Captain Patrick Sim, on February 26, 1776. There is nothing to tell us what became … Continue reading
Military or Jail: The Interesting Case of Private Everit
During both the Korean War and the Vietnam War eras, many soldiers enlisted after being given a choice by a judge: Join the military or go to jail. Today, the military will not allow anyone who has been convicted of … Continue reading
Which Private Smith is the Right Private Smith?
Piecing together service records of Revolutionary War soldiers can be complicated. No one got a DD 214 when they were mustered out. Many soldiers had their service records compiled by the Federal Government in the late nineteenth century, and applications for … Continue reading
“He had never gave them an inch before he found that he had nothing left to keep them off with”
In late August 1777, the American Army planned a raid on Staten Island. Intelligence available to the Americans suggested that the British forces there were primarily American Loyalist militia rather than British regular troops. Furthermore, the inexperienced Tories were stealing … Continue reading
Col. Gaither: Seven years on Georgia’s frontier
A new biography expands on previous writing on this blog about Henry Chew Gaither, a Revolutionary War captain of the First and Fourth Maryland Regiments. On the eve of the Battle of Brooklyn, he served as a witness for Daniel … Continue reading
Lamenting the Death of Major Archibald Anderson
Archibald Anderson began his military career as first lieutenant in 1776 and fought with the First Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Brooklyn. A capable and brave officer, Anderson rose quickly through the ranks, receiving a promotion to captain in … Continue reading
Finding the Maryland 400 