Some of you may have already seen it, but the Maryland 400 was featured in The Baltimore Sun on Friday: “Researchers bringing Md. Revolutionary War heroes to life.”
Maryland 400 research staff.
Photo from The Baltimore Sun. Click to read!
The story has great photos and video about our work, and Continue reading
Geography physically connects us to the past in a way that can dust the cobwebs off of history and make it more accessible to the modern world. This interactive map shows where Smallwood’s men came from and the places where they went before, during, and after the Revolutionary War– places that are familiar to us today. Continue reading
Two new entries have been added to the biography page! William Sterrett and Phillip Hawkins were Baltimoreans who fought in different companies of Smallwood’s Battalion at the Battle of Brooklyn. Both men were also survivors of the British prison ships in Wallabout Bay, New York. Continue reading
We are very pleased to officially launch perhaps the most important part of this project: the online roster of all known members of the First Maryland Regiment who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn in August, 1776. Continue reading
After the battles of Trenton and Princeton, the American troops made winter headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey on January 6.[1] Traditionally, wars were not fought during the wintertime, but the American Revolution was not a conventional European war. The winter did not bring any large engagements, but an army of citizen-farmers was uniquely suited to fight through the winter, and the American troops, particularly the New Jersey militia, kept pressure on the British with smaller skirmishes.
Continue readingAt the beginning of 1777 the Americans were in an unfamiliar position; they were on the offensive. In the week after capturing Trenton they had successfully parried the attacks of General Cornwallis, but a more serious engagement was inevitable before the two forces made camp for the winter. The events of January, 1777 could sustain or destroy the momentum the Americans had won at Trenton.
The morning of January 3, 1777 was bright and frigid, “with a hoar frost which bespangled every object.”[1] The remnants of Smallwood’s regiment had been Continue reading
“For heaven’s sake, keep this to yourself,” George Washington wrote to Colonel Joseph Reed, laying out his plan to capture Trenton. “Christmas day at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed upon for our attempt on Trenton.”[1] The first year of the Revolution would soon come to an end, and the future of the struggle depended on the army’s success at Trenton. The Continental Army was forced to act—the British seemed primed to capture Philadelphia, and they were already in possession of New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. A victory before the end of the year would also help secure the reenlistments the army so desperately needed, as well as reviving morale in the general population, who had begun to lose confidence in the Revolutionary cause. However, every engagement carried risk; the crossing of the Delaware would be a delicate operation, and defeat would be catastrophic. Continue reading
December was a desperate month for the Revolutionary cause, which badly needed a victory to turn the tide of losses. Expiring enlistments were steadily chipping away at the size of the Continental Army, and the British established a winter camp on Philadelphia’s doorstep. If Philadelphia fell to the enemy the blow to morale would be crippling; it would be “severely felt by the common cause, and… wound the heart of every virtuous American.”[1] Defeat had become the standard for the Continental Army, but logistically and psychologically, another loss would be unbearable. Washington needed to marshal all of the strength the Revolution had left to defend Pennsylvania and make a stand along the Delaware river.
The brothers can be seen standing behind Washington’s right shoulder. James Peale is in front, Charles Willson Peale is behind him.
James Peale after Charles Willson Peale, 1787-1790. Independence National Historical Park Collection in Philadelphia.
Captain Daniel Bowie wrote his last will and testament on the eve of the Battle of Brooklyn. The next day he was wounded in battle and captured by the British. While imprisoned he would succumb to his wounds and become another casualty of the Revolution at the age of twenty-two. On August 26, 1776, that possibility could not have been far from his mind as he considered where he wanted to be buried–near his plantation’s garden walk and his father’s tomb– and how he would divide his possessions among his brothers and friends. Continue reading
It was a cold morning when Melchior Keener got word to leave Baltimore or suffer the vengeance of the Whig Club. At nine o’clock on December 5, 1776, James Cox, a popular local tailor, delivered the message that Keener had three days to settle his business and flee the city. The Whig Club had branded him a traitor to the revolutionary cause and an enemy of the country.
![MARYLAND STATE PAPERS (Revolutionary Papers) Order to leave town. Dec. 5, 1776. MdHR 19970-13-10 [MSA S997-13-20 01/07/03/013]](https://msamaryland400.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/legionletter.jpg)
MARYLAND STATE PAPERS (Revolutionary Papers) Order to leave town. Dec. 5, 1776. MdHR 19970-13-10 [MSA S997-13-20 01/07/03/013]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Finding the Maryland 400 