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 […]
Tag Archives: anniversary
August 26, 1776: The Day Before
Tomorrow is August 27, the 243rd anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn. It is a day which is commemorated every year. Today, however, I would like to mark another day: August 26, the day before. August 26, 1776 was a … Continue reading
The Mystery of the Maryland 400, Part II
Read Part I of this post here On October 12, 1776, William Smallwood wrote a dispatch about the Battle of Brooklyn back to Maryland. The commander of the First Maryland Regiment noted that he had “enclosed a List of the … Continue reading
The Mystery of the Maryland 400, Part I
Today is the two-hundred forty-second anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn. The main goal of this project is to learn the names of the Maryland soldiers who fought at the battle and to determine their fates, especially the men killed … Continue reading
The Battle of Brooklyn in Five Objects: Number 5, The Old Line State Quarter
The last object in this five-day series is one that many readers have likely seen before: the Old Line State quarter. The Maryland Old Line State quarter was released in March 2000, and was the seventh coin issued under the … Continue reading
The Battle of Brooklyn in Five Objects: Number 4, Daniel Bowie’s Will
Today’s object is one that we have featured before: the will that Captain Daniel Bowie wrote on August 26, 1776, the day before he was killed in combat at the Battle of Brooklyn. For most of the year, Bowie had … Continue reading
The Battle of Brooklyn in Five Objects: Number 3, “The New Invented Napsack and Haversack in One”
Today’s object focuses on the knapsack, a vital piece of equipment for the Maryland soldiers. During the Revolutionary War, soldiers used knapsacks to carry extra clothing and personal items. They also used haversacks to carry their food and eating utensils. … Continue reading
The Battle of Brooklyn in Five Objects: Number 2, Mordecai Gist’s Portrait
Today’s object, as we move closer to the beginning of combat at the Battle of Brooklyn, is the portrait of Mordecai Gist. As the First Maryland Regiment’s major, Gist was the third-highest ranking officer, and the man who led the … Continue reading
The Battle of Brooklyn in Five Objects: Number 1, William Sands’s Letter
The anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn will take place next Sunday. To commemorate it, we are beginning a new series: The Battle of Brooklyn in Five Objects. Every day this week we will feature an object from the collections … Continue reading
The 240th Anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn
Late on the night of August 26, 1776, the First Maryland Regiment and the rest of the Continental Army began to cross the East River from Manhattan to Long Island. Awaiting them were some 20,000 British and Hessian soldiers. Earlier … Continue reading
Battle of Brooklyn Roll of Honor
On August 27, 1776, after a week of anticipation, and hours of marching, the Continental Army fought the British at the Battle of Brooklyn, the first large-scale battle of the Revolutionary War. All told, the Americans lost about 300 killed, … Continue reading
Finding the Maryland 400 