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: Battle of Long Island
Men who “could stand cutting”: The Old Maryland Line
The famed Maryland 400 were not the only Revolutionary War soldiers hailed as heroes. Indeed, throughout the war, the Maryland Line (as the state’s contribution to the Continental Army was called) developed a reputation for skill and bravery. They were … Continue reading
Maryland’s African American Troops
Earlier, we introduced the topic of black Revolutionary War soldiers, but left unanswered the question of whether any fought as part of the Maryland 400. While a number of African Americans fought as part of the Maryland Line later in … Continue reading
In Their Own Words: An Oral History of the Battle of Brooklyn, Part II
This is Part II of our compilation of personal accounts of the Battle of Brooklyn by members of the First Maryland Regiment. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. Around midday on August 27, 1776, the British … Continue reading
The British Diversion
The Marylanders were called to battle before sunrise on August 27, 1776. Lord Stirling, the temporary commander of the Maryland troops, was awoken at around three o’clock in the morning and given the news that the British had begun their … Continue reading
“They must be well watched”
After the British landed on Long Island they advanced to within three miles of the American lines, and then they stopped. On August 23rd, 1776, the tension grew in New York as the American leadership tried to determine the enemy’s … Continue reading
The British Come Ashore
On August 22nd, 1776, the British began setting the stage for battle by landing troops on Long Island. The Continental Army had been present in varying numbers on Long Island for nearly four months, since General Nathanael Greene was ordered … Continue reading
Biography of William McMillan, Maryland 400 Soldier
Earlier this summer, I wrote a post about a letter I had found in a pension file. The letter was a firsthand account of a Revolutionary War veteran’s experience in the war, written many years after the fact. The man … Continue reading
Alternative Sources: Clothing Records of the Maryland 400
While muster rolls and company returns would give the most accurate listing of the men in the Maryland 400, we have yet to come across one from the right time in the war. This has caused us to go to … Continue reading
Finding the Maryland 400 