Donate to install a Unit Tribute for “The Maryland 400” The 1st Maryland Regiment of the Continental Army

The 1^st Maryland Regiment, “The Maryland 400” saved the Continental Army and the American Revolution at the Battle of Long Island on 27 August 1776 in a covering action that historian Thomas Field described as “an hour more precious to liberty than any other in history.”

     The unit began as Smallwood’s Battalion, authorized by Maryland on 14 January 1776. It comprised of three companies recruited from Baltimore and six from Annapolis under the command of Colonel William Smallwood, a veteran of the French and Indian War. Following the declaration of independence, the regiment was transferred to the Continental Army on 6 July and placed under Lord Sterling’s Brigade. The unit saw action in New York and New Jersey during 1776. In January 1777, the battalion was redesignated the 1^st Maryland Regiment and subsequently engaged in all the major northern campaigns (Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth) although it wintered in Wilmington, Delaware, not Valley Forge. In April 1780, the regiment was transferred to Nathaniel Greene’s Southern Department where it fought at Camden, Cowpens, Guilford Court House – and Combahee Ferry, South Carolina, ten months after Yorktown.

     The regiment earned the title “The Maryland 400” (or “Washington’s Immortals”) for its performance at the Battle of Long Island, by single handedly holding off superior British and Hessian forces as the Continental Army retreated to save itself from destruction. Unlike other early units, the initial battalion was well trained, well equipped (including bayonets) and well led; that reputation for steady competence followed with its expansion.  With Smallwood absent that day, Stirling was in command. When 2,000 British and Hessian forces under Cornwallis surprised and encircled the Americans, Stirling ordered all forces, other than the four companies of the 1st Maryland and a few Delawareans, to escape.  The Marylanders, who were outside the fortified position on Brooklyn Heights, engaged the British, who were massed around the “Old Stone House,” a thick-walled field stone and brick de facto fortification. Lord Stirling and the “Maryland 400” did the unexpected. They charged towards the Old Stone House with their muskets and bayonets, where (according to a survivor), the British “infantry poured volleys of musket balls in almost solid sheets of lead” at the attackers. Six times the Marylanders charged in fierce fighting, twice actually managing to eject the British from the house. As British reinforcements poured in and American casualties mounted, the survivors were force to withdraw; regiment is a misnomer as few reached American forces.  Two hundred fifty-six lay dead on the field and others, including Stirling, were captured.  Many of those prisoners died in captivity. Their sacrifice allowed the rest of Washington’s army to escape disaster, enabling the retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan Island, thus preserving the fledgling American Army.  Not yet two months after the Declaration of Independence, the collapse and destruction of the Continental Army that day would assuredly have resulted in the collapse of further military operations and the very continuance of a fight for independence.  Following a well-worn pattern, defeat would be followed by the execution of Washington and the other “traitorous rebels” These men merit our recognition that we exist as a county today due to their sacrifice.

     It is “altogether fitting and proper” that on the eve of the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the US Army, the men of the “Maryland 400” be recognized for their service. They deserve a unit tribute on the Wall of Honor at the National Museum of the United States Army.