Welcome to Finding the Maryland 400

The stand of the Maryland 400 at the Battle of Brooklyn.
Detail, Alonzo Chappel, The Battle of Long Island, 1858, oil on canvas; M1986.29.1. Brooklyn Historical Society.

Welcome to Finding the Maryland 400, a website dedicated to Maryland’s first Revolutionary War soldiers, who saved the Continental Army in 1776.

This project is a partnership between the Maryland State Archives and the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, studying the First Maryland Regiment. At the Battle of Brooklyn (also called the Battle of Long Island), the heroic stand of the “Maryland 400” held back the British Army, allowing the rest of the Americans to escape total destruction, at the cost of many Maryland lives.

You can read biographies of all known Maryland 400 soldiers here.

You can learn more about the lives of these soldiers, their military service, and their communities by our featured blog posts or our list of all posts

You can help support Finding the Maryland 400.
Make a donation to the Friends of the Maryland State Archives, and designate it for the Maryland 400!
Thank you for your support!

If you have questions or suggestions, please get in touch with us at msamaryland400@gmail.com.

Scroll down to read our latest posts!

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 seize some military supplies held by local rebellious militias, and he finds himself in the middle of the battles of Concord and Lexington. 

Written in simple language, the book accurately relates the history of the battles, while giving readers a clear and authentic view of how ordinary foot soldiers could have experienced them. In a note at the end, the author explains, “Just as it takes two sides to make a war, so there must be two stories for every battle. Sometimes they are alike. Other times they are wildly different. This is a guess at how the British soldiers felt before and during the battles at Lexington and Concord. As guesses go, it should not be too far wrong.” The story is not concerned with big historical events. Instead, we see the perspective of a lowly infantry soldier in the middle of a mission that he doesn’t fully understand and that goes wrong from the start. 

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 the worst American defeats of the war. The American Southern Army, mostly composed of Marylanders, was left shattered, with hundreds of men killed or captured, and the survivors scattered across the Carolina countryside.

In late 2022, the bodies of ten Maryland soldiers killed at the Battle of Camden, along with two who fought for the British, were exhumed from the shallow graves in which they had lain since 1781. This gave archeologists the chance to learn more about the battle and the men–and boys–who fought there, and ensured that the soldiers could be reburied in better protected graves. One surprising finding was how young the Marylanders were: several were only 15 or 16 years old. That is much younger than most of the soldiers who fought as the Maryland 400 at the Battle of Brooklyn, whose average age was around 24.

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 society on the brink, riven by the question of independence. Not all colonists supported independence from England. Some opposed the revolution passively and peacefully, but others turned to violence. Maryland in particular suffered a great deal of political struggle and strife during the war. In some areas, especially the Eastern Shore, the level of pro-British sentiment made the daily operation of government almost impossible. Baltimore was a microcosm of the internal Revolutionary struggle: it had a large population of Loyalists, a sizable community of Quakers who opposed independence on religious grounds, and Maryland’s most militant pro-Revolution organization, the Whig Club. 

James O’Hara, The Blind Soldier Who Got The Most Help From Maryland

Dear Finding the Maryland 400 Readers,

Today is the 247th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, which seems like the right time to start posting again. It’s been a little while since we’ve posted anything. That doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy: a book is in the works featuring all the biographies of Maryland 400 soldiers and lots of other research about the Maryland Line. Right now, we’re going through the laborious process of editing all the text. 

While that’s been going on, we’re still finding small pieces of new information about the First Maryland Regiment and its soldiers. Most of what we find are pretty minor changes. But we recently discovered the identity of a new Maryland 400 soldier, and one with an amazing story at that.

James O’Hara enlisted in the Fifth Company in January 1776. We didn’t know about him before because the company’s muster roll is torn, and only 36 soldiers are listed out of roughly 70 total. Through other sources, we’ve been able to locate about 10 others who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn. We learned about O’Hara from a letter a military doctor wrote on his behalf. O’Hara fell sick in 1776, ultimately losing his eyesight. 

Exciting Project News!

I am very happy to share the news that we have recently completed the last of our biographies. They are all now complete!

The Maryland Line and The Creation of the Society of the Cincinnati

As the Revolutionary War drew to a close, Continental Army officers and their French allies wanted an effective way to preserve the values they had fought for and the intense camaraderie that they had developed throughout the war. Major General Henry Knox proposed an organization which would do exactly that in May of 1783: the Society of the Cincinnati. At least twenty-four members of the Maryland 400 joined the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland in its inception. Today’s post will take a closer look at the origins of the national Society of the Cincinnati and its Maryland branch, as well as the early problems the society encountered. [1]

A statue of Cincinnatus located in Cincinnati, Ohio’s Sawyer Point Park.

What’s In a Name: Military Ranks

Military terminology can be confusing. Finding the Maryland 400 has previously worked on a glossary of military units to help readers better understand the differences between companies, regiments, and battalions. Today’s post will cover a glossary of important military ranks, describing each position’s duties as explained mainly by Baron Friedrich von Steuben. Steuben, inspector general of the Continental Army, wrote a manual of war during the winter of 1778-1779 titled Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. The manual, the result of Steuben’s intense training program, described the ideal versions of officer duties. 

A 1909 watercolor by Charles M. Lefferts depicting the uniforms of various soldiers in the Continental Army.

Revisiting the Capture and Escape of the McMillan Brothers

Samuel and William McMillan, two brothers who enlisted in the First Maryland Regiment, fought in the Battle of Brooklyn, where Hessian soldiers captured them and decimated their company. Taken to Halifax, the two brothers were part of a group that made a daring escape, desperate to return familiar territory. Although Finding the Maryland 400 has previously discussed their escape, we recently revisited the topic when updating Samuel McMillan’s biography. After thoroughly examining pension applications made by both brothers, we can now present a more detailed and accurate version of what William McMillan referred to as “a most painful tour.” Full transcriptions of two of the most important sources within the pension can be found here and here. [1]

This 1774 map shows many of the locations that William McMillan mentions throughout the McMillan pensions, including Halifax, St. John, Casco Bay, and Boston. You can view the full version of this map here.

What does “Maryland 400” mean?

The term “Maryland 400” seems obvious enough—isn’t it the number of soldiers from Maryland who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn? A recent news story about the battle, for example, referenced the “regiment of just 400 Maryland soldiers” who took on the British. The meaning, however, is more than just a matter of arithmetic. [1]

Where were the Maryland 400 Buried?

We frequently receive questions about where the Maryland 400 are buried. Popular folklore, advanced by prominent historians and public figures like Sir Patrick Stewart, suggests that a single mass grave existed, traditionally said to be located on Brooklyn’s Third Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Street. A more recent version of this theory suggested that a mass burial ground existed beneath a concrete lot between Ninth Street and Third Avenue. Following an archaeological study of the lot in 2017, we know there are no human remains there. However, a mystery still remains: Where did those brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives on August 27, 1776 likely end up? 

This New York State Historic Marker, located outside of Brooklyn’s American Legion Post 1636, honors the Marylanders who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn but does not tell the entire story.