Veterans of the Old Line
The first regiment of full-time professional soldiers from Maryland to fight for the Continental Army saved the revolution in August of 1776. Against a much larger, better-prepared British force, 450 to 500 Marylanders valiantly defended themselves and their new nation.
“Through a series of charges, they kept the British bottled up so that the rest of the American forces could get off the battlefield,” said historian Owen Lourie, project director for Finding the Maryland 400 at the Maryland State Archives. “In doing so, they suffered extremely heavy casualties, but they literally saved the Army.”
This regiment is known as The Maryland 400.
“It’s not completely clear how they became known as the Maryland 400,” Lourie explained, as the actual number was larger. “We believe that it’s a Victorian allusion to the Spartan 300 rather than a direct indication of the number of men who fought.”
The First Maryland Regiment was composed of 900 to 1,000 men from around the state, including one company from the Annapolis area.
It was also known as the Old Line, which is the source of Maryland’s nickname, the Old Line State. Toward the end of the war and after, George Washington referred to the First Maryland Regiment as his Old Line because they were well established and reliable. During Revolutionary War battles, regiments fought lined up, facing the enemy. Each line was referred to as the Maryland Line or the Massachusetts Line rather than their company name.
The Maryland State Archives, with funding from the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, is working on a project called Finding the Maryland 400.
“We are working to identify and write biographies on the men who served in the First Maryland Regiment,” Lourie said. Currently, 850 of the names have been identified. Read biographies of some 250 at https://msamaryland
400.wordpress.com/.
A marker in Brooklyn commemorates the bravery of the Maryland 400, but Maryland has no statue or marker. Calvert Countian Bob Parker would like a statue erected in Maryland.
“I can’t believe that Maryland has all but forgotten about them,” Parker said. “They saved the American Army, and I would like to see them remembered.”