ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland 400 made a courageous stand at the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776, sacrificing themselves so George Washington's army could survive to fight on.
The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's ride and Washington crossing the Delaware are well-known flashpoints contributing to the birth of the nation 250 years ago. But almost forgotten are the 400 Marylanders who changed the course of history.
Finding the Maryland 400: The soldiers who saved the American Revolution
The largest single battle of the entire American Revolutionary War pitted more than 30,000 British and Hessian troops against a force just a fraction of that size. If not for a small battalion from Maryland, it could have spelled the end of the retreating Continental Army.
Owen Lourie, senior research analyst at the Maryland State Archives, has spent more than a decade trying to learn more about each one of them.
"It was the first time most of these American soldiers had been in battle and it was the first time that most of the American leadership had led a battle. Even George Washington, it was the first time that he tried to oversee a battle with that many soldiers and he struggled with that," Lourie said.
"They face this huge number of British soldiers and they decide to fight them and this is the famous stand of the Maryland 400 as we now call them," Lourie said.
While the First Maryland Regiment numbered about 1,000 men throughout the entirety of the battle, only about half of them made that final stand. As many as 4 out of every 5 were killed or captured as they attacked the superior force.
Lourie has authored a book on "Finding the Maryland 400" set for release later this year.
"Some of them go on to be quite famous. There are three future governors who fight at the Battle of Brooklyn for Maryland, all sorts of prominent officials. Samuel Smith who later is in Congress for 40 years who saves Baltimore during the War of 1812. He's there, but we've also been able to learn who the rest of them are, because mostly they didn't go on to be famous. Mostly, they're just people," Lourie said.
Those people were rich and poor, skilled and unskilled, farmers and indentured servants. Among them was 19-year-old William Sands of Annapolis, who wrote a letter to his parents in the days leading up to the battle.
"And he closes it by saying, 'We expect to winter in Annapolis, those that live of us', and sadly, William Sands is not one of those who returns to Annapolis. He's killed at the Battle of Brooklyn," Lourie said.
A few weeks after the battle, the Maryland Gazette carried news of the army's defeat with a quote from General George Washington, who upon witnessing from afar the Maryland Regiment's courageous stand said, "Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!"
Washington would later refer to these elite soldiers as his "Old Line," which is how Maryland earned the nickname "The Old Line State" — all because 400 men not only stood their ground, but repeatedly advanced against the enemy, many of them sacrificing their own lives so their fellow patriots could live to fight another day.
"Nobody else is like Washington and just his presence keeps the army there and I think it would have been really hard for the Americans to rebuild the army if Washington's men are gone and who knows what happens to Washington. Is Washington captured? Is Washington killed during the battle? I think that's hard to see the revolution continuing in any real way," Lourie said.
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