Early in the war, Washington had a difficult time keeping enlistees from running off when they heard the first shots of battle, let alone maintaining discipline as a fighting unit. Of the original 1,200-man regiment, only four had formal military training. The young volunteers were a cross section of the colony of Maryland: wealthy merchants’ sons, dockworkers, school kids and free and enslaved black youth. The reality was almost as astonishing as the battle. When I began the research for my book Saving Washington, I assumed that the regiment was a highly trained unit of battle-tested soldiers. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter So, who were these young soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the liberty of future generations? What motivated them? Why isn’t this pivotal moment more celebrated? The British found Brooklyn Heights abandoned. He was heard crying, “Good God! What brave fellows I must lose this day!”īut the young patriots had succeeded in diverting British attention long enough for Washington and the army to escape. Washington was brought to tears as he watched the selfless bravery of his young soldiers. The rest were captured or mortally wounded. In the end, only a handful of Marylanders managed to escape the majority were killed. The Marylanders attacked the British six times, losing scores of men with each surge, then regrouping and hurling themselves again and again at the dazed Brits, in what can be best described as a bloody street brawl. Believing the British commanding general was stationed in a stone house at the army’s center, the regiment shocked the overwhelming British war force with an unexpected, targeted assault. Rallying his remaining 400 men, Major Mordecai Gist turned them toward the massive British war force. The First Maryland Regiment was deployed to bring up the rear and, sensing imminent disaster, it did the unthinkable. Washington was quickly running out of time to retreat and the American Revolution was on the verge of being extinguished. Commandeering whatever would float, Washington’s only hope was to use the strong East River current and an unexpected blanket of fog to his advantage and evacuate as many men as possible from Brooklyn Heights to the safety of Manhattan before the British could mobilize and reposition their Navy.
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