by Richard Morain, Maryland Museum of Military History
Throughout history, there have been heroic stands of a small group of soldiers who, when pitted against a superior force, chose to stand and fight rather than retreat. One such group was the “Maryland 400.” Its actions on August 27, 1776, prevented the defeat of the Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (also known as The Battle of Long Island or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights) from turning into a complete disaster.
The story of the 400 began December 3, 1774. On that day, in a Baltimore tavern, Mordecai Gist, sea captain and merchant, addressed a gathering of the city’s elite. Gist, the newly elected leader of the Baltimore Independent Cadets, read aloud its articles of incorporation. The men who made up the Independent cadets were affluent and motivated. Their wealth allowed them to purchase quality equipment and weapons, including bayonets, a rarity among the other militias. Their motivation spurred them to hold regular drill and practice sessions, tasks that many other militia groups ignored. These two factors contributed to the Cadets becoming a group that would establish for itself a reputation as one of the best elements of the Continental Army.
In January 1776, Maryland authorized the formation of a contingent of troops, the Maryland Battalion, also known as Smallwood’s Battalion, named for its leader, Colonel William Smallwood. The Independent Cadets became the nucleus of the battalion; a quarter of its officers and noncommissioned officers came from the Cadets. Mordecai Gist served as a major in the battalion.
After the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), the British planned to occupy the strategically important city of New York. Anticipating this move but unaware of their plans, Washington divided his forces between Manhattan, where he thought the main British force would land, and Brooklyn. At Brooklyn, some ten thousand American soldiers - many of them untrained and underequipped militia – found themselves facing close to twenty thousand British and Hessian troops commanded by General William Howe.
Utilizing a plan devised by General Sir Henry Clinton, Howe split his forces into three groups. A force of five thousand British soldiers commanded by General James Grant would engage the American right. A Hessian column commanded by General Leopold von Heister would move against the American center. Meanwhile, the bulk of the British army, ten thousand strong, commanded by Clinton and Howe would travel down the Jamaican Road. As the road ran behind the American forces, the British would be in a position to launch attacks on both the American left flank and its rear.
When the diversionary attacks began, 1600 militiamen from Maryland and Delaware under the command of William Alexander, the self-titled Lord Stirling, were on the right flank. They anchored their right flank against the Gowanus Creek and the marshland surrounding its banks. As the Americans fought against the British and Hessian holding forces, Howe’s main force advanced unopposed down the Jamaican Road. With the attention of the Americans fixed on the two diversionary attacks, they were surprised by the appearance of the British force to their left and rear. This forced the Continental Army to retreat. Ordering the Delaware and most of the Maryland soldiers to retreat across the creek, Alexander formed a rearguard from the remaining Marylanders. These were the 400.
With the British pressure coming from the left, they drove many of the retreating soldiers towards the creek and its marshlands. Adjacent to this route was the Vechte-Cortelyou House, a stone structure occupied by a British force, including two cannons, commanded by Lord Cornwallis. Alexander ordered the rearguard to assault the position to prevent the British from blocking the retreating Americans. With Mordecai Gist in charge of the Marylanders, Alexander, at the head of the formation, led at least two (sources vary as to the number of attempts) charges against the fortified position. The British repulsed each one. Witnessing the valiant attempts from heights overlooking the battlefield, Washington is quoted as saying, “My God! What brave fellows I must this day lose!”
Although they did not capture the position, Stirling and his men occupied the British and prevented them from following the retreating American forces. Of the approximately four hundred troops who took part in the assault, the British killed two hundred and fifty-six and captured over one hundred of them. Mordecai Gist and less than a dozen men managed to escape. Gist would go on to fight in numerous battles and would be present for Lord Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown on October 18, 1781.
George Washington relied heavily on the soldiers of Maryland throughout the rest of the war. They saw action at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Camden, and Guilford Court House. The lineage of this unit is perpetuated by the 175th Infantry Regiment of the Maryland National Guard.
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