The Riflemen of the Revolution
THE VIRGINIA AND
MARYLAND COMPANIES
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
/ N THE cool dawn of a summer morn
ing 100 years ago a boy awoke and
looked out from the window of his
home In a little Massachusetts vil
lage. And this Is what he saw:
“Suddenly, as though by magic
summoned, the whole street was
filled with men, marching silently
and swiftly, with moccasined feet, their rac
coon caps pushed back, the green thrums toss
ing on sleeve and thigh.”
The boy rubbed his eyes. He must be dream
ing! And yet—
“On they came, rank on rank, like brown deer
herding through a rock run; and on the hunt
ing-shirts, lettered in white across each breast
appeared the words: 'Liberty or Death!’”
Spell-bound, the boy continued to watch that
"torrent of dusty riflemen passing without a
break.” In another moment they were gone—
their long loping stride had carried them through
the village and out of sight around the bend of
the road which led to Cambridge. But in the
years to come, when that boy became a grand
father, he would tell his grandchildren: “Yes, I
saw the riflemen as they marched north to help
George Washington drive General Gage and his
Britishers out of Boston-town."
*******
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental con
gress passed a resolution that “six companies of
expert riflemen be Immediately raised in the
Colony of Pennsylvania, two in the Colony of
Maryland and two in the Colony of Virginia, and
that each company as soon as completed shall
march to Join the army near Boston, to be there
employed as light infantry under the command
of the chief officer of that army.” Pennsyl
vania’s response was immediate and generous.
She raised nine companies instead of six and
by the middle of July her riflemen were on the
march. By the end of that month two of the
companies had reached Cambridge and by the
middle of August the entire “Battalion of Rifle
men,” commanded by Col. William Thompson,
Lieut. Col. Edward Hand, Maj. Robert Magaw
and Captains John Lowdon, Michael Doudel,
George Nagel, Abraham Miller, Robert Cluggage,
James Chambers, William Hendricks, James Ross
¥ and Matthew Smith, had reported to Washing
ton and had become the “Second Regiment of
the Army of the United States.”
Swift as had been the northward march of
the Pennsylvania frontiersmen, they found, upon
their arrival, that the riflemen of Virginia and
Maryland had been no less prompt in answering
the call of congress. Among the first of the
sharpshooting gentry to reach the scene of action
was a company from Frederick county, Virginia,
commanded by a stalwart fellow whose leader
f ship of these men who bore the long rifle would
make him forever famous. He wTas Daniel Morgan.
Within two years he had become an ensign
In the Virginia militia and during the Pontiac
uprising of 1763 he rose to a captaincy. At the
outbreak of Dunmore’s war in 1774 he was one
of the first to lead a company of frontier militia
against the Indians.
Within ten days after receiving his commis
sion, Morgan had raised a company of 96 Fred
erick county men, many of whom had served
with him in the Dunmore war. On July 14, 1775,
he started north from Winchester. His march
ing orders, according to tradition, was the laconic
and alliterative command: “A beeline for Bos
ton, boys!” Within 21 days he covered the dis
tance of 600 miles, an average of nearly 30 miles
a day, without losing a single man through sick
ness or desertion.
"The achievement of Morgan and his 96 men,”
says Nickerson in his book, "The Turning Point
of the Revolution,” “can be paralleled only by
that of the five hundred men of Marseilles who
in July, 1792, marched 500 miles from the torrid
GEN. DANIEL MORGAN
Mediterranean to I’uris, drugging with them two
little cannon, at the rate of 18 miles a day, and
arrived like Morgan’s company without losing
a man. A third example of rapid and spontane
ous organization combined with such astonish
ing endurance would be hard to find.’’
When the Frederick county riflemen reached
Cambridge, there occurred a dramatic incident
In which there was a touch of pathos as well.
For these Virginians from the beautiful Shen
andoah valley and the wooded slopes of the Blue
xRidge mountains were George Washington’s
"neighbors. Their coming gave that harassed com
mander one of his few bright moments at a time
when the petty bickerings and Intrigues of inter
colonial Jealousy were making his task of build
ing an army seem well-nigh impossible.
Seeing the dust-covered riflemen file into camp,
the commander-in-chief reined in his horse and
asked whence they came. Their leader answered
with words that must have been music to Wash
ington’s ears.
“From the right bank of the Potomac, sir I”
“FROM THE RIGHT BANK OF THE POTOMAC. SIR!”
said Daniel Morgan, and Washington was so
moved by this reply that he dismounted at once
and went along the company front, shaking
hands with each man while tears rolled down
his cheeks.
At the same time that the riflemen of Fred
erick county, Virginia, were speeding north with
Dnn’l Morgan, another company of sharpshoot
ers from another Frederick county—Maryland—
was also on the march. It was commanded by
Capt. Michael Cresap, the son of Col. Thomas
Cresap, a well-known Maryland pioneer. Young
Cresap had been an Indian trader at Redstone,
near the present site of Brownsville, Pa., in
1772. The next year found him making his first
bid for fame as a settler on lands beyond the
Ohio, claimed by George Washington. Here he
persisted in staying, despite Washington’s offer
to pay him for any improvements he had made
if he would depart and despite the threat of a
lawsuit If he didn’t move.
But it remained for an incident at the opening
of the Dunmore war to make the name of Michael
Cresap famous all along the frontier. For he was
unjustly accused of murdering the family of the
great Mingo chief, Logan, who had confused that
massacre with another killing in which Cresap,
as leader of a party of rangers, had been In
volved.
Cresap and his riflemen, 22 of whom had
served with him In the Dunmore war, left Fred
erick on July 18, 1775, and marched the 500 miles
to Cambridge between that date and August 8.
It would be interesting to know what Washing
ton’s feelings were when this erstwhile squatter
on his Ohio lands entered his camp in Cam
bridge. Did His Excellency welcome his arrival
any the less gratefully than he had that of the
Virginia and Pennsylvania sharpshooters. It is
not likely that he did, for in the greatness of
George Washington there was no room for petty
prejudices.
These riflemen, be they Marylanders, Virgin
ians or Pennsylvanians, were men of the same
stripe. They were, as Washington Irving de
scribes them, “stark hunters and bushfighters,
such stalwart fellows as Washington had known
in his early campaigns.” Incidentally, In all
Washington’s orders he persisted in calling them
“Riffle Companies"—proving again that he wus
better as a general than as a speller!
Now that Washington’s “Riffle Men” are here,
take a look at them as they swagger through
the shady streets of Cambridge town, “exciting,”
so Irving tells us, “much gaze and wonder
among the rustic visitors to the camp."
They are dressed for the most part in flannel
shirts, cloth or buckskin breeches, buckskin leg
gings and .moccasins. Over these they wear
fringed hunting shirts, some of brown linen,
some of buckskin, bleached white, and a few of
linsey woolsey. On their heads rest small round
hats or coonskin caps, the sign and symbol of
the frontiersman.
But the most striking part of their costume
Is the display on It of the words “Liberty or
Death!” Lossing, In his “Field Book of the Rev
olution,” says that the legend was spread In
great letters across their hunting shirts, whereas
Graham, Morgan’s chief biographer, places it on
their headgear. But the place where it appeared
is immaterial. The sentiment was the thing that
counted most and it was Patrick Henry's stirring
speech in old St. John’s church In Richmond
which gave them the motto that was their rally
ing cry on many a hard-fought held of the
Revolution.
The remainder of their costume is in keeping
with its Indian origin, even though not all of
them, like Cresap's men, are painted like red
men. Into the leather belt which holds the hunt
ing shirt in at the waist are thrust the toma
hawk and that keen-edged weapon which has
caused their redskin enemies to call all frontiers
men the “Long Knives” or “Big Knives.” The
shot pouch, which contains the small round balls
of lead, the bullet mold and some flax or tow
for cleaning the rifle, hangs from a strap across
the shoulder. There, too, is the powder horn,
scraped and scraped until it is almost us thin
and transparent as isinglass.
In the hollow of their arms or slanting across
their brawny shoulders is tossed carelessly the
long rifle which is so soon to become the terror
of “Tommy Gage's Lobsterlmcks.” For, during
the siege of Boston, many a British soldier
learned to his sorrow that it was not safe to
show his head within 200 yards of these “d—d
widow and orphan-makers,” as they culled the
riflemen. Significant of their deadly accuracy is
the statement of Thacher that "at a review, a
company of them, while on a quick advance,
fired their balls into objects of seven Inches
diameter, at the distance of 250 yards.”
During the autumn of 1775 three companies of
riflemen—Morgan’s Virginians and Smith’s and
Hendricks’ Pennsylvanians—accompanied Arnold
and Montgomery on the expedition to Quebec.
Hendricks was killed during the assault in De
cember and Morgan and most of the riflemen
were taken prisoners. On January 1, 177G, the
army was reorganized, the Pennsylvania Battal
ion of Riflemen became the First Pennsylvania
Regiment of the Continental army and were
placed under the command of Edward Hand as
colonel. Later in the year Morgan returned to
the army through an exchange of prisoners and
became colonel of the Eleventh Virginia regiment
(later designated ns the Seventh) composed of
remnants of the company he had led north from
Frederick at the opening of the war and other
sharpshooters recruited for the regiment.
In June, 1777, Washington, convinced that the
sharpshooting ability of these frontiersmen from
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia might prove
a decisive factor In the war If concentrated In
one unit and led by the right otlicers, decided
to organize such a corps. As a result the “Corps
of Riflemen" or the "Corps of Rangers," (Wash
ington used both names In referring to It) came
Into existence. It was also known ns "Morgan’s
Riflemen" and "Morgan’s Partlzan Corps” be
cause Its colonel was Daniel Morgan. Richard
Butler of the Ninth Pennsylvania was made lieu
tenant-colonel and CapL Joseph Morris of New
Jersey became major.
The captains, according to Wilkinson’s Mem
oirs, were Samuel J. Cabell, Thomas Posey, Ga
briel Long of Maryland (other authorities list
him as a Virginian), Van Swearingen of the
Eighth Pennsylvania, James Parr of the First
Pennsylvania, Hawkins Boone of the Twelfth
Pennsylvania, Matthew Henderson of the Ninth
Pennsylvania and a Captain Knox whose for
mer affiliation is unknown. The corps consisted
of approximately 500 men, transferred from the
various regiments serving in the Continental
line. Of this number Pennsylvanians supplied
193 officers and men, Virginia, 163, and Mary
land, 65.
The riflemen soon Justified Washington’s faith
In their ability and they behaved so gallantly
as to win special mention from His Excellency
In a letter to congress. In It he spoke of "their
conduct and bravery where they constantly ad
vanced upon an enemy far superior in numbers
and well secured behind redoubts."
When the threat of Burgoyne's invasion loomed
on the northern horizon, the commander-in-chief
decided that General Gates needed these rangers
more than he did. In a letter to Gov. George
Clinton of New York he said: “I am forwarding
as fast ns possible to Join the Northern Army,
Col. Morgan’s Corps of Riflemen, amounting to
five hundred. These are all chosen men selected
from the army at large, well acquainted with
the use of rifles, and with that mode of fighting
which Is necessary to make them a good counter
poise to the Indians, and they have distinguished
themselves on a variety of occasions since the
formation of the corps, in skirmishes with the
enemy.”
Morgan and his men were destined to distin
guish themselves even more in the Saratoga cam
paign. They were Invaluable both in the desultory
sniping attacks on Burgoyne’s camp and In
pitched battle. Under the leadership of the dash
ing Benedict Arnold they won laurels on the
bloody field of Freeman's Farm and added to
them at the decisive Battle of Stillwater, al
though Gates basely deprived both Morgan and
Arnold of the credit that was Justly theirs. In
fact, it was at Stillwater that one of the rifle
men fired another ‘‘shot heard ’round the world.”
For when a ball from the rifle of Timothy Mur
phy, the Pennsylvanian, struck down Gen. Simon
Fraser, Burgoyne’s ablest subordinate, he sealed
the doom of luckless “Gentleman Johnny’s”
army and made Saratoga the "turning point of
the Revolution."
Early in 1778 Morgan, whose health had been
broken by the hardships he had undergone, re
turned to his home in Virginia to recuperate.
Thereupon Major Posey, successor to Major
Morris, who had been killed in an engagement
during the winter of 1777, became commander.
But the "Old Wagoner” was back in the Held in
time to lead his riflemen to further honors at the
Battle of Monmouth. Soon afterwards he gave
up the comtnuud again. The corps was broken
up and various companies assigned to different
regiments.
The disbandment ot Morgan’s Rifle Corps
prevented the establishment of what might have
been a splendid tradition in the history of Amer
ican arms. A recent historian has pointed out
that “some years before congress authorized
the raising of ten companies of border riflemen,
George II had looked to the highland border of
north Britain for a regiment to have the virtues
peculiar to the frontier, and ten companies were
raised from the Highlanders whose duty had
been to ‘watch upon the braes’ This regiment
became the Black Watch, famous today. The
famous American rifle corps would have had its
identity preserved in the American army if a
similar useful traditionalism had prevailed in the
United States. It has not and there are no Mor
gan’s Rifles.’’
It is true that there are no "Morgan’s Rifles”
in the American army today. But the glory of
that name is imperishably preserved in the rec
ord of their achievements on the battlefields of
Saratogu and Monmouth and along the trail
which Sullivan, the "Town Destroyer,” blazed
through the gloomy forests of the Iroquois man
try from Tioga to Genesee Castle. And so lrtg
as the story of the struggle for American lib
erty is repeated, so long will "The Riflemen of
the Revolution” be a shining name in the annuls
of our nation.
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