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| UNIFORMS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION This regiment was made up from three independent companies from Baltimore and six companies from Annapolis, and was composed of young men of the highest type. The first company to be organized was recruited in Baltimore, in December, 1774, and was known as the Baltimore Independent Cadets, under Captain Mordecai Gist. They were dressed and equipped as shown in the drawing. This uniform of red faced with buff was also adopted by the other companies formed in Baltimore. The Annapolis companies were not all uniformed as given above, but when the state called for troops, and these companies from both Baltimore and Annapolis were formed into the Maryland regiment under Colonel William Smallwood, the dress adopted for both officers and men was the well known hunting frock of the period, and they were not all required to be of the same color. It was in these hunting frocks that they joined the Army at New York in 1776. There is no question but that some of the officers had their scarlet uniforms with them in the campaign of 1776, but it is very doubtful if they were worn in the field. [REFERENCES: Maryland Archives, XI, 110-111, XVIII, 4 seq.; Force's American Archives, 4th series, V, 1527, 1533, VI, 566; (Alexander Graydon's) Memoirs of a Life (Harrisburgh, Pa., 1811), p. 157; Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington by G. W. P. Custis (N. Y., 186o), pp. 264-265; see post for descriptions of deserters; the articles of organization of the Baltimore Independent Cadets are printed in Scharf's History of Baltimore City and County, p. 70.] |
| Smallwood's Maryland Regiment, 1776
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