Carroll 250: Voices of the Maryland 400

In August 1776, the Continental Army suffered a terrible defeat at the Battle of Brooklyn, the first major battle of the Revolutionary War. The battle nearly saw the complete destruction of the American army, but a desperate stand by a contingent of Maryland soldiers helped to stave off the British and allow the Americans to fight another day.

Learn more about these soldiers, now called the Maryland 400, and hear first-hand accounts of their actions at the battle, including comments from Carroll County's own Mordecai Gist. This talk will also discuss the lives of several soldiers from the unit, exploring them and their families during and after the Revolutionary War.

Owen Lourie is a senior archivist at the Maryland State Archives specializing in Maryland government and military history during the colonial era and early republic. He holds an M.A. in history from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a B.A. from Kenyon College in American Studies. Owen is the director of Finding the Maryland 400, a research project studying the First Maryland Regiment. He is the author of "Maryland’s Jews, Military Service, and the American Revolutionary Era: The Case of Elias Pollock," an article which appeared in The Journal of Southern Jewish History, and is currently at work on a social history of the Maryland Line, chronicling the soldiers of the Maryland 400 during the Revolutionary War.

This program is sponsored by the Carroll County Genealogical Society.

This program is part of the Carroll 250 Speaker Series celebrating the United States Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence.