join General Washington's army. It marched to Philadelphia, and from there was promptly dispatched by John Hancock, President of the Congress, to the "Flying Camp" of the army before New York. On 27 August 1776 the Continentals fought a large British Army force. Smallwood's men, led by Major Gist, lost nearly half of their number at the Battle of Long Island in an attempt to halt the British advance. The British, under General Howe, flanked the American positions, and General Washington ordered a withdrawal to the mainland. In order to allow the army to escape capture, Smallwood's men were ordered to attack the British forces and hold them long enough to give the American army time to withdraw across Long Island Sound. During the following weeks, the regiment fought at Harlem Heights, Fort Washington, and White Plains. Several times during these engagements the Marylanders performed missions at the particular direction of General Washington. At this time, on 1 December 1776, enlistments, which the Congress had authorized only to that date, expired throughout the army. Although practically all of the Maryland troops re-enlisted, the losses from the battles around New York, combined with the expired enlistments, made necessary a reorganization of the army. In doing so, General Washington organized all of the Maryland troops into seven regiments of the line in the Maryland Brigade, which collectively became known as the "Maryland Line." Smallwood's regiment was too depleted in numbers to form a regiment to itself but it gave many men and officers, including one of the subsequent wartime commanders, to the Fifth Regiment of the Line, and on 10 December 1776, Colonel William Richardson assumed command of the new regiment. According to the historian James McSherry, writing of the Maryland Line during the Revolutionary War, "No troops in the continental army had rendered better service, endured more fatigue, or won greater glory than the Maryland Line. In proportion to their number, no body of men suffered more severely. They were the first to use the bayonet against the experienced regulars of the enemy, and that in their earliest battle -- and throughout the succeeding struggles of the war, they were most often called on to lead with that bloody weapon into the ranks of the foe. They seldom shrank from the encounter. At Long Island, a fragment of the battalion shook, with repeated charges, a whole brigade of British regulars. At