Military Units and Formations of the Continental Army - Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, 2nd Canadian Regiment (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 37. Chapters: Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, 2nd Canadian Regiment, List of Continental Army units, 1st American Regiment, Commander-in-Chief's Guard, 1st Canadian Regiment, Extra Continental regiments and Additional Continental regiments, 3rd Continental Light Dragoons, 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, 1st Continental Light Dragoons, 1st Delaware Regiment, Lee's Legion, 4th Continental Light Dragoons, Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment, Ottendorf's Corps, Armand's Legion, Pulaski's Legion, Nicholas Dietrich, Baron de Ottendorf. Excerpt: The Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, most commonly known as Rawlings' Regiment in period documents, was organized in June 1776 as a specialized light infantry unit of riflemen in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The American rifle units complemented the predominant, musket-equipped, line infantry forces of the war with their long-range marksmanship capability and were typically deployed with the line infantry as forward skirmishers and flanking elements. Scouting, escort, and outpost duties were also routine. The rifle units' battle formation was not nearly as structured as that of the line infantry units, which employed short-range massed firing in ordered linear formations. The riflemen could therefore respond with more adaptability to changing battle conditions. The Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment consisted of nine companies-four from Maryland and five from Virginia. The two-state composition of the new unit precluded it from being managed through a single state government, and it was therefore directly responsible to national authority as an Extra Continental regiment. Because most of the newly formed regiment surrendered to British and German forces at the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, the service history of the unit's survi...