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Continental Army riflemen skirmishing with enemy troops at the Battle of Saratoga

The Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment was organized in June 1776 as a light infantry unit of riflemen in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The regiment consisted of nine companies – four from Maryland and five from Virginia – and was directly responsible to national authority as an Extra Continental regiment. Most of the regiment surrendered to British and German forces at the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. However, a portion of the unit continued to serve actively in the Continental Army throughout most of the remainder of the war. Elements of the regiment served with George Washington's main army and participated in its major engagements. Select members of the unit were also attached to Colonel Daniel Morgan's elite Provisional Rifle Corps. The regiment was reorganized in January 1779 and stationed at Fort Pitt, headquarters of the Continental Army's Western Department, in present-day western Pennsylvania. Disbanded in January 1781, it was the longest serving Continental Army rifle unit of the war. (Full article...)