Reference: The Public Advertiser, 3 October 1755, London as cited in Vol 1. Introduction to the American Colonial Militia, James Biser Whisker from The Colonial American Militia, 1606-1785: An Introduction

    When the letter from Congress authorizing the enlisting of two companies of Maryland "light infantry" had reached Frederick, it was resolved that the companies be raised immediatedly, the first to be under the command of Captain Michael Cresap, with Thomas Warner, Joseph Cresap, Jr., and Richard davis, Jr., lieutenants; the second to be under Thomas Price, captain; with Otho Holland Williams and John Ross Key as lieutenants. {Michael Cresap has but recently returned from active Indian fighting in what may be called the first step towards the acquisition by the United States of the great Northwest, the second step being the expedition of George Rogers Clark, and the third and last the donation of that territory by Virginia, in deference to the insistence of Maryland; for Maryland, as will be seen, refused to accede to the first Union until this territory was so ceded.  Michael Cresap had been falsely accused of murdering the family of Chief Logan (Cf. Brantz Mayer's Tah-Gah-Jute, and Jacob's Life of Cresap).  He was the youngest son of Colonel Thomas Cresap.}

    Apparently there was magic power in the Cresap name; so that the mere word that Michael Cresap was to command one of these companies brought daring riflemen 100 miles and more from the farthest reaches of western Maryland.  They had left behind in the forest their families and their all to march to the far-distant camp at Cambridge.

    Not to be outdone, the nearby Virginians were organizing under Captain Daniel Morgan at Morgan's Spring only twenty-five miles away.  The rival companies of Virginia and Maryland riflemen met at Frederick, and it became a point of pride as to which company should beat the others in the race to be the first at Boston.  In Force's American Archives there is to be found a "letter to a gentleman in Philadelphia" dated Fredericktown, August 1, 1775, which thus describes the appearance of Cresap and his men: "I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of upwards of one hundred and thirty men from the mountains and back woods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting-shirts and moccasins."  The writer, himself perhaps a visiting Philadelphian of the then "effete East," was particularly amazed at a special display of the marksmanship of these men, described as follows: "A clap-board, with a mark the size of a dollar, was put up; they began to fire off-hand, and the by-standers were surprised, few shots being made that were not close to or in the paper.  When they had shot for a time in this way, some lay on their backs, some on their breast or side, others ran twenty or thirty steps, and firing, appeared to be equally certain of the mark."

    Although Cresap was then in such ill health that he fell a victim to a fever less than three months later, his company was among the first to reach Cambridge.  Cresap and Morgan marched together from Cambridge to Roxbury and their arrival was described by Thacher, in part, as follows: "They are remarkably stout and hardy men; many of them exceeding six feet in height.  * * * They are now stationed on our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers who expose themselves to view even at more than double the distance of common musket shot."

Reference: Tercentenary History of Maryland, Vol. I, Matthew Page Andrews, at 542-544, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago and Baltimore (1925).

    According to Sawyer in Firearms in American History, the long rifle of the Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania frontiersmen should go down in historical narrative with the various appliances which, form time to time, have revolutionized warfare; such as the scythe-chariot, the mass-phalanx, the yew-bow, the pilus, the cavalry horse, and cannon. The long rifle was an American invention, the effective development of which began about the middle of the eighteenth century. This rifle deserves to rank with the foregoing death dealing agencies for the reason that it was the first such weapon to assure, if properly handled, a straight shot at a distant foe.

    In the British regular army there were no such effective riflemen. The government hired some hundreds of mercenaries from Germany and Switzerland, but their rifles did not shoot so accurately. In their case the bullets were flattened by hard ramming and the barrels had no rear sight. On the other hand, the American backwoodsman had evolved the use of a small square of greased rag (cut very carefully to uniform size and kept ready in a little box), which caused the bullet to slip down easily. The insertion of the rag made the part in which the powder lay airtight, giving better explosion. This long rifle, when once found reliable, was carefully, even affectionately, kept in order and handed down from father to son. When not in use it hung over the great fireplace in the home which it protected.

    The British regulars with their wild-shooting muskets were not accustomed to aiming; they held the gun horizontally and pulled the trigger. If there happened to be a regiment in front within a hundred yards, they might easily do some execution; but, when they sought decisive results, they charged with their bayonets.[Andrew's Note: Lossing's Fieldbook, Vol. II, p. 237, says that at Princeton the American riflemen after firing three times, were obliged, not having bayonets, to run for it, til they reached the Continental line, when the turned about and faced the enemy again.]

    As soon as he took command of the Continental forces, General Washington summoned the "Long Rifles" from the frontiers of the Middle States, and "began to teach the haughty British officer" a due regard for this new weapon of warfare. While some of the "Long Rifles" were clearing the mountain slopes of hostile Indians, others were drawn into the American service in the Southern States in great numbers, until under their great backwoodsman leader, Daniel Morgan, and other commanders they had helped to drive the British regulars and American Tories out of the Carolinas and had closed upon Cornwallis at York Town.[Andrew's Note: Just what the introduction of the "long rifle" into the sphere of war meant can best be seen from a consideration of the battle of New Orleans in 1815, where behind breast works (which compensated for the lack of bayonets) a force of "hunting-shirt men" from the backwoods stood off in battle onslaught a superior number of regular British troops -- some of whom had taken part in the attack upon Baltimore, together with several crack regiments fresh from victory over Napoleon's generals. In 25 minutes these riflemen had killed or disabled 2,000 of the British, losing only 71 killed and wounded. A few months later, these British regiments withstood and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.]