Maryland Center of Military History

01/03/2025

Most people are aware of the surprise attack on the Hessian forces at Trenton, NJ, on Christmas night, 1776. What may be less known are the crucial ten days afterward, and how tenuous the American cause was.

One-year enlistments were running out and men had quietly leaving to return to their homes. On New Year’s Eve, 1776, General Washington addressed his men in a plea to stay with the army. More than half of the men agreed to stay, keeping the cause alive and allowing Washington to plan for another thrust at the British.

In the early hours of January 2, 1777, the Americans waited for the British counterattack at a bridge on the Assunpink Creek that led to Trenton. Once across the Delaware River, there was no return for the Americans. Three times the British launched an attack across the bridge and each time they were driven back.

In danger of being surrounded, Washington gambled again on a surprise attack. Late on the 2nd, the men of Maryland and Delaware attached to General Hugh Mercer’s brigade led the Americans north of Princeton and early on January 3rd struck the British garrison. During the vicious battle, Mercer fell mortally wounded, causing a panic along the lines. Washington rode to the front of the line and called on the men to rally around him in a counterattack. The surprised British soldiers broke ranks and fled through the streets of Princeton. Those remaining surrendered to the victorious Americans.

These ten days reinvigorated the Continental cause at a tremendous cost of Maryland. Out of a 700- strong battalion, only around 100 survived in the army by January 1777.

12/22/2024

Happy Holidays from the Maryland Center of Military History!

"SSG Frank Wiener and T/4 Robert Hughes of the 29th Infantry Division decorate their Quarters in Aldenhoven, Germany December 15th 1945."

29th Division Association 29th Division Museum

12/16/2024

This past weekend members of the Maryland Center of Military History joined volunteers from across the state to decorate the graves of veterans interred at the Baltimore National Cemetery as part of Wreaths Across America.

Following wreath laying, Historians from the Maryland National Guard led other volunteers on a walking tour to learn the story of Maryland Guardsmen interred at the cemetery. Each "story behind the stone" allowed visitors to connect with the sacrifices and lives of Maryland veterans of World War I and World War II.

12/10/2024

Members of the Maryland Center of Military History will join with volunteers from across the state December 14th at Baltimore National Cemetery to participate in "Wreaths Across America." This national initiative remembers veterans and their sacrifices by placing wreaths at veteran cemeteries across the nation.

The program will begin at 1200 hours with a brief ceremony, followed by the wreath laying. Volunteers can then join Maryland National Guard historians on a walking tour of 10 Maryland National Guard veterans interred in the cemetery, learning about their service and sacrifice both in and out of uniform.

We hope to see you there!

12/03/2024

Happy 250th Anniversary to the Maryland National Guard’s Oldest Unit, the 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment!

On December 3rd, 1774, Baltimore merchant and patriot revolutionary Mordecai Gist organized the “Baltimore Independent Cadets,” a militia company made up of 58 volunteers who sought to learn military discipline and train as soldiers in defense of Maryland.

In the 250 years since the 175th Infantry has served in nearly every major American conflict, from the plains of Long Island in 1776 to the sands of Iraq in 2007. The unit has also supported countless missions within the state responding to fires, blizzards, pandemics, and providing support to civil authorities.

Happy Birthday to the “Dandy Fifth” and all its members past and present!

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

This edition of the 29 "Let's Go" Newspaper published November 23rd, 1944, provided many reasons for soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division serving in France to be thankful: Life, Liberty, Happiness, Progress, Home Backing, Truth, a Sense of Humor, and Hardship.

By November of '44 soldiers of the Division had forged their way through a beachhead landing, the hedgerows of Normandy, the streets of St. Lo, and the ports of Brest earning a legacy of one of the most hard fighting Divisions in the ETO. Veterans of the Division would face several more months of hard fighting, but as they settled down to dinner in the field, they could be proud of the standard they had set.

As we sit down with our families, lets remember those who came before us, and all we have to be thankful for!

11/26/2024

The Maryland Military Museum will be closed the week of Thanksgiving. Have a peaceful and safe holiday!

11/11/2024

On this day, Maryland Governor Wes Moore will be posthumously commissioning Harriet Tubman into the Maryland Army National Guard as a Brigadier General. Below is a brief history of her service in support of the Union during the Civil War.

Tubman was born enslaved in Dorchester County, MD about 1820. She self-emancipated in 1849 and settled in Massachusetts, but returned to Maryland at least 7 times to rescue first her family and then as many enslaved people as she could.

In early 1862, at the urging of Massachusetts Governor John Andrews, she traveled to Beaufort, SC to work for the newly organized Department of the South. She first used her skills as a nurse, cook, and go-between to assist the growing number of Black refugees that gathered around Port Royal. This was a transition period for the Union military in their regulations, attitude, and actions toward the fugitives, and Harriet became the liaison between the military and the freedom seekers. By gaining the trust of the Black fugitives, Harriet learned valuable information regarding the area and the disposition of Confederate forces. This information she passed to the Union commanders. In return, she brought the basic needs of the refugee camps to their attention. Tubman also gathered valuable intelligence from the watermen and river guides by accompanying them on military expeditions along the rivers.

By late 1862, the Dept. of the South’s commander directed Harriet to officially recruit men as scouts to infiltrate and map out the region. Harriet quickly built a team of Sea Island Blacks and Lowcountry water pilots who worked for the Department of the South’s scouting service, with Harriet reporting directly to the Brigade commander, Colonel James Montgomery, and Major General David Hunter, the commander of the Department of the South.

The first mission for Tubman’s team was to provide intelligence reports on the number of Black men who could join a military operation against the Confederate forces in Jacksonville, Florida. Based on Tubman’s intelligence reports, Montgomery led the new 1st and 2nd South Carolina Black Volunteers, supported by the 7th Connecticut Regiment, to capture the city and free enslaved people with almost no casualties in March 1863. Afterward, the 2nd South Carolina with Tubman continued up the St. Johns River to free and recruit enslaved men and engage any Confederate forces.

This successful mission based on accurate and timely intelligence led to Tubman assisting in the planning and ex*****on of the Combahee River Raid. The Combahee region grew rice and cotton for the Confederacy and was a railroad junction from which the Union Army could reach Charleston and Savannah. In four separate reconnaissance missions, Tubman and her scouts provided intelligence about the river, the rice paddy canals, the location of Confederate water torpedoes in the river, the location of bridges and railroad trestles, and the strength of the military guard.

Beginning in the early morning hours, the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers and a Rhode Island unit, with Tubman in the forward boat, successfully navigated the waters and first destroyed railroad bridges and supply lines, cutting off Confederate forces from the plantations. Then they destroyed rice mills, cotton gins, sawmills, harvested rice, rice barns, plantation houses and out buildings. They broke down floodgates that held back the saltwater and flooded the rice fields. While this was happening, the enslaved laborers began to flee to the Union boats. This one raid, 25 miles into enemy territory, destroyed tens of thousands of dollars in property and crops and ensured the loss of two to three years of vital cotton and rice harvests for the Confederate troops. What is more, it also robbed the region of more than 750 persons from their forced labor. In the broader context the raid proved to the country that Black men in uniform were just as fit, just as intelligent, and just as able to execute a military operation as their White counterparts.

Tubman continued to provide intelligence for additional raids conducted into early 1864. As she worked with the refugees in the Contraband Hospital in Beaufort, she also gathered intelligence from them of the area. In 1864, Lieutenant George Garrison, son of William Lloyd Garrison, wrote that “she has made it a business to see all contrabands escaping from the rebels and is able to get more intelligence from them than anyone else.”

Tubman made herself useful to the Union cause in whatever capacity she could. When working as a nurse, she gathered intelligence. When working as a scout, she calmed the frightened fugitives. Passing as an illiterate enslaved person or homely fugitive, Tubman’s keen intelligence and leadership characteristics helped to destroy southern economy and slavery in the Confederacy breadbasket and led to the acceptance of 180,000 Black soldiers into the Union Army.

The Maryland National Guard is proud to honor this unsung veteran of the Civil War.

Photograph of Harriet Tubman, taken in Auburn, New York, c. 1868–69.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-54230)

11/11/2024

Happy Veterans Day! This first post is for those of us who fly or maintain the aircraft so the United States can command the air.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

09/16/2024

Honor Flight Arizona visits Maryland Museum of Military History May 17, 2024 Article and Photos by Chazz Kibler BALTIMORE – Vietnam veterans and their guardians with Honor Flight Arizona embarked on a journey to see the war memorials in Washington and capped off the trip with a visit to the Maryla...

09/16/2024

in 1945 the 115th Infantry received the Presidential Unit Citation.

Presented by Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt, commander of the 29th Division, the 115th earned this award for their actions at Saint Laurent Sur Mer during D-Day.

Today the 115th Infantry no longer exists as a separate unit, but the citation pinned to the jackets of the men in the 115th in 1945 hangs today from the colors of its descendent units like the 1-175th Infantry Regiment, 224th Medical Company, 729th Quartermaster Company, 200th Military Police Company, 1229th Transportation Company, and the 115th Military Police Battalion.

For more information about the Maryland National Guard in WWII, check out the Maryland Center of Military History page or stop by the Fifth Regiment Armory and visit the museum in person!

09/11/2024

The Maryland Military Museum in the Fifth Regiment Armory will be closed to visitors on 17 September

09/11/2024

Maryland National Guard Honors a Cheltenham WWII KIA

The remains of PFC Lemuel Dent, Jr., killed in WWII during the Italian campaign, were reinterred on September 5 at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery with military honors from the MDNG Honor Guard and a graveside ceremony attended by MDNG TAG and local veterans’ clubs’ members.

Dent, an African American, enlisted in the Army in 1942 in Pennsylvania and was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division, nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers. At that time, the U.S. army was segregated with limited numbers of Black soldiers, despite increasing pressure to open the enlistment to the African American population. In the spring of 1942, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions became the first all-Black U.S. infantry divisions, although it would take almost two more years before the 366th Regiment would be staffed entirely by Black officers.

The 92nd deployed to Italy in October 1944 and the 366th was initially assigned security duty of Army Air Corps installations across Italy. During their time as security forces, they built relationships with allied troops and exchanged cultural pastimes. For example, they taught South Africans to play softball in return for lessons in rugby, and had softball matches with the New Zealanders.

In November, the 366th rejoined the 92nd Division under Fifth Army, with the mission to exert pressure on the enemy in the area they occupied and to protect the left flank of Fifth Army. The 92nd held the 20-mile-wide line from the Liguarian Sea to Barga located in the Serchio Valley of northern Italy.

In February, the Buffalo Soldiers prepared for a coordinated, limited attack to seize several areas of nearby high ground occupied by the enemy. The main inland offensive began on 4 February, while the 92nd’s coastal attack began the night of 7 February. The 366th planned to move north along the coast from Forte dei Marmi, cross the Cinquale Canal, turn inland to Highway 1 and conduct a frontal assault across the entire 20 miles of the 92nd Division’s zone. Dent’s 3rd Battalion, along with Company C, 760th Tank Battalion; a platoon of tank destroyers from the 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion; and the 27th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 1st Armored Division constituted the task force. The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion rode the tanks up the coast as planned, but when they reached the canal, two tanks struck landmines, disabling them and blocking the path of the following tanks. Some tanks attempted to cross a field to reach the highway but also struck mines. Enemy machine gunners and mortarmen then opened fire on the 366th. Although most of the tanks finally crossed the canal, they did not reach the highway and on 11 February the attack was called off.

The 72-hour battle did not move the lines significantly but cost the 366th Battalion 220 men, among them PFC Dent.

It would be April before the area came under control of the allies and the casualties could be buried. Dent’s remains were recovered on 5 May 1945, unidentified except as a Buffalo Soldier due to the location of where he had fallen. They were interred in the Florence American Cemetery in Italy until exhumed by the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission in June 2022.

During that time, Dent’s relatives had uploaded his information onto an ancestry website. This information led the Commission to conclude that the remains of X-124 belonged to Lemuel Dent. In February 2024, Dent’s nearest relatives were contacted and arrangements were made to reinter him near his family in Cheltenham.

At first, Dent’s relatives did not realize the significance of this reinternment. According to Mayvee Smith, President, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 233, the family did not want any ceremony. Afterward one of the cousins remarked how astonished they were that so many people came to honor his service.

The Reverand Dr. Ruby M. Brown officiated the memorial service. Cousins, nephews, and nieces of Dent, as well as American Legion units from the area, members of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club, the Maryland National Guard Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead, and the MDNG Honor Guard paid their respects at Cheltenham Veterans’ Cemetery.

05/08/2024

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/05/07/is-the-end-near-victor-davis-hanson-ponders-threat-of-extinction

Victor Davis Hanson tackles a topic related to military history in his new book, “The End of Everything: How Wars Descend Into Annihilation.”

03/29/2024

National Vietnam Veterans Day
By SFC Aaron Heft, MDNG Historian


Today, March 29, has been designated National Vietnam Veterans Day. Although the Maryland National Guard did not deploy as a group, we remember Maryland Guardsmen who served in other capacities during the Vietnam War.

Over 2,000 National Guardsman volunteered as individuals to serve in Southeast Asia during the war; among those who volunteered was Private James H Duffett, Jr. A Baltimore native, Duffett enlisted in the Maryland National Guard's 175th Infantry Regiment in 1963 and worked full time as a machinist in the city. After his first Guard enlistment, Duffett volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 1966.

Duffett served in-country in the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. In one letter to his family he said he volunteered for active service hoping to hasten the end of the conflict and prevent his younger brothers from having to fight. Sadly, Private First Class Duffett was killed in action September 18, 1966, while on patrol in Quang Nam province.

Like PFC Duffett, many other Maryland National Guard soldiers bravely volunteered to augment Regular Army units in Vietnam, and still more brought their combat experience to the MDARNG post-war to shape the next generation of citizen soldiers.

02/15/2024

Baltimore’s Monumental City Guards
By Sgt. 1st Class Heft, MDNG

During its 145-year history, the 1229th Transportation Company has been known by many names, including the Monumental City Guards. Serving in different disciplines such as infantry, engineering, sustainment, and transportation, soldiers of this Baltimore-based unit have earned an impressive 22 campaign streamers and many U.S. and foreign awards.

After the Civil War, returning soldiers desired to continue serving their state militarily. The black citizens, barred from joining the Maryland National Guard, organized their own quasi-military company. Veteran Captain Lloyd Young established the Monumental City Guards on February 20, 1879, in Baltimore, based on a similiar organization established in Washington, DC by Baltimore native and Medal of Honor recipient, Christian Fleetwood.

The unit’s precision and skill at drill quickly drew the attention of Maryland National Guard leaders. Acknowledging the professionalism of the unit, the Adjutant General inducted the unit into official service in 1882, redesignating it as the 1st Separate Company, MNG in 1896. Though segregated in military and social life, the members of the company earned honors in competition against their white peers, with inspectors awarding the unit top marks despite lacking the advanced armory and training facilities used by white units.

The company experienced its first war service in 1917 when it was mobilized with the rest of the Maryland Guard for duty in World War I. While most white Maryland soldiers joined the newly formed 29th Division, the men of the 1st Separate Company were combined with black National Guard units from Washington D.C., Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Tennessee to form the 372nd Infantry. The Baltimore company saw service in the trenches at Verdun and participated in the Champagne drive alongside the Harlem Hellfighters during the Meuse Argonne offensive. Eight members, including Marylanders 1st Sgt. William Creigler and Sgt. Mack Watson, earned the American Silver Star citation. They and six other members also were awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

When the unit was called to war again in 1941, six veterans of the last war remained in its ranks. During World War II, the unit again joined the multi-state all-African American 372nd Infantry, first serving in static defenses in New York City and along the eastern seaboard, later, training draftees in infantry skills. In 1945, the unit deployed to Hawaii, where it manned coastal fortifications and helped run the Army’s Jungle Training Center.

After the war in Baltimore, the company increased to a battalion-sized unit and was redesignated as the 231st Transportation Truck Battalion. During the Korean War, the battalion was the only Maryland Army National Guard unit deployed to the Korean peninsula. They served in frontline operations from 1951 to 1955.
Returning home from the war, the unit members took up a different battle, fighting to end segregation in the Maryland Army National Guard. By December 1955, the State’s National Guard and the 231st Transportation Battalion would be open to Marylanders of any race or ethnic background.

In the 1960s and later decades, the unit saw service in many forms. At times, elements would serve as part of the 229th Supply and Transport Battalion, the 121st Engineer Battalion, the 103rd Engineer Battalion, and finally, the 229th Support Battalion in 1992.

As the Maryland National Guard reorganized and restructured during the Global War on Terror, the 229th Support Battalion would consolidate with Crisfield’s historic transportation company, adding battle honors for Normandy, Desert Storm, and the Iraq War to the unit’s colors.

Today, the 1229th Transportation Company drills out of Baltimore’s LTC Melvin H Cade Armory and carries on a hard-earned legacy of the original Monumental City Guard.

01/30/2024

February 3rd, 1941- Maryland National Guard Federalized for WWII
By SFC Aaron Heft, MDARNG Historian

With war raging across Europe and the Pacific in early 1941, National Guard units from across the country were called into Federal service to prepare for the possibility of involvement in combat operations against the aggressive actions of Germany and Japan. Maryland soldiers from all over the state reported into their home armories and began what was billed as a temporary mobilization. However, after just ten days of home station service, the 29th Division, with Maryland National Guardsmen, moved to Fort Meade, and later relocated to installations throughout the South to perform a series of maneuvers.

Maryland Guardsmen’s temporary mobilization become permanent with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Some Maryland National Guard units would serve across the United States in domestic security roles while the majority of the units would be deployed to the European and Pacific Theaters to fight the enemy. For example, Maryland’s 115th of the 29th Infantry Division famously landed at Normandy in June1944, and Service Company, 372nd Infantry (today’s 1229th Transportation Company) deployed to Hawaii to garrison the islands and train replacement troops. Today, World War II campaign streamers hang from the flags of many Maryland National Guard units, to include the Area Support Medical Company, @1-175th Infantry and the Military Police Company, while Maryland’s 29th Infantry Division patch stands as an internationally recognized symbol of the liberation of France.
For more information about the Maryland National Guard in World War II, check out Center of Military History page!

Photos: 372d Infantry on guard in NYC (courtesy of the Ohio ARNG); 175th Infantry Soldiers on duty in Baltimore 1941 (courtesy Maryland Center of Military of History)