pendent it was disestablished. There were no bishops of the church in America, and consequently candidates for the priesthood could not be ordained. In 1784, Mason Weems, a young man from Maryland who was a divinity student in England, applied to several English bishops for admission to holy orders, but was refused. Finally the Archbishop of Canterbury told him that nothing could be done without an Act of Parliament, because all clergymen had to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England. Such an act of Parliainent was passed before long. When the diocese of Maryland was organized, John Thomas Claggett was elected its first bishop. He was consecrated at New York, in 1792.

JOHN THOMAS CLAGGETT, D.D. FIRST EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MARYLAND.

In the same year in which Weems was seeking to be ordained, John Wesley sent Thomas Coke from England to be superintendent of the Metho

dist societies in America, and gave
him authority to consecrate Francis
Asbury to the same office. This
ordination took place at a confer-
ence held at Baltimore in December,
1784. A few years later the Ameri-
can Conference altered the title of
"superintendent" to "bishop," and
the Methodist Church became inde-
pendent of the Church of England, but without the ap-
proval of Wesley. In 1784 there were some twenty thou-

FRANCIS ASBURY.

sand Catholics in Maryland; in 1786 the Pope appointed John Carroll, a cousin of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, as his apostolic vicar. He was afterward made Bishop of Baltimore and Archbishop of the United States. The other churches have independent organizations and no bishops, so that such difficulties did not arise in their case. Now that the Revolution was fairly begun Maryland took an active part in it, and kept up the fame of her old hospitality by giving banquets to nearly Maryland's Attitude Towards Foreign all the distinguished foreigners who Allies. came to help the colonies. She welcomed them in more serious ways, too, and Lafayette speaks very warmly of all that Maryland and Baltimore did for him. Count Pulaski raised a corps in Maryland, for the most part in Baltimore, which fought valiantly under him until he was killed at the siege of Savannah. It was this corps that carried the small banner of crim

JOHN CARROLL,

son silk made and embroidered for Pulaski by the Moravian Sisters of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Faded and worn the banner is now in the rooms of the Maryland Historical Society. Baron de Kalb commanded the Maryland Line until his death at the battle of Camden, and it is said that while dying he praised the bravery of the Maryland regiment and its officers. The statesmen of Maryland saw the im

portance to their cause of foreign allies, and Samuel Chase was the first man to move in Congress that am

bassadors be sent to France. He and Charles Carroll were two of the three commissioners sent by Congress to Canada to persuade her to join the colonies in their struggle.

Washington Firmly
Supported by
Maryland.

Maryland welcomed foreign allies, but she was also true to her leaders at home. It was Thomas Johnson, first Governor of the State of Maryland, who as a delegate to the Continental Congress when it met for the second time. in May, 1775, formally nominated George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Maryland stood by Washington throughout the war, in battle and in the plots that were formed against him; she was faithful to him in success and in defeat, she furnished him with food and supplies, and no State sent more troops in proportion to its population to his army.

CHAPTER VI.

MARYLAND IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

The first of the Maryland troops to join Washington's army was a company of riflemen, commanded by Captain Michael Cresap, which left FredCresap's Riflemen. erick on July 18, and arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 9, 1775. They were armed with tomahawks and rifles, and wore hunting shirts and moccasins. They were expert shots, and while stationed at Roxbury, to the south of Boston, would pick off at long range any British officers or men who exposed themselves. Cresap, who was born in Alleghany County, died in New York City, October 18, 1775, while on his return from the army at Boston, and was buried in Trinity churchyard.

Maryland's quota of troops was 3,405 men; and a regiment of these, commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, joined the army at New York, where they were attached to Lord Stirling's brigade. The Maryland troops were Washington's favorites and deserved to be. He knew he could rely upon them, that they would stand firm and do their duty; and for personal bravery they had no superiors in the army. At the battle of Long Island Stirling chose a band of four hundred Marylanders, commanded by Battle of Long Island, Major Mordecai Gist, and kept in check five times that number of the enemy until the remainder of his division, who were retreating, succeeded in crossing the marshes behind them

Four Hundred
Marylanders at the

August 27, 1776.

into safety. Muskets and cannon were firing on the four hundred from all sides, but as fast as some fell the others closed up the ranks and still faced the enemy. Time and again those that were left flung themselves upon the enemy, until more than half their number were captured or dead. The rest of the army was saved, but at the cost

of two hundred and fifty of its bravest and best drilled soldiers.

After the campaign around New York had ended. so badly as it did for the Americans, General Howe offered to pardon all "rebels" who should lay down their Great numbers-about three thousand persons in the course of ten days-in New Jersey and Pennsyl

arms.