How the company enlisted at Frederick, Maryland under Captain Michael Cresap is well documented; contemporary descriptions of this unit can be applied to others. A letter dated August 1, 1775 from a gentleman in Frederick to a friend in Philadelphia gives the following colorful account:
".. . I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of perhaps one hundred and thirty men, from the mountains and backwoods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins, and though some of them had traveled near 800 miles from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light and easy, and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march. Health and vigor, after what they had undergone, declared them to be intimate with hardship, and familiar with danger...."
When Cresap's company arrived at Lancaster, they put on an exhibition of marksmanship for the townspeople. An eyewitness described the performance in a letter printed in the Pennsylvania Packet of August 28th, which says in pare "On Friday evening last arrived here, on their way to the American Camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of 130 active, brave young fellows, many of whom had been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds... two brothers in the company took a piece of board, five inches broad and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper about the size of a dollar nailed in the center, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at a distance of upwards of sixty yards and without any kind of a rest, shot eight bullets successively through the board, and spared his brother's thighs....the spectators, amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the company who could do the same thing; that there was not one who could not plug 19 bullets out of 20 within an inch of the head of a ten-penny nail...."
The Loyalist Bradford brothers, Philadelphia printers, wrote the following story which appeared in the London Chronicle on August 17, 1775: "This province has raised 1,000 riflemen, the worst of whom will put a ball into a man's head at a distance of 150 or 200 yards, therefore advise your officers who shall hereafter come out to America to settle their affairs in England before their departure".
..Good Stuff..
..Makes me proud to read such a feat by such nobel men..
..Strength & Honor.....
I like it
~PlatzOut~
Cresap has quite a "storied" life, before, during and after the war. These is a town named after him here in MD. Thanks for sharing BeSwift
Nice home work - referred to the shot a bullet and not ball
Quoteshot eight bullets successively through the board
Could be a translation thing.
Beautiful story, thank you for sharing
Also, Thank you for all you do,
Think Library Seeds.
I love this story you should here it grow when sly223 tells it lol
Thanks for this, Julia! I'd never heard this one, and I intend to use it at some point. O0