COLONEL FIRST REGIMENT OF FOOT (PENN RIFLEMEN). BRIGADIER GENERAL 1777 Steel Engr. F. von Egloffstein N.Y.] Delaware furnished more than her proportion to the flying camp. The "Lower Counties," as this little State had been known in colonial times, had shown no haste to break with the mother country. Her people were chiefly farmers of a peaceable disposition, who used herbs for tea and felt no weight of oppression. But Delaware had her public-spirited men, who, when the crisis came, felt that the "counties" must take their place by the side of the colonies in the pending conflict. Among these were Thomas MacKean and Caesar Rodney. Rodney's right-hand man in his patriotic efforts was John Haslet, born in Ireland, once a Presbyterian minister, now a physician in Dover, "tall, athletic, of generous and ardent feelings." The news of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence Haslet celebrated with "a turtle feast;" and he did more. Already he had begun to raise a regiment for the field, and five weeks before the opening battle it left Dover eight hundred strong, composed of some of the best blood and sinew Delaware had to offer.[84] [Footnote 84: _Delaware's Revolutionary Soldiers._ By William G. Whiteley, Esq., 1875.] Maryland raised as her contingent for this campaign four regiments and seven independent companies; but of these, Smallwood's battalion and four of the companies alone had joined the army when hostilities commenced. Though forming part of the State's quota for the flying camp, this was far from being a hastily-collected force. It stands upon record that while Massachusetts was preparing for the contest in the earlier days, there were men along the Chesapeake and the Potomac who took the alarm with their northern brethren. Mordecai Gist, Esq., of "Baltimore town," was among the first to snuff the coming storm, and the first to act, for he tells us that as early as December, 1774, at the expense of his time and hazard of his business, he organized "a company composed of men of honor, family, and fortune," to be ready for any emergency. The Lexington news, four months later, found the best part of Maryland ready to arm. In Baltimore, William Buchanan, lieutenant of the county, collected a body of the older citizens for home defence, while their unmarried sons and others organized themselves into two more companies, donned "an excellent scarlet uniform," and chose Gist for their leader. When the State called for troops at large many of these young men responded, and in the spring of 1776 made up three companies, which, with six other companies that gathered at Annapolis from the surrounding country, formed the first Maryland battalion of "State regulars." William Smallwood, living on the banks of the Potomac, in Charles County, was chosen colonel; Francis Ware, lieutenant-colonel; and Mordecai Gist, first major. On the day it left for the field, July 10th, it numbered, inclusive of