1st
Baltimore
Sharp Shooters, Captain Aisquith's Company
1st Rifle Battalion, 3rd Maryland Militia Brigade
HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
In
1813, a
year into the War, staff relocations and resignations
brought
a major reorganization to Maryland's 1st Rifle
Battalion. Attorney
General of the United States, William Pinkney, was
"promoted" to
Battalion Major and Edward Aisquith assumed command as
Captain of the
1st Baltimore Sharp Shooters. In the following 16
months, under
pressure of the British raiding up and down the
Chesapeake Bay, the two
officers created a militia company that would be the
first to fight at
both the Battle of Bladensburg and the Battle of North
Point.
Two Sharp
Shooters, Daniel Wells and Henry McComas are
credited, by
their contemporaries, with killing General Ross at
North Point.
The unit
ceased to exist as Aisquith's Sharp Shooters in
March of 1815
when Edward Aisquith died in a fox hunting accident.
Riflemen
were the exception rather than the rule. The Sharp
Shooters
were one of three companies in the 1st Maryland
Rifle Battalion. The
rifle battalion, in turn, was attached to the 3rd
Brigade which also
included 6 musket regiments. Roughly, that's 1 rifle
for every 20
muskets. While the musket companies were composed of
men with common
outside interests: volunteer firemen, fraternal
organizations, business
associations; the rifle companies were formed by
areas of the city, Old
Baltimore, Jonestown and Fells Point.
Composed
of the highest and lowest members of society, the
one big thing
the riflemen had in common was their rifles.
A MODERN
HISTORY OF THE RE - ENACTORS
In
1986, Boy
Scout Troop 438, in cooperation with the Dundalk
Patapsco
Neck Historical Society, and the Dundalk Chamber of
Commerce, hosted a
Defender's Day Celebration at Battle Acre in Baltimore
County. A group
of Canadian British re-enactors, who had hosted the
troop the previous
year at Fort York in Toronto, attended the
celebration. Although a
total of less than 200 people were involved, the event
was an enormous
success, especially the media exposure. As a result,
the Dundalk
Chamber
of Commerce proposed making it an annual event and the
following year,
the Defender's Day Celebration at North Point began.
It was
immediately apparent that the existing Boy Scout
wooden muskets
and the dacron/polyester uniforms simply weren't
good enough; so, in
1987, Explorer Post 438 was created. Restricted to
older youths, 14 to
20 year olds, the Post researched and created
authentic equipment and
clothing and began practicing with real weapons.
Because the Explorer
program is coed, the Post also researched and
developed period correct
interpretations for women. The decision to portray
Aisquith's Sharp
Shooters was a natural. Two teenage heroes of the
Sharp Shooters,
Daniel
Wells and Henry McComas, were credited with killing
the attacking
British commander, General Robert Ross.
Through
the years, the unit grew with the Defender's Day
Celebration and
attended many other 1812 period re-enactments
including the 175th
Anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, the Siege
of Fort Erie
(Canada), the Battle of Bladensburg, and the
Bombardment of Fort
McHenry. After only a few years, the celebration was
terminated, but in
2005, it was resurrected, and now our unit plays an
important part,
including a few of the members being on the
Defenders' Day Planning
Committee.
Our
Explorer Post is open to young men and women 14
years and older, and
adults.
Dues are
$12 a year which includes liability and accident
insurance. We
meet on Thursday nights, 7-9 PM at St. Rita's school
cafeteria in
Dundalk,
Md.
For more
information, contact Dave
Musselwhite or Buzz Chriest
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