The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1935-07-18

'B !
OF THE POTOMAC. SIRp
the army through an exchange of prisoners and
became colonel of the Eleventh Virginia regiment
(later designated as the Seventy composed OF
remnants Of the company he had led north from
Frederick at the opening of the war and other
sharpshooters recruited for the regiment.
In June 1777, Washington, convinced that the
sharpshooting ability of these frontiersmen from
Pennsylvania Maryland and Virginia might prove
decisive factor In the war If concentrated In
one unit and led by the right officers, decided
to organize such corps. As a result the Corps
of Rilemen" or the "Corps of Rangers" wash
ington used both names in referring to it) came
into existence. 1t was also known as 'Morgan's
Rifemen' and 'Morgan's Partizan Corps be-
cause its colonel was Daniel Morgan. Richard
Butler of the Ninth Pennsylvania was made lieu
tenant-colonel and Capt Joseph Morris of New
Jersey became major. IN r....5-.
The captains, according to Wilkinson's Mem
oirs, were Samuel J. Cabell, Thomas Posey, Ga
briel Long of Maryland (other authorities list
him as a Virginian) Van Swearingen Of the
Eighth Pennsylvania, James Parr Of the First
Pennsylvania, Hawkins Boone Of the Twelfth
Pennsylvania, Matthew Henderson Of the Ninth
mer utilization is unknown. The corps consisted
of approximately 500 men, transferred from the
various regiments serving in the Continental
line. OF this number Pennsylvanians supplied
1913 officers and men, Virginia, 1853, and Mary
land, Is. " >
The ri1emen soon justified Washington's faith
in their ability and they behaved so CALAMITY
as to win special mention from His Excellency
in a letter to congress. In it he spoke of "their
Sn,,@Ixy n
vanced upon an enemy far superior in numbers
and well secured behind redoubts."
When the threat Of Burgoyne's invasion doomed
on the northern horizon, the commander-in-chief
decided that General Gates needed these rangers
more than he did. In letter to Gov. George
Clinton of New York he said: 81 am forwarding
as fast as possible to join the Northern Army.
Col. Morgans Corps Of Rifemen, amounting to
five hundred. These are all chosen men selected
from the army at large, well acquainted with
the use Of rifles, and with that mode of fighting
which is necessary to make them good counter
poise to the Indians, and they have distinguished
themselves on variety of occasions since the
formation Of the corps, In skfrmishes with the
enemy"
Morgan and his men were destined to distin-
guish themselves even more in the Saratoga cam
paign. They were invaluable both in the desultory
snipng attacks on Burgoyne's camp and in
pIICu6u UdlLle OuucF Lie leducESIlp VI TIC udSu.
ing Benedict Arnold they won laurels on the
bloody field of Freeman's Farm and added to
them at the decisive Battle Of Saltwater, al
though Gates basely deprived both Morgan and
Arnold of the credit that was justly theirs. In
fact, It was at saltwater that one of the rifle
men fired another "shot heard round the world"
For when ball from the rifle of Timothy Muir
ply, the Pennsylvania, struck down Gen. Simon
Fraser, Burgoynes ablest subordinate, he sealed
fI,a oP 11,o1y1 nonf1 1Ohn
army and made Saratoga the turning point of
the Revolution"
Early in 177s Morgan, whose health had been
broken by the hardships he had undergone, re-
turned to his home in Virginia to recuperate.
Thereupon Major Posey, successor to Major
Norris who had been killed in an engagement
during the winter Of 1777, became commander.
But the "Old Wagner" was back in the field in
time to lead his rifiemen to further honors at the
Battle Of Monmouth. Soon afterwards he gave
up the command again. The corps was broken
up and various companies assigned to different
regiments
The disarmament of Morgan's Rifle Corps
prevented the establishment of what might have
been splendid tradition in the history of Amer
lean arms. A recent historian has pointed out
that "some 35 years before congress authorized
the raising of ten companies of border rifemen,
George II had looked to the highland border of
north Britain for regiment to have the virtues
peculiar to the frontier, and ten companies were
raised from the Highlanders whose duty had
been to watch upon the braes' This regiment
became the Black Watch, famous today. The
famous American rifle corps would have had its
identity preserved in the American army il
similar useful traditionalism had prevailed in the
United States. It has not and there are no Nor
gan's Rifles" <.-.s.
| It is true that there are no 'Morgans Rifles"
in the American army today. But the glory of
that name is imperishably preserved in the
ord of their achievements on the battlefelds of
Saratoga and Monmouth and along the trail
which Sullivan, the 'Town Destroyer" blazed
| through the gloomy forests Of the Iroquois coun-
/ try from Tioga to Genesee Castle. And so long
as the story Of the struggle for American lib
erty is repeated, so long will "The Rifemen of
the Revolution" be a shining name In the annals
of our nation. 49,
GWestern Newspaper Union.