No Match for British Might

Bounded by the Patuxent and the Potomac, St. Mary’s County was squeezed by British invaders attacking along both rivers and plundering towns and plantations at will. Officials petitioned for federal help to rescue and save the county, but little came because the nation’s regular army was needed elsewhere. Residents therefore relied on a militia of ill-trained and poorly equipped volunteers to defend against powerful veteran British troops. The grounds of Charlotte Hall School, later Charlotte Hall Military Academy, operating here from 1774 to 1976, served as a mustering site for the county’s militia, and it is said that even young students from the school were called out to help. The makeshift local militia could not withstand the British, and the year-long campaign of terror continued.

Charlotte Hall, Maryland · United States