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| THE purpose of this book is to tell the public something of the history of an organization in the Maryland National Guard that has passed through thirty years of usefulness to the city arid state, growing steadily in the face of obstacles that at times seemed insurmountable. Since the day of its formation in the Sunday School room at the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Lafayette and Arlington avenues, in 1885, the Fourth Infantry has had a struggle for existence. It has been hampered by a lack of adequate quarters in which to house and train the companies of earnest young men jealous of the reputation of the city, state and nation; yet it has ever kept its organization up to a high degree of efficiency. The Regiment responded enthusiastically to the call for troops at the time of the strike in the mines at Frostburg in the summer of 1894, to the call of President McKinley for volunteers in the Spanish-American war, and to the call of the city authorities for service when the heart of the business section of Baltimore was devastated by the fire of February 7 and 8, 1904. Those who read these pages cannot but be impressed by the earnestness and untiring zeal of the Regiment. Its officers have been men of pluck, giving liberally to the service both time and money, and beating back the tide of opposition with an optimism that has brought the command forward with tremendous strides, until today it occupies a position second to none in the organized militia of the country. BALTIMORE, February, 1916. |