The first phase of the war was fought in the North, but in 1778
the center of action moved to the South, where it was finally climaxed
with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown and independence for
the United States. Smallwood's Maryland Line was sent to the South
and fought valiantly in all the principal engagements—at Camden,
at King's Mountain, at Cowpens (where "Old Glory" was a battle
emblem), at Guilford Court House, at Eutaw Springs, and finally at
Yorktown.

It was at Camden that the Marylanders first executed their deadly
bayonet charge, a tactic which brought undying fame to the unit. Baron
de Kalb, who led the charge, fell exhausted after receiving 11 wounds
and died a prisoner of the British three days later. Marylanders,
with a regiment, under Colonel Isaac Shelby, figured prominently in
the contest at King's Mountain, where Cornwallis was driven from
North Carolina. At Cowpens again, the famous charge with bayonets
was used. This time, the hero of the day was Colonel John Eager
Howard. In this charge, with "Old Glory" flying proudly, the British
line was badly broken and the British troops scattered in wild disorder.
In the battle of Guilford Court House, some two months later, one
historian wrote of the Maryland contingent there:

"The First Regiment of Marylanders was the only body of men in
the American army that could be compared to the enemy in discipline
and experience, and it is with confidence that we challenge the modern
world to produce an instance of better service performed by the same
number of men in the same time. "

The Marylanders again proved their skill with the bayonet charge
at Eutaw Springs, and General Greene, in command of southern
forces, had this to say about the Maryland Line: "Nothing could
exceed the gallantry and firmness of both officers and soldiers on this
occasion. They preserved their order, and pressed on with such un-
shaken resolution that they bore down all before them. " He added
that the bayonet charge of the Marylanders "exceeded anything I ever
saw. "

This string of victories, as we now know, broke the back of the
British, so that the stand at Yorktown, where Cornwallis had retreated
and fortified himself, was little more than a mopping up exercise.
After the surrender there, on October 17, 1781, it was a Marylander
Colonel Tench Tilghman, Washington's aide, who on horseback rode

394