Maryland Loyalists Battalion
| Maryland Loyalists Battalion | |
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William Augustus Bowles, who some sources believe was also the pirate "Billy Bowlegs", was an ensign in the Maryland Loyalists Battalion.
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| Active | 1777–1783 |
| Country | Britain |
| Allegiance | Britain |
| Branch | British provincial unit |
| Type | infantry, (auxiliary troops) |
| Size | battalion (300-500) |
| Garrison/HQ | Pensacola, West Florida |
| Nickname(s) | First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists |
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The Maryland Loyalists Battalion, referred to in Captain Caleb Jones's orderly book as the First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists, was a British provincial regiment, of colonial American Loyalists, during the American Revolutionary War.
As with other colonies in British America, Maryland was bitterly divided by the American Revolution. Members of the existing political elite tended to make reluctant revolutionaries; men such as Benedict Swingate Calvert, illegitimate son of the ruling Calvert family and a judge of the land office, remained loyal to the British Crown, and would suffer the consequences. Like other loyalists, Calvert would find himself on the losing side of the Revolutionary War, effectively ending his political career. The Annapolis Convention of 1774 to 1776 saw the old Maryland elite overthrown – men like Calvert, Governor Eden and George Steuart all lost their political power, and in many cases their land and wealth. After the war, Loyalists would have to pay triple taxes and were forced to sign the loyalty oath. Many had their lands and property confiscated.
The "First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists" was composed primarily of colonists from the Eastern Shore of Maryland; it was commissioned in British-held Philadelphia in mid-October 1777 as "The First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists." The unit's commander, Lt. Col. James Chalmers of Newtown, Maryland (present-day Chestertown), was an active Loyalist writer.
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