The Delaware National Guard began on August 31, 1655. The commissary (someone appointed to do a particular task) rode up and down the length of the colony calling the settlers to take up arms and defend the colony against the Dutch force that was about to attack Fort Christina, the present site of Wilmington. The area now known as the State of Delaware was a Swedish colony. This colony was called the "Three Lower Counties" of the William Penn domain.
Earlier, the Swedes had relied entirely on professional soldiers to protect the colony and, except for former soldiers who had remained as colonists, the citizens had no preparation for the military duties they were suddenly called upon to perform. The colonists' lack of military training allowed the Dutch to easily defeat the settlers. However, the occasion is significant as the first time in Delaware that the citizen-militia was called on for military service.
When the State of Delaware was established, there were few provisions for peacetime training. Even when pirate raids threatened the safety of coastal towns on the Delaware, Quaker opposition to warlike activities dominated the combined legislature of Pennsylvania and Delaware and prevented any action.
However, citizens of the "Three Lower Counties" took matters into their own hands and volunteered for additional training. It was, in large measure, the desire of Delawareans for an effective trained militia that eventually resulted in the existence of Delaware as a separate state.
According to English law, able-bodied males (aged 18 to 45) were organized into units (called common militia) based on the geographical location of their homes. Among the men liable for military service in the colonial wars, there were some who saw the need for additional training if they were to be effective against professional French troops and their Indian allies. Many who saw this need volunteered to train beyond the minimum requirements of the militia law.
Because they volunteered for extra training, and also because they volunteered to serve outside their own colonies (the common militia could only be called out if an enemy actually invaded the colony), these troops became known as volunteer militia, or Volunteers. Sometimes they were called uniformed militia to distinguish them from the common militia, which did not wear uniforms.
Besides this voluntary training, the settlers had to have training according to English law to provide for the nation's defense. The soldiers of the full-time army were fined if they did not attend training. The volunteer army was for the defense of the state, as it is still today.
It was these volunteers who carried Delaware's colors in the five pre-revolutionary wars. It is from these early Delaware volunteer militia units that our modern Delaware National Guard is descended.
The Delaware Regiment, The Battle of Long Island -- August 27,
1776
At the Battle of Long Island, the actions of the Delaware
Regiment kept the American defeat from becoming a disaster. Indeed, the
soldiers from tiny Delaware, fighting alongside the 1st Maryland Regiment,
may well have prevented the capture of the majority of Washington's army,
an event that might have ended the colonial rebellion then and there.
Organized in January 1776 by Col. John Haslet, the Delaware Regiment was noteworthy from the start as the best uniformed and equipped regiment of the Continental Army. Their blue jackets with red facings and white waistcoat and breeches would later become the uniform for all the Continental troops.
During the Battle of Long Island, the Delaware and Maryland troops were positioned on the right of Washington's line, defending the most direct route from the British landing site in south Brooklyn to the American fortifications in Brooklyn Heights. Though they faced the fiercest fighting of the day, they held their ground, allowing the remainder of Washington's army to retreat to the safety of the fortifications. When they in turn were outflanked and forced to retreat, the Delaware Regiment conducted an orderly retreat through marshland and across the Gowanus Creek carrying off with them 23 prisoners. Two nights later, Washington entrusted his Delaware and Maryland soldiers to be the rear guard as he secretly withdrew his army from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
Today, the 175th Infantry Regiment, Maryland Army National Guard, preserves the legacy of the 1st Maryland Regiment. The 198th Signal Battalion, Delaware Army National Guard, perpetuates the proud lineage of the Delaware Regiment.
