The American Revolution in Western Pennsylvania: July 2025

Formation of the Rifle Companies

Within a week of Congress authorizing ten rifle companies on June 14, 1775 (six from Pennsylvania, two from Maryland, and two from Virginia), the companies were quickly being organized and recruited.

Maryland Rifle Companies

The Frederick County Maryland Committee of Observation met at the County Courthouse in Frederick Town (present day Frederick, MD) on June 21, 1775 and appointed Michael Cresap and Thomas Price as Captains of the Maryland rifle companies.

Resolved, That, agreeable to the requisition of the Congress, and on the terms by them proposed, two Companies of expert Riflemen be forthwith raised, and officered by the following gentlemen,

Of the first Company, — Michael Cresap, Captain: Thomas Warren, Joseph Cresap, Jun., Richard Davis, Jun., Lieutenants.

Of the second Company— Thomas Price, Captain: Otho Holland Williams, John Ross Key, Lieutenants — another Lieutenant to be chosen by Captain Price, and approved by the Committee."

Thirty-three year old Michael Cresap, born in Maryland in 1742, was a trader and land speculator in the Ohio country. He was known to have engaged in a number of skirmishes with Native Americans on the frontier, however, he was wrongly accused of orchestrating the Yellow Creek massacre, in which the family of Logan, a Mingo, was murdered. Cresap received word of his appointment as captain of the first company of Maryland rifles as he was returning to his home at Old Town, Maryland from a surveying expedition in the Ohio country. Despite being ill, he decided to accept the commission.

Michael Cresap House and Museum
Old Town, MD

Cresap began recruiting in the area around Old Town and throughout the large western Maryland county of Frederick, enlisting men who had been organizing in the local militias since word of Lexington and Concord had reached the frontier. Horatio Gates, whose home Traveller’s Rest (Virginia) was located about 30 miles west of Frederick Town, informed George Washington on Wednesday June 22^ndthat Cresap's father, Thomas Cresap, had told him “on Monday morning that his Son, had Eighty Riffle Men ready to March,” a day before Michael was officially appointed Captain!

Cresap’s company would continue to grow before leaving for Boston. He sent recruiters to the upper Monongahela valley of Western Pennsylvania, including Redstone (present day Brownsville PA), where he operated a trading post, and the nearby Ten-Mile settlement in what is now Washington and Greene counties. Nicholas Cresswell, an English trader and surveyor, was returning from the Ohio country in mid-July and passing through Redstone where he observed frontiersmen enlisting in Cresap’s company. He noted in his journal:

“Friday July 14^th 1775, Crossed the Moningahaly River at Redstone Fort where I lodged with one Thos. Brown. Listing the best riflemen that can be got to go to Boston under Captn. Cressop for the humane purpose of killing the English Officers. Confusion to the Scoundrels.”

Cresswell was loyal to England and opposed to the rebellious undertakings he witnessed. It’s apparent from his sarcastic comment “...for the humane purpose of killing the English Officers,” that he was well aware of the riflemen’s intent to use their shooting expertise for targeting British officers on the front lines around Boston.

Portrait of Nicholas Cresswell (ca. 1780)
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Virginia Rifle Companies

The Virginians also were quick to organize and recruit their companies. On June 22^nd, the Frederick County Virginia Committee of Safety appointed Daniel Morgan as Captain of its company of riflemen, mustering at Winchester, Virginia. The committee directed Morgan as such:

“In obedience to a resolve of the Continental Congress, dated 14th of June, 1775, … – this committee, reposing a special trust in the courage, conduct, and reverence for liberty under the spirit of the British constitution, of Daniel Morgan, Esq., do hereby certify that we have unanimously appointed him to command a Virginia company of riflemen to march from this county. He is hereby directed to act, by exercising the officers and soldiers under his command, …”

Similar to the Maryland companies, Morgan was able to rapidly recruit from the men already organizing. A Presbyterian minister visiting the town of Winchester on June 17^th, several days before Morgan’s appointment, noted in his journal that “This town [is] in arms, all in hunting shirt uniform, and bucktails in their caps. Indeed they make a grand figure.”

Morgan'sRifle Company as they appeared at the siege of Boston 1775

Likewise on June 22^nd, the Berkeley County, Virginia (present day WV) Committee of Safety appointed Hugh Stephenson the Captain of its rifle company, to rendezvous at Mecklenburg (present day Shepherdstown, WV). Stephenson was a half-brother of William Crawford, who also would serve as an officer in the Continental Army. Crawford had settled along the Youghiogheny River in 1767 near what is now Connellsville, Pennsylvania.

One of Stephenson’s young recruits, Henry Bedinger, who kept a detailed journal of their mustering and march to Boston, later recounted the rivalry between Morgan and Stephenson in recruiting their companies:

“Great exertions were made by each Captain to complete his company first, that merrit might be claimed on that account. Volunteers presented themselves from every direction in the vicinity of these towns [Winchester and Mecklenburg]; none were received but young men of Character, and of sufficient property to Clothe themselves completely, find their own arms, and accoutrements, … Our Company was raised in less than a week. Morgan had equal success, - it was never decided which Company was first filled."

Bedinger also provided a brief description of the riflemen’s equipment and their attire:

“… an approved Rifle, handsome shot pouch, and powder-horn, blanket, knapsack, with such decent clothing as should be prescribed, but which was at first ordered to be only a Hunting shirt and pantaloons, fringed on every edge, and in various ways.”

Pennsylvania Rifle Companies

While the rifle companies were organizing, the Continental Congress increased the Pennsylvania allocation from six to eight companies on June 22^nd and directed they be formed into a battalion. Three days later on June 25^th, Congress commissioned William Thompson of Carlisle, Pennsylvania as Colonel of that battalion, the first Colonel to be commissioned in the Continental Army.

William Thompson was born in Northern Ireland in 1736 and immigrated to Carlisle in 1755. About a year later, he enlisted as a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Regiment during the French and Indian War, serving in Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong’s 2^nd Battalion from Cumberland County. In May of 1758, Thompson was promoted to captain of a troop of provincial light horse and served in British General John Forbes’ expedition against French Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio (present day Pittsburgh, PA). Following the capture of Fort Duquesne, Thompson resigned his commission and later established a trading post near the newly constructed Fort Pitt, supplying provisions to the fort from 1759 to 1767. He also partnered with the renowned George Croghan on various business ventures in western Pennsylvania including land speculation and in 1769 was appointed a deputy surveyor for western Pennsylvania. Thompson later served as Justice of the Peace for Cumberland County from 1772 to 1773, was elected to represent Bedford County in the Pennsylvania General Assembly from 1771 to 1775, and in 1775 was elected as Westmoreland County’s sole representative in the assembly.

The Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion consisted of companies from Bedford, Berks, Cumberland, Lancaster, Northampton, Northumberland, and York counties and became known as Thompson’s Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion. Only one of the eight companies of Thompson’s Battalion was from Western Pennsylvania, Robert Cluggage’s company of Bedford County. Similar to the Virginians and Marylanders, the Pennsylvania companies were quickly recruited and within several weeks were ready to march for Boston.

Routes taken by the Rifle Companies to Boston

March to Boston

Morgan and his company were the first to leave for Boston, departing Winchester and crossing the Potomac River at Harper’s Ferry on July 15^th. Stephenson’s company, which was assembling in Mecklenberg, gathered at William Morgan’s Spring (no relation to Daniel Morgan) on July 17^th to begin their march. Legend says that Morgan’s and Stephenson’s companies were to rendezvous at Frederick Town; however, Morgan arrived there first and decided to resume his march without waiting for Stephenson, in order to be the first company to reach Boston.

From Frederick Town they marched northeastward to York, Pennsylvania and would have crossed the Susquehanna at Wright’s Ferry (present day Wrightsville, PA). From there they passed through Lancaster, Reading, Allentown, and Bethlehem on their way to Easton, where they crossed the Delaware River. Resuming their march northeastward across the New Jersey countryside and into New York, they arrived at New Windsor, where they crossed the North (or Hudson) River. From Fishkill on the east side of the Hudson, they marched into Connecticut, crossing the Connecticut River at Hartford and continued on into Massachusetts to Cambridge, on the outskirts of Boston. Morgan’s men traveled the roughly 450 miles from Frederick Town to Cambridge in about 20 days (July 17^th to Aug 6^th) and Stephenson’s company in about 23 days (July 19^th to Aug 11^th). The route taken by the Virginians to Boston became known as the “Bee Line March” because of the direct path and quick pace they endured.

Both of the Maryland companies assembled at Frederick Town and supposedly departed for Boston on July 18^th. However, Cresap’s company was still there on July 31^st, according to a letter written by a visitor to the town on August 1^st:

“I have had the Happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cressap, marching at the Head of a formidable Company, of upwards of 130 Men from the Mountains and back Woods, painted like Indians, armed with Tomahawks and Rifles, dressed in hunting Shirts and Mockasons, and though some of them had travelled near eight hundred miles from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light an easy and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march….”

In the letter, the writer also described an impressive demonstration of the riflemen’s skills that he witnessed:

“...Yesterday the Company were supplied with a small quantity of powder from the magazine, which wanted airing, and was not good for rifles; in the Evening, however, they were drawn out, to shew the Gentlemen of the Town their Dexterity in shooting; a Clapboard with a Mark the Size of a Dollar, was put up; they began to fire off hand, and the Bystanders were surprized, few Shot being made that were not close to or in the Paper; when they shot for a Time in this Way, some lay on their Backs, some on their Breast or Side, others ran 20 or 30 Steps and firing, appeared to be equally certain of their Mark.”

Cresap likely delayed his company’s departure from Frederick Town in order to wait for the Western Pennsylvania recruits to arrive. Once on the march, they followed the same route taken by the Virginians, “through York, [and] Lancaster.” However, after leaving Lancaster, Cresap’s company may have traveled through Philadelphia and New York instead of following the Virginia Rifle companies along the “Bee Line” through eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to Private Jacob Shade, a member of the company from Frederick County Maryland. Regardless of the route taken, they completed the trip in about 20 days, leaving Frederick Town August 1^st and likely arriving at Cambridge, Massachusetts on the 21^st (they were reported being in Watertown, MA on August 20^th, roughly five miles from Cambridge). Several days later on August 25^th, Cresap’s company was deployed to the lines at Roxbury. Price’s Maryland company appears to have followed the Bee Line route and made the trip in about 22 days, from July 18^th to Aug 9^th.

The individual companies of Thompson’s Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion followed a similar route to Boston. Of the eight companies in Thompson’s Battalion, the only one raised in Western Pennsylvania was that of Captain Robert Cluggage from Bedford County. Cluggage and his riflemen marched from Bedford sometime in mid-to-late July, passing through Carlisle, PA “where Capt. Cluggage was elected,” recalled Private Richard Hardesty. From Carlisle they would have continued eastward and crossed the Susquehanna River at Harris’ Ferry (present day Harrisburg, PA) and “thence to Reading in Barks [Berks] County,” as Private James Knight recollected. Cluggage’s company likely acquired clothing and provisions at Reading, given that other companies from Thompson’s Rifle Battalion had also paused there to gather supplies for the march. While at Reading, the Pennsylvanians may have crossed paths with the Virginia or Maryland companies who also passed through the town. After departing Reading, Cluggage’s company marched northeastward along the Bee Line route, arriving at Cambridge, Massachusetts sometime in mid-to-late August where they joined the other companies of Thompson’s Rifle Battalion.