Washington's Immortals

*@#%^!!! computer! [see Wed. post]

I started reading Patrick K. O'Donnell's Washington's Immortals the other day. The book is about Smallwood's Maryland regiment - the Maryland Line - during the Revolutionary War. My interest stems from both an interest in the period and having a collateral ancestor serve in the 1st Maryland- Captain Edward Prall [Praul] of Harford Co.

"Uncle Ed" doesn't get mentioned by name in the book [whah!], but does get so indirectly. One of the soldiers from Harford Co. recalled his company's captain and 1st lieutenant being killed and his 2nd lieutenant being shot in the hand. That 2nd lieutenant must have been, 2nd Lt. Edward Prall, who received such a wound at the Battle of Long Island [Brooklyn].

Gen. Smallwood was attending a courts martial when his regiment went into battle. Under Major Mordecai Gist, 400 Marylanders stood off Scottish Highlanders and Hessians while the rest of the Continental army retreated. Washington's comment while he watched the troops being cut to ribbons, "My god! What brave men I must today lose!"

250+ Marylanders were killed or captured. Edward Prall was one of the latter. He would return via prisoner exchange in time to march with the remnants of his regiment from the winter encampment at Valley Forge.

I'm only 70 pages into the book, but it's a good read, well written and researched. Pick it up - especially if you have a member of Smallwood's regiment in your family tree.