Searching a Gowanus factory for the remains of Maryland soldiers killed in the Battle of Brooklyn

They’ve been dubbed the Maryland 400: a regiment of volunteers considered the state’s most disciplined and well-equipped military force. In July 1776, with thousands of British soldiers already in New York readying themselves for war against a woefully unprepared Continental Army, the men in the First Maryland Regiment made the trip to Gotham to assist. After the Battle of Brooklyn began on August 27 (250 years ago this week), the number of American casualties and captures was steep. Still, it wasn’t a complete rout. General Washington was able to evacuate thousands of surviving troops across the East River—thanks to the 256 Maryland soldiers who charged the British at the Old Stone House in a courageous act of self-sacrifice and were subsequently killed. But where were the soldiers of the First Maryland Regiment buried? In January 1957, three young men guided by the official historian of Brooklyn began digging up the basement of a former paint factory searching for their remains.…