It completed an epic winter march from western Pennsylvania to New Jersey, though Mackay and his second-in-command both died soon afterward.

Assigned to the Western Department in May 1778, the 8th Pennsylvania gained a ninth company before seeing action near Fort Laurens and in the Sullivan Expedition in 1778 and 1779.

The battalion was organized from 15 July to 15 September 1776 at Kittanning, Pennsylvania in the western part of the state to consist of eight companies of infantry from Bedford, Cumberland, Westmoreland Counties.

The eight captains were Moses Carson, Wendel Oury, David Kilgore, Andrew Mann, Samuel Miller, Eliezer Myers, James Piggott, and Van Swearingen.

[1] On 6 January the unit began a march of 300 miles (483 km) across the mountains and hills of Pennsylvania, with their supplies on pack horses.

Within a short time, one-third of the regiment was on the sick list and 50 men died, including both senior officers, Mackay and Wilson.

In the brilliant Battle of Spanktown, the Americans surprised a reinforced British brigade under Charles Mawhood and chased it back to Amboy.

[6] Cornwallis and Major General James Grant with 3,000 to 4,000 troops marched along both banks of the Raritan River.

The plan miscarried when Captain Johann von Ewald's jäger company was pinned down under "murderous fire" and Donop's troops were committed before the enveloping columns could get behind the Americans.

The loss of their senior officers and the defeat at Bound Brook apparently caused "distracted" behavior in the ranks.

Morgan's corps fought at the Battles of Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights during the successful Saratoga campaign.

[2] Under the acting command of Colonel Richard Humpton, the 2nd Pennsylvania Brigade saw action at Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777 in Anthony Wayne's division.

[9] During the fighting that followed, Major Bayard was hit in the shoulder by a spent cannonball, knocked off his horse, and tumbled 30 feet (9 m) over the ground.

Deploying on the east side of the Germantown Road, Wayne's men turned the right flank of the British 2nd Light Infantry Battalion.

Eager to avenge their defeat at Paoli, Wayne's soldiers charged forward with fixed bayonets and overran the light infantry's camp.

When the British army commander General Sir William Howe appeared on the scene he was startled to see his crack light infantry fleeing before the American advance.

Isolated in the fog, Wayne ordered an about-face and his two brigades began to move back toward the noise of battle.

[2] When the regiment went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Bayard was lieutenant colonel and Frederick Vernon was major.

Having installed Major Vernon and 106 soldiers of the 8th Regiment in Fort Laurens, McIntosh returned to Pennsylvania.

The fort had to be relieved a second time at the end of May by Captain Robert Beall of the 9th Virginia Regiment and reinforced in June by Lieutenant Colonel Campbell.

The mutiny was a successful attempt by the troops to get better treatment and pay, and to secure discharge for those men who had served three years.