The two-state composition of the new unit precluded it from being managed through a single state government, and it was therefore directly responsible to national authority as an Extra Continental regiment.

Because most of the newly formed regiment surrendered to British and German forces at the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, the service history of the unit's surviving element is complex.

Although modern and contemporaneous accounts of the battle convey the impression that it marked the end of the regiment as a combat entity, a significant portion of the unit continued to serve actively in the Continental Army throughout most of the remainder of the war.

During the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress directed the organization of the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment in resolves dated June 17 and 27, 1776.

[17][18] After heavy fighting that lasted most of the day and during which the Hessians suffered many casualties, the riflemen were eventually driven from the outer works into the fort where they and the rest of the outnumbered American garrison surrendered to the combined British and German attack force.

A few enlisted men of the regiment who escaped from their captors within the short chaotic period following the battle augmented this remaining active force,[25] which continued to serve with the Main Army.

The regiment's two composite companies served with the Main Army during its retreat across New Jersey in late 1776,[27][28] in the ensuing Battles of Trenton and Princeton[29][30][31][32] in Brig.

[43] The first muster rolls of the two companies taken after the Battle of Fort Washington, both dated May 16, 1777, were compiled by the army staff as a result of the attachment process and show that the units comprised about 110 officers and enlisted men on active duty in the spring of 1777.

[22][23] The rolls also document that the units had lost a number of men over the winter months following the battle, primarily through desertion and a few deaths due to illness or wounds.

Thirty-five officers and enlisted men in Smith's and Long's composite companies, as well as others selected from their regular musket regiments, were detached from their permanent units to form this elite regiment-sized force.

[16][49] Evans returned to Rawlings' regiment, his permanent unit, when his detached duty in the Rifle Corps ended with its formal disbanding in early November 1779.

Maj. Otho Holland Williams, exchanged on January 16, 1778[63] (likely with Rawlings), had been promoted to colonel of the 6th Maryland Regiment in December 1776 while a prisoner of war; he took command of this unit upon his release.

In the late spring of 1778, Rawlings began marshaling his regiment, including returning prisoners of war[16][65] and new recruits,[66][67] to reestablish its full complement.

"[68] Moreover, in early October 1778 Congress permitted Rawlings and his officers to recruit outside Maryland, with each new enlistee being officially entitled to the enlistment bonus and clothing allowance of his own state's line organization.

[72] The reorganization, which was implemented on March 21,[73] served to supplement forces engaged in the defense of frontier settlements of present-day western Pennsylvania and vicinity from Indian raids that had started in early 1777.

In mid-1778, after more than a year of these attacks by warriors of British-allied Iroquois tribes, Washington commenced a concerted effort to neutralize the threat to the backcountry settlements of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—the war's western front.

[75] Pursuant to Washington's order, the enlisted men in Smith's composite company who were attached to the 4th Maryland Regiment rejoined Rawlings' command.

[89] Moreover, a month after its arrival, the unit lost almost half of its troop strength[87] because the three-year enlistment periods of those men who had joined the regiment during its organization in mid-1776 had terminated.

To further complicate matters, Rawlings resigned his command of the regiment on June 2,[90] primarily because of his frustration over not being able to fully rebuild the unit,[61] and did not accompany his men.

[95] With the arrival of Rawlings' regiment, Western Department commander Col. Daniel Brodhead now led a force of largely frontier raised men experienced in Indian-style woodlands warfare.

In his most notable tactical achievement, Brodhead headed a campaign of about 600 of his Continental regulars, which included the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment,[96][97] local militia, and volunteers to the upper waters of the Allegheny River in August and September 1779, where they destroyed the villages and crops of hostile Mingo and Munsee Indians.

Thomas Beall ran afoul of army regulations and Western Department commander Brodhead by approving the enlistment of a British prisoner of war in February 1780.