Delaware Regiment ("Delaware Blues") Organized

# The Delaware Regiment Organized at Dover, 1775

In the anxious months following the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the American colonies scrambled to transform their outrage into organized military force. The Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, recognized that righteous anger alone would not sustain a war against the most powerful empire on earth. Each colony was called upon to raise regiments of disciplined, well-trained soldiers who could stand toe to toe with British regulars on the open battlefield. In the small colony of Delaware, that call was answered with remarkable determination, and the result was one of the finest fighting units of the entire Revolutionary War: the First Delaware Regiment, widely known as the "Delaware Blues."

The regiment was organized in 1775 with its administrative operations centered in Dover, the colonial capital of Delaware. Command fell to Colonel John Haslet, an Irish-born physician and Presbyterian minister who had settled in Kent County and become one of Delaware's most respected civic leaders. Haslet proved to be an inspired choice. He was not merely a figurehead appointed for political reasons, as was sometimes the case in other colonies. He was a man of genuine military ability who had served during the French and Indian War, and he brought both battlefield experience and a fierce personal commitment to the patriot cause. Under his leadership, the regiment recruited its ranks primarily from Kent and Sussex counties, drawing volunteers from Delaware's farms, villages, and small towns. These men were outfitted in distinctive blue coats faced with red, earning them the nickname the "Delaware Blues," and Haslet drilled them with an intensity that set them apart from many militia units of the period.

What made the Delaware Regiment exceptional was not merely its appearance but its discipline and cohesion. At a time when many American units were poorly trained, loosely organized, and prone to melting away when their short enlistments expired, the Delaware Blues developed a reputation as one of General George Washington's most dependable Continental formations. Their first major test came at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, where they fought a desperate rearguard action against overwhelming British forces during one of the darkest moments of the war. Though the Americans suffered a crushing defeat that day, the Delaware Regiment's conduct under fire earned widespread admiration and helped buy precious time for Washington's army to escape across the East River to Manhattan.

The regiment's service continued through a remarkable string of the war's most consequential engagements. They were present at the bold crossing of the Delaware River and the surprise attack on Trenton in December 1776, the victory that revived American morale when the revolution seemed on the verge of collapse. Tragically, Colonel Haslet was killed shortly afterward at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777, a loss deeply felt throughout Delaware and the Continental Army. Yet the regiment he had built endured beyond his death, fighting at Brandywine in September 1777, where Washington attempted to block the British advance on Philadelphia, and at Germantown the following month, where the Americans launched an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful counterattack. Later in the war, soldiers from Delaware served at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780, part of the grueling southern campaign that eventually turned the tide against the British.

The organization of the Delaware Regiment at Dover in 1775 matters because it illustrates how even the smallest colony could make a contribution far exceeding its size. Delaware was one of the least populous colonies, yet it produced a regiment whose battlefield performance rivaled that of any unit in the Continental Army. The Delaware Blues demonstrated that American soldiers, when properly led and thoroughly trained, could meet British professionals with courage and skill. Colonel John Haslet's legacy, and the legacy of the men he recruited from the fields and towns of Kent and Sussex counties, is woven into the very fabric of American independence. Their story reminds us that the Revolution was won not by grand gestures alone but by the steady, determined service of ordinary citizens who chose to fight for an extraordinary cause.