Meet Chris Mlynarczyk

Chris is President of the 1st Delaware Regiment—technically the 1st Delaware Regiment Living History Corporation established in 2012 as a Delaware nonprofit and a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Newark. Its reenactors, whom you might call living history practitioners, are dedicated to preserving the legacy of this elite Continental army unit.

In his review of my newest book, John Haslet’s World: An Ardent Patriot, the Delaware Blues, and the Spirit of 1776 (to be released as a Knox Press Imprint of Permuted Press on November 3), Chris writes: “The story of the Delaware Continentals is one that is truly amazing! It is almost unbelievable that this one regiment from one of the smallest states impacted the outcome of the Revolution not just once but time after time, each and every year of the war.”

John Haslet’s World

The new book focuses primarily on Colonel Haslet and the initial Delaware Regiment that he led from its inception in January 1776 until his death at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. However, it also sheds light on the exploits of the reconstituted regiment created after Haslet fell. Its men fought in nearly every major engagement for the rest of the war and particularly distinguished themselves during the 1781 Southern campaign as a mainstay of Nathanael Greene’s resilient army.

Aside from the perils of combat, the Delaware Continentals—known as the Delaware Blues for the color of their uniforms—endured a litany of hardships that would severely test anyone, as this excerpt suggests:

From 1776 to 1783, the Blues would march in broken shoes or without shoes, on rutted roads and where there were no roads, in mud and sand, across marshes and streams, in sweltering heat and frigid cold, for thousands of miles. They slept—or attempted to—in tents in freezing weather, or absent any shelter whatsoever, missing blankets or any covering, on the bare ground in rain and snow, in need of clothing, food, and drink, and going without pay from one year to the next.

During this time, these soldiers participated in more than a dozen significant battles, as well as skirmishes and minor encounters. More than three-quarters-of-a-century ago, the noted historian Christopher Ward lauded them as follows in his acclaimed work on the Delaware Continentals:

Forged on the anvil of hardship under the hammer of experience, the Delaware regiment was a weapon which any of the great captains of history would have been glad to launch at his foe. It is not too much to say that no other single regiment in the American army had a longer and more continuous term of service, marched more miles, suffered greater hardships, fought in more battles or achieved greater distinction than this one of Delaware.

Making History Come Alive

Today, Chris Mlynarczyk and his fellow history enthusiasts in the 1st Delaware Regiment seek to educate the public about the role played by Delaware and Delawareans in the Revolution. They do so through living history programs and by portraying the regiment at various events, although public health considerations have obviously impacted those efforts for the time being. More information is available on their website and by email at [email protected].

Kudos to these ambassadors for our Revolutionary heritage. You might say they are (in a manner of speaking) singing the Blues.