Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment was authorized 17 June 1776 in the Continental Army and assigned to the Main Army. The Regiment was organized 27 June 1776 to consist of the three existing companies (two from Md. and one from Va.), plus two new companies to be raised in Maryland, and four new companies to be raised in Virginia.

The new companies were organized 11-31 July 1776 in Frederick (Thomas Beall commanding) and Harford (Alexander Lawson Smith commanding) Counties, Maryland, and Fauquier, Berkeley, Frederick, and Culpeper Counties, Virginia

16 November 1776, New York - "Two hundred fifty Virginia and Maryland riflemen and two hunderd Bucks County, Pennsylvania militiamen, in conjunction with 2,000 regulars, strongly defend Fort Washington against German advances under the command of General Howe. Through the treachery of William Demont, Colonel Robert Magaw's adjutant, Lord Percy has complete plans of the works of the fort, as well as a statement of the armament and number within the garrison. With this foreknowledge, Howe takes the fort and the full complement of 2,500 men are taken prisoner. Despite the advantage Demont's treason gives the Hessians, they lose 500 men, and angered by the resistance of the Americans and their heavy losses, begin to massacre the prisoners. British officers immediately stop the slaughter. George Washington, on the opposite bank of the Hudson River, unable to reach Fort Washington in time to save the garrison, witnesses its fall and the killing of the Americans by the Hessians. Most of the American prisoners taken in this action are doomed to die in British prison ships." - The Frontier Rifleman, LaCrosse, 1997.

The regimental organization was disbanded with the surviving Virginia portion being transferred 3 February 1777 to the 11th Virginia Regiment and the Maryland portion provisionally reorganized in November 1776 as a single company under Captain Alexander Lawson Smith and attached to the 4th Maryland Regiment.

The whole was reorganized 21 March 1779 as Rawlings' Independent Corps, to consist of three companies (one from Maryland); concurrently relieved from the Main Army and assigned to the Western Department

They were disbanded 1 January 1781 at Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania

Engagements
New York City
Trenton-Princeton
Northern New Jersey
Defense of Philadelphia
Philadelphia-Monmouth