The German Battalion or German Regiment or 8th Maryland was an American infantry unit that served for about four and one-half years in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Authorized in May 1776 as an Extra Continental regiment, the unit was recruited from ethnic Germans from Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Continental Congress appointed Nicholas Haussegger to command the battalion, which initially organized in the strength of eight companies. While the unit assembled at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a ninth company was added. The battalion fought at Trenton in December 1776, where its soldiers called out in German for the Hessians to lay down their arms.