Finding the Maryland 400

Since it was launched in May 2013, the Maryland State Archives’ project Finding the Maryland 400 has

worked to preserve the memory of the Maryland soldiers who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn, and to

serve as a tribute to them. It has done so by uncovering their names and telling their stories.

Thanks to the generous and continued support of the Maryland SAR, we have worked to attain these

goals in a number of ways:

Compiling an online roster of all known Marylanders who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn. This

is the first listing of all Maryland soldiers, containing about 850 known names of the roughly

900 men who were present at the battle. It is the most accurate listing to date, because we have

been able to refine it over a sustained period, and can draw on the work of others.

Centralizing all information known about the fates of the soldiers: who was killed, wounded, or

captured. This information is vital, as the search for the Marylanders’ grave site in New York

continues.

Researching and writing biographies of these soldiers. To date, there are over 225 biographies of

Maryland soldiers published online, fully sourced and including many images of original

records. Of these biographies, more than 150 were completed during periods of SAR

sponsorship, either by SAR-funded individuals or other partner organizations such as

Washington College.

Public outreach, ensuring that the story of the Maryland 400 is widely known and understood.

Project staff have given public lectures and press interviews on the topic, always emphasizing

the SAR’s contribution to the project. The project blog is an important component of this; it is

the first Google result for “Maryland 400,” after Wikipedia, showing the reach of the project.

In addition to the work outlined in the proposal to the SAR for additional funding, the project has the

following activities planned:

Additional lectures (three scheduled for 2017 already) for history and heritage groups.

Revision of the project website, in cooperation with a UMBC public history graduate student.

We are committed to continuing this project until its completion. The ultimate goals should be

completing biographies of all remaining soldiers, and then publishing these biographies, along with

additional content about the Revolutionary War in Maryland, into a print publication.

Accompanying this report are samples of the project’s work from this year: two biographies, and a blog

post about the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, where many members of the Maryland 400 played an

important role.

Finding the Maryland 400

www.msamaryland400.wordpress.com

CompanyFull Strength

Strength 6-7/1776

Known Names on Roster

Discharged/Deserted

Bios Online

Known POWs

Officers' bios to write: Notes

1 74 73 13 1 0Samuel Jones removed from roster because he left Reg. in 7/1776

2 74 75 2 7 1 0 2 deserters3 74 77 16 22 04 74 58 71 6 71 11 0 Complete5 74 70 46 2 46 2 0 Complete

6 74 72 11 10 0Need 2nd Lt.'s name; only non-finished bios are John McLains

7 74 72 10 08 74 68 73 4 5 1 0 4 deserters9 78 81 13 13 0

4th Ind. 106 111 111 6 3 0 "lost but 3 men"5th Ind. 106 30 11 07th Ind. 106 111 64 11 6 0 Strength interpolation

Staff Officers 11 5Total 988 856 225 70 0 Total in regiment, 9/27/1776: 643

Total lost in battle: 256Approximate strength at time of battle: 899

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Finding the Maryland 400 A Maryland State Archives research project

“The misfortune which ensued”: The defeat at Germantown Posted on October 4, 2016 by Finding the Maryland 400

Saverio Xavier della Gatta, an eighteenth-century Neopolitan painter, painted this scene of the Battle of Germantown in 1782, possibly for a British officer. Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution.

On the morning of October 4, 1777, Continental troops encountered British forces, led by Lord William Howe, encamped at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia’s outskirts. George Washington believed that he had surprise on his side. [1] He had ordered his multiple divisions to march twenty miles from their camp at Perkeomen, with some of the soldiers having neither food or blankets. [2] Washington thought that if the British were defeated he could retake the Continental capital of Philadelphia and reverse his disaster at Brandywine.

Among the men who marched with Washington were 210 Marylanders, including many veterans of the Maryland 400. [3] The seven Maryland regiments, commanded by General John Sullivan, were at the lead of the Continental attack. After marching most of the night, like the rest of the Continental Army, they arrived at Chestnut Hill, three miles from Mount Airy, and encountered a British picket. [4] Later, Sullivan’s division advanced and fought British light infantry in a 15-20 minute clash in an orchard. [5] The Marylanders progressed on the road to Germantown, pushing down fences as they moved forward during this “very foggy morning.” [6] As Enoch Anderson of the Delaware Regiment described it, the scene became bloody in the thick fog:

“Bullets began to fly on both sides,–some were killed,–some wounded, but the order was to advance. We advanced in the line of the division,—the firing on both sides increased,—and what with the thickness of the air and the firing of guns, we could see but a little way before us.” [7]

As the battle moved forward, many Continentals fought at the house of Benjamin Chew, also called Cliveden. The Marylanders advanced upon a small breastwork in Germantown, leading to an intense fight with many lying dead, and they later captured British artillery. [8] Later on, Sullivan ordered

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the Marylanders, within 400 or 500 yards of the stone house, to retreat since this obstacle had stopped their advance. [9] In response to the hundred or so British troops who came out of the house and a British advance from Lord Charles Cornwallis‘s reinforcements, some Marylanders fired a volley in response. After a British officer was killed, they did not pursue Sullivan’s men. When the smoke cleared, Colonel John Hoskins Stone and General Uriah Forest were wounded while two Marylanders were missing. [10]

Regiments from New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania also fought in the battle. Like the Marylanders, these Continentals were initially successful in pushing back the British. [11] They were even successful against the Hessian Jägerkorps who had soundly defeated them at the Battle of Brandywine, 24 days earlier. [12] As George Washington recounted, the Continental troops were part of his plan to flank the British, advancing at sunrise, but that they

“retreated a considerable distance, having previously thrown a party into Mr Chews House, who were in a situation not to be easily forced, and had it in their power from the Windows to give us no small annoyance, and in a great measure to obstruct our advance…The Morning was extremely foggy, which prevented our improving the advantages we gained so well, as we should otherwise have done. This circumstance…obliged us to act with more caution and less expedition than we could have wished, and gave the Enemy time to recover from the effects of our first impression…It also occasioned them [the Continentals] to mistake One another for the Enemy, which, I believe, more than any thing else contributed to the misfortune which ensued.” [13]

Clearly, the successes of these Continentals were reversed because they attempted to take the well-defended stone house, which was “shot to pieces” in the intense fighting and friendly fire. Some, such as Connecticut Lieutenant James Morris III recalled that in the “memorable battle of Germantown,” the Continental Army’s victory “in the outsetting seemed to perch on our standards.” [14] He also wrote that the day’s success turned against them due to, in his view, the “misconduct” of General Adam Stephen and “undisciplined” soldiers scattering.

Illustration of the battle at the Chew House by American artist Christian Schussele

Regardless of who is blamed, the heavy fighting undoubtedly resulted in the death and wounding of many soldiers, leading to a withdrawal. [15] Soldiers were disoriented and confused by heavy morning radiation

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fog, caused by a 34 degree temperature and humidity, along with the thick black powder smoke from cannons and muskets. This annulled any chance for victory, even though some claimed that they were near to “gaining a compleat Victory.” [16] Washington said that his army would have gained victory if “the fogginess of the Morning” hadn’t prevented the Continental Army “from seeing the advantage we had gained.” [17] In later letters he told General William Heath, his brother John Augustine Washington, and Virginia politician John Page a similar story. He wrote that the hazy day was “overcast by dark & heavy fog,” was “extremely foggy,” and “a thick Fog rendered so infinitely dark at times.” [18] From his viewpoint, this prevented the enemy from sustaining “total defeat” with complications including the Continental Army’s right wing lacking ammunition as the battle dragged on.

After the battle, the Continental Army moved twenty miles way to collect their forces and care for the wounded as the British still held on to Philadelphia. [19] While wounded Marylanders were sent to Reading, Pennsylvania, the Continental Army camped beside the Delaware River before returning to Perkeomen, where they had been stationed before the battle. [20]

George Washington, with the help of other officers and informers, repeatedly tried to assess their losses and that of the British. Washington claimed that the Continental Army suffered “no material loss of Men.” His estimates of those killed, wounded, and missing ranged from 300 to 1,000. [21] He also said that only one artillery piece was lost, along with some captured due to the foggy conditions. In his memoirs, in early nineteenth century, Connecticut Lieutenant James Morris wrote that “many fell in battle and about five hundred of our men were made prisoners of War, who surrendered at discretion.” [22] While the number of casualties from the battle is not known since the official return of Continental causalities from the battle has been lost, the Annual Register, a British parliamentary publication, may be the most reliable, as they reported that 200-300 Continentals were slain, 600 wounded and more than 400 were taken prisoner. [23]

The estimates of British casualties are also not clear. Through the month of October, informers, who were often deserters, told George Washington and other high-level generals that hundreds of wagons came into the city of Philadelphia with wounded soldiers. [24] Those that were wounded reportedly included British army general William Erskine and Hessian general William von Knyphausen, along with 300 to 2,500 British killed and wounded on the bloody day. [25] The Annual Register said that the British losses of wounded, killed, and captured numbered 535, but only 75 were killed and 54 officers taken prisoner. [26] Hence, the estimates by deserters that 2,500 British were casualties may have been exaggerated.

The Continental prisoners from the battle did not fair well. James Morris described how he was captured ten miles away from Germantown after being “continually harassed” by British light infantry and dragoons. [27] Morris, like many others, was taken prisoner, and held in Germantown from October 4 to 5th. He was moved to Philadelphia, where he was a prisoner in Walnut Street Jail. [28] He remained there along with 400 to 500 Continentals in squalid conditions until May 1778. The jail was cold, dark, and desolate, and many prisoners had no bedding, blankets, or general provisions, while others became sick or died. [29]

As the Continentals languished in Philadelphia, officers were accused of being responsible for the defeat and court-martialed as a result. While some believed that the battle reflected “honor upon the General and the Army” and that General Sullivan was a “brave Man,” not everyone agreed. [30] He was partly criticuzed for the friendly fire between Sullivan’s division and Nathaniel Greene‘s troops during the battle, due to the fog. [31] He was likely seen as part of the reason for the “real Injury to America” caused by the defeat: the continued British occupation of Philadelphia. Sullivan defended himself by writing to Washington that after the battle “the field remained his [Howe’s,] the victory was yours” and that Howe could only be defeated by “a Successful General Action.” [32] Others accused of improprieties during the battle included Pennsylvania militia general Thomas Conway, accused later of conspiring against Washington, Captain Abner Crump of Virginia, Nathaniel Greene, Captain Edward Vail of North Carolina, and Captain Adam Stephen of Connecticut. [33] Of these men, Vail, Crump, and Conway were court-martialed and removed from the Continental Army.

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Despite the fact that the battle was a defeat for the Continental Army, it served a purpose for the revolutionary cause. John Adams wrote, in July 1778, that “General Washingtons attack upon the Enemy at Germantown” was considered by “the military Gentlemen in Europe” to be the “most decisive Proof that America would finally succeed.” [34]

In the following months, some Marylanders fought along the Delaware River in forts Red Bank and Mifflin. The British were trying to push the Continentals clear out the Delaware River in order to secure Philadelphia. [35] By the end of the campaign, however, their only victory was ensuring that the city was “a good lodging” for the British Army. The rest of Marylanders stayed in camp until they wintered in Wilmington, Delaware and the rest of the army wintered in Valley Forge. [36] In the following years, the First Maryland Regiment would fight in the northern colonies until they joined the Southern campaign in 1780 and 1781. [37]

– Burkely Hermann, Maryland Society of the Sons of American Revolution Research Fellow, 2016.

Notes

[1] “To George Washington from Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, 23 April 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; The Annual Register, 135. The Annual Register says that British patrols found the Continentals by 3:00 in the morning,

so their attack was no surprise.

[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn, “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 143-144; Pension of James Morris, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1771, pension number W. 2035. Courtesy of Fold3.com; James Morris, Memoirs of James Morris of South Farms in Litchfield (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1933), 18; Pension of Jacob Armstrong, Revolutionary War Pensions, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, pension number S.22090, roll 0075. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Stanley Weintraub, Iron Tears: America’s Battle for Freedom, Britain’s Quagmire: 1775-1783 (New York: Free Press, 2005), 116-117; Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Command During the Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire (London: One World Publications, 2013), 109; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” Maryland Historical Magazine June 1908. Vol. 3, no.2, 110; John Dwight Kilbourne, A Short History of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army

(Baltimore: Society of Cincinnati of Maryland, 1992), 14; “From George Washington to Brigadier General Alexander McDougall, 25 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Pension of James Morris, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1771, pension number W. 2035. Courtesy of Fold3.com; James Morris, Memoirs of James Morris of South Farms in Litchfield (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1933), 18; “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016. The reference to no food or blanket specifically refers to James Morris of Connecticut. Washington’s headquarters was on Pennibecker’s Mill on the Skippack Road from September 26-29 and October 4 to October 8th, 1777. The Continental Army had camped at Chester throughout late September, but Morris says they camped near the Leni River. However, a river of this name does not exist, so he may have meant a branch off the Schuykill River or maybe the Delaware River, since the Leni-Lenape indigenous group lived on the river.

[3] “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Page, 11 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Major General William Heath, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; C.H. Lesser, The Sinews of Independence, Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 80.

[4] Tacyn, 4, 115, 144; Enoch Anderson, Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson: Eyewitness Accounts of the American Revolution (New York: New York Times & Arno Press, 1971), 44; “From George Washington to Major General William Heath, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[5] Tacyn, 145.

[6] Anderson, 45.

[7] Anderson, 45.

[8] Anderson, 45.

[9] Tacyn, 145-146; Anderson, 45; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110-111.

[10] Tacyn, 15, 209-210, 289, 291; Pension of James Morris, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1408, pension number W. 11929. Courtesy of Fold3.com. Thomas Carvin and James Reynolds were said to be missing after the battle. Reportedly, a Marylander named Elisha Jarvis was ordered by William Smallwood to guard the baggage train at the Battle of Germantown.

[11] Thomas Thorleifur Sobol, “William Maxwell, New Jersey’s Hard Fighting General,” Journal of the American Revolution, August 15, 2016. Accessed October 3, 2016; “From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 7 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[12] David Ross, The Hessian Jagerkorps in New York and Pennsylvania, 1776-1777, Journal of the American Revolution, May 14,

2015. Accessed October 3, 2016.

[13] “From George Washington to John Hancock, 5 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[14] Pension of James Morris; Morris, 18-19.

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[15] Don N. Hagist, “Who killed General Agnew? Not Hans Boyer,” Journal of the American Revolution, August 17, 2016. Accessed October 3, 2016; Don N. Hagist, “Martin Hurley’s Last Charge,” Journal of the American Revolution, April 14, 2015. Accessed October 3, 2016; John Rees, “War as Waiter: Soldier Servants,” Journal of the American Revolution, April 28, 2015. Accessed October 3, 2016; Thomas Verenna, “20 Terrifying Revolutionary War Soldier Experiences,” Journal of the American Revolution, April 24, 2015. Accessed October 3, 2016; Thomas Verenna, “Explaining Pennsylvania’s Militia,” Journal of the American Revolution, June 17, 2014. Accessed October 3, 2016; “General Orders, 11 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016. Richard St. George and Martin Hurley of the British army were wounded and James Agnew, a British general, was killed.

[16] Pension of Jacob Armstrong; The Annual Register or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1777 (4th Edition, London: J. Dosley, 1794), 129-130; Sir George Otto Trevelyan, The American Revolution: Saratoga and Brandywine, Valley Forge, England and France at War, Vol. 4 (London: Longmans Greens Co., 1920), 275; O’Shaughnessy, 110; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110-111; Kilbourne, 17, 19; “From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 7 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[17] “From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified

July 12, 2016.

[18] “From George Washington to Major General William Heath, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Page, 11 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Hancock, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[19] “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified

July 12, 2016.

[20] “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 111; Anderson, 45-46.

[21] “From George Washington to John Hancock, 5 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 7 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Hancock, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Major General William Heath, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Page, 11 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016. In his letters he said that Grant was wounded while Nash (died after the battle from wounds) and Agnew were killed.

[22] Pension of James Morris; Morris, 19.

[23] “General Orders, 5 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Annual Register, 136.

[24] “From George Washington to John Hancock, 5 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Major John Clark, Jr., 6 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 7 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Hancock, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Major General Israel Putnam, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Major General William Heath, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[25] “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Major John Clark, Jr., 6 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 7 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Hancock, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Major General Israel Putnam, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith, 9 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Page, 11 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Captain Henry Lee, Jr., 15 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Annual Register, 137. One letter says fifty British were killed and another says fifty-seven. The British Annual Register confirms that Nash was killed.

[26] Annual Register, 136-137.

[27] Pension of James Morris; Morris, 19.

[28] Pension of James Morris; Morris, 19-25; “To George Washington from Pelatiah Webster, 19 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Thomas McKean, 8 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016,

[29] Pension of James Morris, Morris, 23-29, 31; “To George Washington from Captain Henry Lee, Jr., 9 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Lieutenant Colonel Persifor Frazer, 9 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Pelatiah Webster, 19 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016. He also said that he was then shipped to Philadelphia where he served a prisoner on Long Island as a farm laborer until May 1781.

[30] “To John Adams from Joseph Ward, 9 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[31] “The Committee for Foreign Affairs to the American Commissioners, 6[–9] October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To Benjamin Franklin from the Massachusetts Board of War, 24 October 1777: résumé,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

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[32] “To George Washington from Major General John Sullivan, 25 November 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “Major General John Sullivan’s Opinion, 29 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[33] “To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “General Orders, 19 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Major General Nathanael Greene, 24 November 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “General Orders, 22 December 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Captain Edward Vail, 22 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “General Orders, 13 June 1778,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from William Gordon, 25 February 1778,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Major General Adam Stephen, 9 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[34] Trevelyan, 249; O’Shaughnessy, 111; Christopher Hibbert, George III: A Personal History (New York: Basic Books, 1998), 154-155; “From John Adams to James Lovell, 26 July 1778,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[35] Annual Register, 137-141.

[36] Anderson, 53; Tacyn, 146; Thomas Thorleifur Sobol, “William Maxwell, New Jersey’s Hard Fighting General,” Journal of the American Revolution, August 15, 2016. Accessed October 3, 2016; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110; Kilbourne, 14; “From George Washington to George Clinton, 15 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to Major General Israel Putnam, 15 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Major John Clark, Jr., 27 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Brigadier General Henry Knox, 26 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Major John Clark, Jr., 6 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Hancock, 7 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[37] Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, April 1, 1778 through October 26, 1779 Archives of Maryland Online Vol.

21, 118; Kilbourne, 21-22, 24-27, 29-30, 31, 33; Tacyn, 241. Some argue that in the battle of Eutaw Springs parts of the battle of Germantown were repeated.

P R O J E C T S P O N S O RE D B Y

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British “masters of the field”: The disaster at Brandywine Posted on September 12, 2016 by Finding the Maryland 400

Illustration of the Battle of Brandywine, drawn by cartographer, engraver and illustrator Johann Martin Will (1727-1806) in 1777. Image is courtesy of the Library of Congress.

On the night of September 10, 1777, many of the soldiers and commanding officers of the Continental Army sat around their campfires and listened to an ominous sermon that would predict the events of the following day. Chaplain Jeremias (or Joab) Trout declared that God was on their side and that

“we have met this evening perhaps for the last time…alike we have endured the cold and hunger, the contumely of the internal foe and the courage of foreign oppression…the sunlight…tomorrow…will glimmer on scenes of blood…Tomorrow morning we will go forth to battle…Many of us may fall tomorrow.” [1]

The following day, the Continentals would be badly defeated by the British and “scenes of blood” would indeed appear on the ground near Brandywine Creek.

In the previous month, a British flotilla consisting of 28 ships, loaded with over 12,000 troops, had sailed up the Chesapeake Bay. [2] They disembarked at the Head of Elk (now Elkton, Maryland) in July, under the command of Sir William Howe, and had one objective: to attack the American capital of Philadelphia. [3] Howe had planned to form a united front with John Burgoyne, but bad communication made this impossible. [4] At the same time, Burgoyne was preoccupied with fighting the Continental Army in Saratoga, where he ultimately surrendered later in the fall. With Howe’s redcoats, light dragoons, grenadiers, and artillerymen were Hessian soldiers fighting for the Crown. [5]

Opposing these forces were two sections of the Continental Army. The first was the main body of Continentals led by George Washington, consisting of light infantry, artillery, ordinary foot-soldiers, and militia from Pennsylvania and Maryland. The second was the Continental right wing commanded by John Sullivan, which consisted of infantry from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland. The latter was led by William Smallwood and included the First Maryland Regiment. Other Marylanders who participated in the battle included Walter Brooke Cox, Joseph Marbury, Daniel Rankins, Samuel Hamilton, John Toomy, John Brady, and Francis Reveley. While the British were nearby, the 15,000-man Continental Army fortified itself at Chadd’s Ford, sitting on Brandywine Creek in order to defend Philadelphia from British attack. [6]

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A map by Johann Martin Will in early 1777, in the same set as the illustration of the battle at the beginning of this post, which shows British and Continental troop movements during the Battle of Brandywine.

The morning of September 11 was warm, still, and quiet in the Continental Army camp on the green and sloping area behind Brandywine Creek. [7] Civilians from surrounding towns who were favoring the Crown, the revolutionary cause, or were neutral watched the events that were about to unfold. [8]

Suddenly, at 8:00, the British, on the other side of the creek, began to bombard the Continental positions facing the creek complimented by Hessians firing their muskets. [9] However, these attacks were never meant as a direct assault on Continental lines. [10] Instead, the British wanted to cross the creek, which had few bridges, including one unguarded bridge called Jeffries’ Ford on Great Valley Road. As Howe engaged in a flanking maneuver, which he had used at the Battle of Brooklyn, the Marylanders would again find themselves on the front lines.

As the British continued their diversionary frontal attack on the Continental lines, thousands of them moved across the unguarded bridge that carried Great Valley Road over Brandywine Creek. Washington received reports about this British movement throughout the day but since these messages were inconsistent, he did not act on them until later. [11] At that point, he sent Sullivan’s wing, including Marylanders, to push back the advancing British flank. [12]

These Marylanders encountered seasoned Hessian troops who, when joined by British guards and grenadiers, attacked the Marylanders. Due to the precise and constant fire from Hessians and a British infantry charge with bayonets, the Marylanders fled in panic. [13] Lieutenant William Beatty of the Second Maryland Regiment, who would perish in the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill, recounted this attack:

“…[in] the Middle of this Afternoon…a strong Body of the Enemy had Cross’d above our Army and were in full march to out-flank us; this Obliged our Right wing to Change their front…before this could be fully [executed]…the Enemy Appeared and made a very Brisk Attack which put the whole of our Right

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Wing to flight…this was not done without some Considerable loss on their side, as of the Right wing behaved Gallantly…the Attack was made on the Right, the British…made the fire…on all Quarters.” [14]

As a Marylanders endured a “severe cannonade” from the British, the main body of the Continental Army was in trouble. [15] Joseph Armstrong of Pennsylvania, a private in a Pennsylvania militia unit, described retreating after the British had crossed Brandywine Creek, and moved back even further, at 5:00, for eight or nine miles, with the British in hot pursuit. [16]

Despite the “heavy and well supported fire of small arms and artillery,” the Continentals could not stop the British and Hessian troops, who ultimately pushed the Americans into the nearby woods. [17] The British soldiers, exhausted and wearing wool, were able to push back the Continentals at 5:30 on that hot day. [18] As Washington would admit in his apologetic letter to the President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, “…in this days engagement we have been obliged to leave the enemy masters of the field.” [19]

As the smoke cleared, the carnage was evident. Numerous Continentals were wounded, along with French military men such as the Marquis de Lafayette. [20] Despite Washington’s claim that “our loss of men is not…very considerable…[and] much less than the enemys,” about 200-300 were killed and 400 taken prisoner. [21] This would confirm Lieutenant Beatty’s claim that Continental losses included eight artillery pieces, “500 men killed, wounded and prisoners.” [22] In contrast, on the British side, fewer than a hundred were killed while as many as 500 were wounded. [23] Beatty’s assessment was that the British loss was “considerable” due to a “great deal of very heavy firing.” [24] Still, as victors, the British slept on the battlefield that night.

Not long after, the British engaged in a feint attack to draw away the Continental Army from Philadelphia and marched into the city without firing a shot, occupying it for the next ten months. [25] In the meantime, Congress fled to York, Pennsylvania, where it stayed until Philadelphia could be re-occupied in late June 1778.

In the months after the battle, the Continental Army chose who would be punished for the defeat. This went beyond John Adams’s response to the news of the battle: “…Is Philadelphia to be lost? If lost, is the cause lost? No–The cause is not lost but may be hurt.” [26] While Washington accepted no blame for the defeat, others were court-martialed. [27]

One man was strongly accused for the defeat: John Sullivan. While some, such as Charles Pickney, praised Sullivan for his “calmness and bravery” during the battle, a sentiment that numerous Maryland officers agreed with, others disagreed. [28] A member of Congress from North Carolina, Thomas Burke, claimed that Sullivan engaged in “evil conduct” leading to misfortune, and that Sullivan was “void of judgment and foresight.” [29] He said this as he attempted to remove Sullivan from his commanding position. Since Sullivan’s division mostly fled the battleground, even as some resisted British advances, and former Quaker Nathaniel Greene led a slow retreat, the blame of Sullivan is not a surprise. [30] Burke’s effort did not succeed since Maryland officers and soldiers admired Sullivan for his aggressive actions and bravery, winning him support. [31]

Another officer accused of misdeeds was a Marylander named William Courts, a veteran of the Battle of Brooklyn. He was accused of “cowardice at the Battle of Brandywine” and for talking to Major Peter Adams of the 7th Maryland Regiment with “impertinent, and abusive language” when Adams questioned Courts’ battlefield conduct. [32] Courts was ultimately acquitted, though he left the Army shortly afterwards. However, his case indicates that the Continental Army was looking for scapegoats for the defeat.

The rest of the remaining Continental Army marched off in the cover of darkness, preventing a battle the following day. They camped at Chester, on the other side of the Schuylkill River, where they stayed throughout late September. [33] Twenty-four days after the battle on the Brandywine, the Continental Army attacked the British camp at Germantown but foggy conditions led to friendly fire, annulling any chance for victory. [34] While it was a defeat, the Battle of Germantown served the revolutionary cause by raising hopes for the United States in the minds of European nobility. [35] It may have also

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convinced Howe to resign from the British Army, as commander of British forces in North America, later that month.

In the following months, the Continental Army continued to fight around Philadelphia and New Jersey. After the battle at Germantown, the British laid siege to Fort Mifflin on Mud Island for over a month. They also engaged in an intensified siege on Fort Mercer at Red Bank, leading to its surrender in late October. In an attempt to assist Continental forces, a detachment of Maryland volunteers under Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith were sent to fight in the battle at Fort Mifflin. [36] By November, the Continentals abandoned Fort Mifflin and retired to Valley Forge. Still, this hard-fought defense of the Fort denied the British use of the Delaware River, foiling their plans to further defeat Continental forces.

As the war went on, the First Maryland Regiment would fight in the northern colonies until 1780 in battles at Monmouth (1778) and Stony Point (1779) before moving to the Southern states as part of Greene’s southern campaign. [37] They would come face-to-face with formidable British forces again in battles at Camden (1780), Cowpens (1781), Guilford Courthouse (1781), and Eutaw Springs (1781). In the end, what the Scottish economist Adam Smith wrote in 1776 held true in the Battle of Brandywine and until the end of the war: that Americans would not voluntarily agree with British imperial control and would die to free themselves from such control. [38]

– Burkely Hermann, Maryland Society of the Sons of American Revolution Research Fellow, 2016.

Notes

[1] Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 (Merrehew & Thompson, 1853), 70-72; Lydia Minturn Post, Personal Recollections of the American Revolution: A Private Journal (ed. Sidney Barclay, New York: Rudd & Carleton, 1859), 207-218; Virginia Biography, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography Vol. V (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), 658. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; George F. Scheer, and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolution Through the Eyes of Those who Fought and Lived It (New York: De Capo Press, 1957, reprint in 1987), 234. Trout, who was also a Reverend, would not survive the battle. While some records reprint his name as “Joab Traut,” other sources indicate that his first name was actually Jeremias and that his last name is sometimes spelled Trout.

[2] Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Command During the Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire (London: One World Publications, 2013), 254; Ferling, 177; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 87; “A Further Extract from the Examination of Joseph Galloway, Esq; by a Committee of the British House of Commons,” Maryland Journal, December 7, 1779, Baltimore, Vol. VI, issue 324, page 1.

[3] Washington thrown back at Brandywine, Chronicle of America (ed. Daniel Clifton, Mount Kisco, NY: Chronicle Publications, 1988), 163; “The Examination of Joseph Galloway, Esq; before the House of Commons,” Maryland Journal, November 23, 1779, Baltimore, Vol. VI, issue 322, page 1. Joseph Galloway, a former member of the Contintental Congress who later became favorable to the British Crown, claimed that inhabitants supplied the British on the way to Brandywine.

[4] Stanley Weintraub, Iron Tears: America’s Battle for Freedom, Britain’s Quagmire: 1775-1783 (New York: Free Press, 2005), 115.

[5] Bethany Collins, “8 Fast Facts About Hessians,” Journal of the American Revolution, August 19, 2014. Accessed August 31,

2016. They were called Hessians since many of them came from the German state of Hesse-Kassel, and many of them were led by Baron Wilhelm Von Knyphausen.

[6] Chronicle of America, 163; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 33. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 37. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 41. Courtesy of Fold3.com; The Annual Register or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1777 (4th Edition, London: J. Dosley, 1794, 127-8; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 137; The Winning of Independence, 1777-1783, American Military History (Washington D.C.: Center for Military History, 1989), 72-73.

[7] John E. Ferling, Setting the World Abaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 175-176; O’Shaughnessy, 107. O’Shaughnessy argues that the encampment at Chad’s Ford was an “excellent defensive position.”

[8] Thomas J. McGuire, The Philadelphia Campaign: Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia Vol. I (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006), 172-173. Reportedly, some Quakers ignored the dueling armies and went about their daily business but others such as Joseph Townsend did watch the battle and worried about their fate if the British were to be victorious.

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[9] Ferling, 175-176; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” Maryland Historical Magazine June 1908. Vol. 3, no.2, 109. The British had endured two weeks of horrible weather conditions in their journey from Elkton.

[10] Tacyn, 138; Ferling, 175; O’Shaughnessy, 7, 226, 228.

[11] “II: From Lieutenant Colonel James Ross, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “III: To Colonel Theodorick Bland, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “IV: From Major General John Sullivan, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “V: From Colonel Theodorick Bland, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “VII: Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hanson Harrison to John Hancock, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “From George Washington to John Hancock, 13 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “To George Washington from Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, 19 September 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Scheer, and Rankin, 235.

[12] Tacyn, 138-9; Scheer, and Rankin, 236; McGuire, 184-185, 167, 171, 186, 193, 196, 241.

[13] The Winning of Independence, 1777-1783, American Military History (Washington D.C.: Center for Military History, 1989), 72-73; Tacyn, 139; David Ross, The Hessian Jagerkorps in New York and Pennsylvania, 1776-1777, Journal of the American Revolution,

May 14, 2015. Accessed August 31, 2016. The British and Hessians advanced with minimal casualties.

[14] “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 109-110; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 18, 189, 310, 344, 345, 363, 379, 388, 519. William Beatty would become a captain in April 1778 in the Seventh Maryland Regiment, then in the First Maryland Regiment in early 1781.

[15] Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 49. Courtesy of Fold3.com.

[16] Pension of Jacob Armstrong, Revolutionary War Pensions, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, pension number S.22090, roll 0075. Courtesy of Fold3.com; “VII: Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hanson Harrison to John Hancock, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016. Jacob served as a substitute for his father, Simon Armstrong.

[17] The Annual Register, 128-129.

[18] Ferling, 176.

[19] Weintraub, 118; “VIII: To John Hancock, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 53-53a; “VIII: To John Hancock, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016. This letter was published by order of Congress.

[20] Tacyn, 140; The Annual Register, 129-130; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 53-53a; “VIII: To John Hancock, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5,

Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 287. Courtesy of Fold3.com; “To George Washington from Brigadier General William Woodford, 2 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784 Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 48, 458; Scheer, and Rankin, 240.

[21] Ferling, 177; O’Shaughnessy, 109; Washington thrown back at Brandywine, Chronicle of America, 163; Letters from Gen. George Washington, Vol. 5, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_344144_0001, item number 152, p. 53-53a; “VIII: To John Hancock, 11 September 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12,

2016; Petitions Address to Congress, 1775-189, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_419789_0001, item number 42, p. 159. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of Jacob Ritter (prisoner after battle), Revolutionary War Pensions, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, pension number S.9080, roll 2052. Courtesy of Fold3.com; John Dwight Kilbourne, A Short History of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army (Baltimore: Society of Cincinnati of Maryland, 1992), 14; Howard H. Peckham, The War for Independence: A Military History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 68-70; Scheer, and Rankin, 239. Washington’s letter was later published by order of Congress.

[22] “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110.

[23] O’Shaughnessy, 109; The Annual Register, 129-130; “To George Washington from Major John Clark, Jr., 12 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; Peckham, 70; Scheer, and Rankin, 239.

[24] “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110; Peckham, 70; McGuire, 209. Claims by Continentals that there were many British casualties may have been explained by British tactics.

[25] “A Further Extract from the Examination of Joseph Galloway, Esq; by a Committee of the British House of Commons”; “The Examination of Joseph Galloway, Esq; before the House of Commons”; Weintraub, 115; Tacyn, 143; Trevelyan, 249, 275; O’Shaughnessy, 110.

[26] John Adams diary 28, 6 February – 21 November 1777 [electronic edition], entries for September 16, Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society

[27] “A Further Extract from the Examination of Joseph Galloway, Esq; by a Committee of the British House of Commons” ; “General Orders, 19 October 1777,” Founders Online,National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “General Orders, 25 September 1777,”

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Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016; “General Orders, 3 January 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[28] Tacyn, 142; Letters from General Officers, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives, NARA M247, Record Group 360, roll pcc_4345518_0001, item number 100, p. 69. Courtesy of Fold3.com.

[29] Tacyn, 141.

[30] Tacyn, 140-141.

[31] Tacyn, 143.

[32] “General Orders, 19 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016.

[33] Pension of Jacob Armstrong; Weintraub, 116-117; O’Shaughnessy, 109; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110; Kilbourne, 14.

[34] Pension of Jacob Armstrong; The Annual Register, 129-130; Sir George Otto Trevelyan, The American Revolution: Saratoga and Brandywine, Valley Forge, England and France at War, Vol. 4 (London: Longmans Greens Co., 1920), 275; O’Shaughnessy, 110; Ross, “The Hessian Jagerkorps in New York and Pennsylvania, 1776-1777,” Journal of the American Revolution, May 14, 2015. Accessed August 31, 2016; “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110-111; Kilbourne, 17, 19. As Beatty recounts, Marylanders were joined by the Maryland militia and were still part of General Sullivan’s division.

[35] Trevelyan, 249; O’Shaughnessy, 111; Christopher Hibbert, George III: A Personal History (New York: Basic Books, 1998), 154-155.

[36] “Journal of Captain William Beatty 1776-1781,” 110; Kilbourne, 14.

[37] Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, April 1, 1778 through October 26, 1779 Archives of Maryland Online Vol.

21, 118; Kilbourne, 21-22, 24-27, 29-30, 31, 33.

[38] Adam Smith, Chapter VII: Of Colonies, Part Third: Of the advantages which Europe has derived from the Discovery of America, and from that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (ed. Edward Canman, New York: The Modern Library, reprint 1937, originally printed in 1776), 587- 588.

Archives of Maryland

(Biographical Series)

John Neal (1757-1825)

MSA SC 3520-16719

Biography:

John Neal was born in 1757, likely in Charles County, Maryland. [1] His father, Benjamin was from Northern

Ireland; his mother's name is not known.

On January 24, 1776, Neal, age nineteen, enlisted as a private in Captain John Hoskins Stone's First Company

of the First Maryland Regiment at Port Tobacco, Maryland. [2] Many of those in the First Company were

recruited from Charles County. The company trained in Annapolis until it departed for New York. [3]

The First Maryland Regiment was the first unit of soldiers Maryland raised at the beginning of the

Revolutionary War. Maryland was more than willing to do its part to recruit the men needed to fill the

Continental Army's depleted ranks. [4] A few days after independence was declared, the First Maryland

Regiment was ordered to New York so it could join the forces of General George Washington. The regiment

arrived there in early August, with the Battle of Brooklyn set between the Continental Army and the British

Army, joined by their Hessian allies.

Neal served with twenty-six-year-old Stone and his company at the Battle of Brooklyn in late August 1776.

Unlike the companies of Barton Lucas, Daniel Bowie, Peter Adams, Benjamin Ford, and Edward Veazey, only

fifteen percent of the First Company were either killed or captured, with these other companies suffering

heavier losses. Few were killed, while the company's ensign, James Farnandis, was captured by British forces.

[5] Even so, the loss of life by the other companies confirmed the assessment of the British Parliament's Annual

Register which described how "almost a whole regiment from Maryland…of young men from the best families

in the country was cut to pieces" even as the battle brought the men of the Maryland 400 together. [6]

The Battle of Brooklyn, the first large-scale battle of the war, fits into the larger context of the Revolutionary

War. If the Maryland Line had not stood and fought the British, enabling the rest of the Americans to escape,

then the Continental Army would been decimated, resulting in the end of the Revolutionary War. This heroic

stand gave the regiment the nickname of the Old Line and those who made the stand in the battle are

remembered as the Maryland 400.

Neal survived the Battle of Brooklyn, like most of the First Company. On December 10, 1776, he re-enlisted in

the First Maryland Regiment as a private. [7] He served in the regiment for a three-year term until December

27, 1779 when he was discharged in Morristown, in New Jersey's Somerset County. During this time, he

fought, by his own recollection, in the battles of White Plains (1776), Brandywine (1777), Germantown (1777),

and Monmouth (1778). [8] He was promoted to corporal in May 1778. [9] A few months later in July, he was

promoted to sergeant and served in that role until he was discharged in 1779.

A sergeant, like Neal, had an important role in the Maryland Line. As non-commissioned officers, their duties

included maintaining discipline within their company, and inspecting the new recruits. [10] Their other duties

included carrying sick soldiers to the hospital as needed, reporting on the sickness of men within the ranks, and

leading groups of men to guard prisoners or supplies if circumstances required it. [11] For these services they

were paid more than corporals in Maryland, who they oversaw and worked with, to keep order in place in the

company, including breaking up disputes between soldiers. [12] In order to get in this position, however, their

field officers or captains had to recommend them for promotion. [13]

After his Maryland service ended, Neal stayed in Somerset County. On February 27, 1780, he married a local

woman named Margaret Miller in Boundbrook, New Jersey. [14] They had two children named Benjamin (b.

1781) and Theodocia (b. 1802). While Neal was the state, he served in the militia in Somerset County, which

fought off British incursions in New Jersey until the end of the war, serving at least one four-month term. [15]

In the county, called the "crossroads of the revolution" by some, the destruction of the war had dissipated by the

1780s, with industry and commerce thriving in the final years of the war even as militiamen decried

depreciation of Continental currency. [16]

By 1810, Neal and his family lived in the town of Ovid, New York, in the northern part of the state near the

Finger Lakes, where he filed for his Federal veterans pension in 1818. [17] In 1820, he lived in the adjoining

town of Covert, New York on a half-acre of land, with a wooden clock, a chest, and some cookery, a shabby

wagon, small pigs, one cow, and eight sheep. [18] In his pension application, he claimed to be in "reduced

circumstances" and that he had lost his discharge papers or any other paper records proving his service in the

First Maryland Line, an appeal that was successful.

Five years later, on July 22, 1825, Neal died. [19] Years after his death, his wife re-married to a man named

John Benjamin Smith. Still, she continued to fight for Neal's pension payments until at least 1850. At that point,

she was living in the small town of Hector, New York, which was only about 16 miles away from Ovid, with

another family. [20] She died in the 1850s, the exact date not known.

- Burkely Hermann, Maryland Society of the Sons of American Revolution Research Fellow, 2016.

Notes

[1] Pension of John Neal, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group

15, Roll 1803, pension number W.19054. Courtesy of Fold3.com. Neal's last name is sometimes spelled Neale, Nail, Neill or Neall.

[2] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland Online vol. 18, 6; Pension of

John Neal.

[3] Mark Andrew Tacyn “'To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College

Park, 1999), 21.

[4] Arthur Alexander, "How Maryland Tried to Raise Her Continental Quotas." Maryland Historical Magazine 42, no. 3 (1947), 187-188, 196.

[5] Return of the Three Independent Companies and First Regiment of Maryland Regulars, in the service of the United Colonies, commanded by

Colonel Smallwood, Sept. 13, 1776, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 93, Roll 0034, courtesy of Fold3.com; Return of the First

Regiment of Maryland Regulars in the service of the United Colonies Commanded by William Smallwood, Oct. 11, 1776, p. 92-93, National

Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 93, Roll 0034, folder 35, courtesy of Fold3.com; Tacyn, 95.

[6] Tacyn, 4.

[7] Pension of John Neal; Pay receipt for John Nail in account of money paid sundry soldiers by General Smallwood, 22 December 1776, Maryland

State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-6-7/3 [MSA S997-6, 1/7/3/11].

[8] Pension of John Neal; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland

Online vol. 18, 146.

[9] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland Online vol. 18, 146; Tacyn,

301; Service Card of John Nail, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National

Archives, Record Group 93, NARA M881, Roll 0398. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Rolls of 1st Maryland Regiment, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-

1783, National Archives, Record Group 93, NARA M246, Roll 0033. Courtesy of Fold3.com.

[10] James Thacher, A Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783 (Boston: A Richardson and Lord, 1823), 458,

468-470, 473, 475, 483-484, 520; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7-December 31, 1776 Archives of Maryland

Online Vol. 12, 145; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland Online vol.

18, 335.

[11] Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784 Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 48, 343; Journal and Correspondence of

the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7-December 31, 1776 Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 12, 125, 255; Journal of the Maryland Convention July

26 to August 14, 1775 Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 11, 50; Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776 Archives

of Maryland Online Vol. 78, 23; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, August 29, 1775 to July 6, 1776 Archives of

Maryland Online Vol. 11, 439; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, January 1-March 20, 1777 Archives of Maryland

Online Vol. 16, 334.

[12] Thatcher, 45, 73, 476; Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776 Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 78, 92.

[13] Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1779-1780 Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 43, 71.

[14] Pension of John Neal; Ronald V. Jackson, Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp. New Jersey Census, 1643-1890. Courtesy of Ancestry.com. It is

likely that he knew Miller before he married her in 1780, possibly from his militia service.

[15] Pension of John Van Tuyl, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record

Group 15, Roll 2451, pension number W.22483. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Service Card of John Sebring, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who

Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National Archives, NARA M881, Record Group 93, Roll 0641. Courtesy of

Fold3.com; Pension of Folkerd Sebring, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804,

Record Group 15, Roll 2147, pension number W. 24926. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of Abraham Sebring, Revolutionary War Pension and

Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 2147, pension number S. 22972. Courtesy of

Fold3.com; Pension of John Van Tuyl; Pension of John Haas, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National

Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1150, pension number S. 1,012. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of Isaac Manning, Revolutionary

War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1624, pension number W. 7400.

Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of David King, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA

M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1428, pension number S. 13655. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of Jacob Mesler, Revolutionary War Pension and

Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 1717, pension number R. 7143. Courtesy of

Fold3.com; Pension of John Swaim, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804,

Record Group 15, Roll 2326, pension number W. 2486. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of Abraham Sebring; 2nd Battalion of Somerset rolls,

Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, National Archives, Record Group 93, NARA M846, Roll 0063, folder 60. Courtesy of Fold3.com; Pension of

William Durham, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll

0874, pension number R. 3160. Courtesy of Fold3.com; James P. Snell and Franklin Ellis, History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey,

with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881), 83, 98. Census records show a

"John Neale" living in Burlington County in 1790 and 1800, but it cannot be confirmed this is the same person as John Neal.

[16] William A. Schleicher and Susan J. Winter, Somerset County: Crossroads of the American Revolution (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 1999), 7-8,

17-18, 22, 24-25, 34; Multiple authors, Somerset County Historical Quarterly Vol. VII (Somerville, NJ: Somerset County Historical Society, 1919),

18-20, 31, 79, 104, 170-172; Abraham Messler, Centennial History of Somerset County (Somerville: C.M. Jameson Publishers, 1878), 69-71, 74, 77-

78, 81, 101, 109-110, 112-113; Richard A. Harrison, Princetonians, 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press, 1980), 28-29, 80-81. It may have been called the crossroads because competing Continental and British armies maneuvered in the county and

Morristown was also located there.

[17] Pension of John Neal; Tacyn, 318; Pension of Abraham Sebring; Third Census of the United States, 1810, Ovid, Seneca, New York; NARA

M252; Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives; p. 252; Image: 00160; Family History Library Film: 0181390. Courtesy of

Ancestry.com. Ovid included a town and village of the same name which was still small even in 1850 and to the present-day. A number of men

named "John Niles" were living in the town of Oneida, as recorded by the 1800 census, which is about 81 to 96 miles away from Ovid, but it cannot

be confirmed this is the same man as John Neal.

[18] Fourth Census of the United States, 1820, Covert, Seneca, New York; NARA M33; Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29;

National Archives, p. 298, Image: 61. Courtesy of Ancestry.com. Covert was a town formed from part of Ovid.

[19] Pension of John Neal; Letter about John Neal, September 18, 1895. New York County, District and Probate Courts. Administration, Vol C-D,

1815-1883, p. 136. Courtesy of Ancestry.com. His wife, Margaret, was the administrator of Neal's estate after his death.

[20] Seventh Census of the United States, 1850, Hector, Tompkins, New York, NARA M432; Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group

29; National Archives; p. 420A, Image: 441. Courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Archives of Maryland

(Biographical Series)

William Frazier (1756-1807)

MSA SC 3520-16759

Biography:

The son of a wealthy Eastern Shore planter, William Frazier was a nineteen-year-old lieutenant when he took

part in the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776. It was the Revolutionary War's first major battle, and the

Maryland troops distinguished themselves with their bravery.

Born on November 16, 1756, William was just eight years old when his father Alexander Frazier died in late

1764 or early 1765, leaving William, Charles, his (probably younger) brother, and sister Sarah in the care of

their mother, Sarah. Alexander had high hopes for his children, directing in his will that money be set aside for

all of them to be educated, "especially my aforesaid son Charles," who he hoped would "be a Lawyer or Doctor

of Phisick, which he shall Choose." Alexander also sought to ensure that his children would be financially

secure in the future, dividing his significant land holdings among them. William received about 1,100 acres of

land in Dorchester (now Caroline) County, Charles received about 400 acres, and while Sarah was willed no

land, she was promised a large amount of money. [1]

In January 1776, William Frazier was named third lieutenant in the Fourth Independent Company, which was

commanded by James Hindman. Maryland's independent companies were formed early in the American

Revolution, and differed from the nine companies that made up Colonel William Smallwood’s First Maryland

Regiment. While the Council of Safety, Maryland's Revolutionary executive body, used the nine regular

companies to fulfill the state's quota of troops for the Continental Army, it dispatched seven independent

companies throughout Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore to guard the vast shoreline of the Chesapeake

Bay. To help with this mission, the Fourth Independent Company was stationed in Oxford, Talbot County, in

March 1776. Hindman outfitted his company in striking uniforms, which distinguished them from the rest of the

Marylanders, who likely wore no uniform beyond hunting shirts, which were durable, cheaply-produced linen

outer garments, originating in the backcountry in the mid-eighteenth century. The soldiers of the Fourth

Independent wore purple hunting shirts with red capes and cuffs. [2]

Although the Council of Safety originally intended to use the independent companies for the defense of

Maryland, the Council was sympathetic to the collective needs of the colonies and answered the Continental

Congress’ request for more soldiers early in the summer of 1776. On July 7, 1776 the Council ordered the

Fourth Independent Company (along with Smallwood’s Regiment and two other independent companies) to

march to Philadelphia and then to New York to reinforce the Continental Army under the command of General

George Washington. [3]

On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the

Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. The battle was a rout: the British were able to

sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. During the retreat, the

Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy

Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest were unable to do so before they

were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series

of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun.

The Marylanders earned themselves the moniker "Maryland 400," and lost 256 men killed or captured, probably

about a third of their total strength. [4]

Frazier's company was spared the worst of the fighting, losing only three men, a fact which drew scorn from

other companies. James Hindman was forced to write to the Council of Safety to clear his name, denying the

"report [being] spread among Capt. [John Hoskins] Stone's friends that my company the day we were engaged

at Long Island, behaved very ill." To the contrary, wrote Captain Hindman, "I have had the vanity to think the

company I have had the honor to command have behaved themselves as well as [any] in the service,

notwithstanding the dark insinuations that have been thrown out to their prejudice, and will refer to Col.

Smallwood for their behaviour and conduct since they have been under his command." [5]

Frazier stayed with the army through the rest of the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the

Americans pushed out of New York, followed by revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter.

When the Maryland troops were reorganized and expanded, he secured a promotion to first lieutenant in the

newly formed Fifth Maryland Regiment in late 1776. Frazier spent the first part of 1777 at home on the Eastern

Shore recruiting men for his new company, then returning that summer to fight in the campaign to protect the

American capital at Philadelphia from the British. He likely saw combat at the major battles at Brandywine

(September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777), and participated in the defense of Fort Mifflin on Mud

Island that fall. Frazier likely resigned his commission in February 1778, and returned home, where he married

Henrietta Maria Johnson, on February 11, 1779. [6]

In the years that followed, he settled into the life of a wealthy planter. He rented out much of his large land

holdings, and he and Henrietta Maria lived at "Frazier's Flats," in one of the county's most prominent houses.

Frazier held a number of local public offices: he was a justice of the peace 1782-1785 and 1788-1807, a justice

of the Caroline County Orphans Court 1783-1784, and justice of the county court in 1789. He also was a

member of the county levy court, which collected and appropriated the county's tax money, 1799-1801. In

1794, Frazier was commissioned as a captain in the 19th Regiment of the Maryland Militia, but resigned a few

months later, and likely never acted in his official capacity (although he was called "captain" thereafter

nevertheless). Nevertheless, his militia appointment suggests an alignment with the state's ruling Federalist

party, since militia positions were political favors. Frazier's political allegiances were further demonstrated in

1804, when he was an unsuccessful Federalist candidate for presidential elector, supporting Charles C. Pinkney

against Thomas Jefferson. [7]

William Frazier and his wife were best known, however, for their long-standing support of the Methodist

Church on the Eastern Shore. Their house is said to have hosted early Methodist service, and they helped to

establish what is today called Bethesda United Methodist Church, in Preston, Maryland. [8]

William and Henrietta Maria never had any children. William died on September 25, 1807. In his will, he made

provisions for his wife, as well as his bother Charles, who did indeed become a doctor, half-brother Perry

Eccleston Noel, and nephew Francis Asbury Boyer, who carried the name of the great Methodist leader.

Frazier's estate was valued at $4,600, a large amount, and included a significant quantity of silver plate, as well

as ten slaves. Henrietta Maria was awarded a widow's pension in 1839 on the basis of her husband's

Revolutionary War service, receiving $194 per year until her death on February 6, 1846. [9]

Owen Lourie, 2016

Notes:

1. Pension of Henrietta Frazier (William Frazier), National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land

Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, W 3797, from Fold3.com; Will of Alexander Frazier, 1764, Prerogative Court, Wills, Liber 32, p. 138,

MdHR 1312-2 [MSA S538-4824, 1/11/1/42]; Alexander's will does not give the total quantity of land that Charles received, but later tax records

suggest he got about 400 acres. See General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Caroline County, Lower Choptank District

Hundred [MSA S1161-3, 1/4/5/46].

2. Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 23

[hereafter Archives of Maryland vol. 18]; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 81; Proceedings of the

Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 78, p. 68; Mark Andrew Tacyn “‘To the End:’ The

First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33; Journal and Correspondence of

the Maryland Council of Safety, August 29, 1775 to July 6, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 11, p. 223. For Fourth Independent Company

uniforms, see Pennsylvania Journal, 14 August 1776.

3. Tacyn, 43; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7 to December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 12, p.

4.

4. Archives of Maryland Online vol. 12, p. 9; Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Tacyn, 48-73. For more on the

experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the

Maryland 400.

5. James Hindman to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, 12 October 1776, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 12, p. 345-346.

6. Frazier pension; "Chart Shewing the Rank of Officers in the 5th Battalion..." c. 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books 16:88, MdHR 4579

[MSA S989-23, 1/6/4/11]; Deposition re: enlistment of servants by Frazier, May 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books 16:150, MdHR 4580A

[MSA S989-24, 1/6/4/12]. Frazier may actually have resigned his commission in February 1779, as his wife asserted in her pension application. She

said that he left the army just before their wedding which was on February 11, 1779. See Caroline County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1774-1792,

MdHR 10063-3 [MSA C534-1, 1/2/1/9].

7. See, for example, Lease, Frazier to John Dwiggens, 1791, Caroline County Court, Land Records, Liber WR no. C, p. 302 [MSA CE94-3];

Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties, "Frazier's Flats," CAR-51 [MSA SE5-6090]; Laura C. Cochrane, et al., eds, History of Caroline County,

Maryland From Its Beginning (1920; reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994), 102-104, 265-266; Federal Direct Tax, 1798, Archives of

Maryland Online, vol. 729, Caroline County, General List of Houses, p. 1133; General List of Land, p. 1164; General List of Slaves, p. 1205;

Governor and Council, Commission Record, 1726-1786, MdHR 4011-2 [MSA S1080-3, 2/26/3/12]; 1777-1798, MdHR4013-1 [MSA S1080-6,

2/26/3/16]; 1777-1827, MdHR 1347 [MSA S1080-7, 2/26/3/17]; Adjutant General, Militia Appointments, Liber 2, p. 26 [MSA S348-2, 2/6/5/10];

Maryland Electoral College, 1804, District 8, A New Nation Votes.

8. Cochrane, 259-260, 265-266; Dee E. Andrews, The Methodists and Revolutionary American, 1760-1800: The Shaping of An Evangelical Culture

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 159-160. See also the historical narrative on the church's website:

http://prestonbethesdaumc.org/history/histories-of-bethesda/church-history/.

9. Frazier pension; Will of Alexander Frazier, 1807, Caroline County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber JR no. C, p. 126 [MSA C577-1, 1/3/1/6];

Inventory of Alexander Frazier, 1807, Caroline County Register of Wills, Inventories, Liber JR no. C, p. 274 [MSA C516-4, 1/3/1/19]; "Mortuary

Notice," Republican Star (Easton, MD), 29 September 1807.