Two new entries have been added to the biography page! William Sterrett and Phillip Hawkins were Baltimoreans who fought in different companies of Smallwood’s Battalion at the Battle of Brooklyn. Both men were also survivors of the British prison ships in Wallabout Bay, New York.

Interior of the old Jersey prison ship in the Revolutionary War, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

William Sterrett served in the Third Company and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Brooklyn. However, before the news of his capture could reach Maryland, his death was prematurely reported in Baltimore and Annapolis. To find out how his family found out that he was still alive and how Sterrett escaped from his imprisonment in New York, read the blog post about him or check out his new biographical page.

Phillip Hawkins was twenty years old in 1776 when he enlisted to fight in the Revolutionary War. He was a private in Samuel Smith’s Eighth Company from Baltimore. He would serve the American cause for the next seven years, until the war came to an end in 1783. Hawkins survived the Battle of Brooklyn with Smallwood’s Regiment and by 1782 he was part of the crew of the ship Jolly Tar, a privateer from Baltimore. The ship was off the coast of Havana when they were captured by the British frigate Jason, under the command of Captain Picket. Read more about what happened next in Phillip Hawkins’ biography.

-Emily