The Short Life of Capt. Daniel Bowie

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

Daniel Bowie had been a soldier for seven months, and a captain for just seven weeks, when he wrote out his will on August 26, 1776, the day before he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Brooklyn. We have featured Bowie’s will before, since it is such a remarkable document, and we have now posted a greatly expanded biography of him.

Bowie was part of a prominent family in Maryland. Four first cousins served in the General Assembly, and he was the stepbrother of one governor, and cousin of another. Continue reading →

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Defeats and Doubts: The Continental Army in 1776

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

William Harrison served as the first lieutenant in the Seventh Independent Company when the company fought alongside the First Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Brooklyn. Continue reading →

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The Court-Martial of Lieutenant Kidd

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

Lieutenant John Kidd served in the First Maryland Regiment when it fought at the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776. Although Kidd managed to survive the battle and make it back to the American lines at Brooklyn Heights, his days in the army were numbered. Shortly after the Battle of Brooklyn, a court-martial convicted Lieutenant Kidd of violating orders by taking men off of fatigue duty.[1] Although Kidd pleaded guilty to the charges and cited unfamiliarity with the orders, other officers disputed this claim and the court-martial did not show any leniency. General George Washington ordered Kidd dismissed from the army on October 8, 1776.[2]

Kidd’s expulsion from the army is interesting for a couple of reasons. Prior to this incident Kidd appears to have been Continue reading →

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Men who “could stand cutting”: The Old Maryland Line

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

The famed Maryland 400 were not the only Revolutionary War soldiers hailed as heroes. Indeed, throughout the war, the Maryland Line (as the state’s contribution to the Continental Army was called) developed a reputation for skill and bravery. They were celebrated for years after the war, including in poems like this one, which first appeared in Washington, DC’s Daily National Intelligencer on October 2, 1828. Continue reading →

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Corporal Zachariah Gray’s Last Will and Testament

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

Corporal Zachariah Gray may have been the oldest enlisted man in the First Maryland Regiment when the regiment fought at the Battle of Brooklyn. At the time of his enlistment on February 3, 1776 Gray was forty-five years old, significantly older than most other enlisted men. While age and demographic information for the entire regiment is largely incomplete, the average age of a soldier Captain Edward Veazey’s Seventh Independent Company was twenty-four (Read more about the demographics of Veazey’s Company here). Gray’s reasons for enlisting at such an advanced age are unknown, but patriotism, financial need, or a combination of both, may have been motivating factors. Continue reading →

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Sergeant Levin Wilcoxon: Settler of “Westsylvania”

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

Levin Wilcoxon served as a sergeant in the Third Company when the First Maryland Regiment fought at the Battle of Brooklyn. Following his discharge from the army in 1777, Wilcoxon returned to Prince George’s County and eventually moved to neighboring Montgomery County were he worked as a planter.

In 1781 Wilcoxon sold his lands in Prince George’s County and sometime thereafter moved to the frontier territory west of the Alleghany Mountains near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While frontier life was difficult, settlers also dealt with challenges resulting from border disputes between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Continue reading →

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“Cain Tuck lands”: Uncovering the Life of Peter Brown

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

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Account of services rendered by Peter Brown, 1777. Maryland State Papers. Revolutionary War Papers. MdHR 19970-02-04/17 [MSA S997-2-270, 01/07/03/008].

Ensign Peter Brown was the only officer from the Third Company not killed or captured during the Battle of Brooklyn (Captain Barton Lucas was sick and missed the engagement). He remained in the army for almost a year after the battle, resigning in July 1777. Most of the information about his military career comes from the Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18. Documents from the Maryland State Archives Revolutionary War Papers Collection help provide further specifics about his military service.

Continue reading →

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John H. Beanes: The Lone Escaping Lieutenant of Ninth Company

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

John Hancock Beanes was the first lieutenant of the Ninth Company, First Maryland Regiment when the regiment fought at the Battle of Brooklyn on August 27, 1776. He was the only lieutenant of the Ninth Company to avoid capture; Second Lieutenant Hatch Dent, Jr. and Third Lieutenant Walker Muse were both taken prisoner and endured unusually long captivities for officers. After surviving the battle, Beanes Continue reading →

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Maryland’s African American Troops

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

Earlier, we introduced the topic of Black Revolutionary War soldiers, but left unanswered the question of whether any fought as part of the Maryland 400. While a number of African Americans fought as part of the Maryland Line later in the war, there were apparently none among the men who fought under Col. William Smallwood at the Battle of Brooklyn. The simplest explanation is that the Smallwood’s regiment was Maryland’s first contingent of regular, full-time soldiers, and they had no trouble raising enough whites. Only in New England were Black soldiers really welcomed; for the most part, states acquiesced to enlisting African Americans only when facing severe shortages of men. In early 1776, Maryland wasn’t having trouble filling its quota of soldiers. Continue reading →

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Hatch Dent, Jr.: From Prisoner of War to Minister and Teacher

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Finding the Maryland 400

Before he was a well-known minister and teacher, Hatch Dent Jr. was an officer in the First Maryland Regiment when the Maryland 400 made their heroic stand at the Battle of Brooklyn. A native of Charles County, Dent was the Second Lieutenant of the Ninth Company (Light Infantry) when he was captured at Brooklyn. After enduring an unusually long captivity for an officer, Dent was exchanged in April 1778 and became the captain of a company in the Second Maryland Regiment. Dent Continue reading →

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