Joshua Peck served in the Continental Army
It is likely that this is Joshua Peck who
arrived in United States in 1774 from England, settling in Maryland. He was born
in England, and listed on his emigration forms that he was a hairdresser. He was 18 when he left England.
This is reinforced by the fact that the
Governor of Maryland issued a decree that if servants joined the Army to fight
against the British, they would be released from their obligations.
It seems that poor Joshua Peck, arrived at
Maryland at the wrong time, and sensing his freedom, agreed to fight a war
against the British Forces!
He served for 3 years.
The Proclamation was delivered in Virginia, but printed in all
newspapers.
... I do require every Person capable of bearing Arms, to resort
to His MAJESTY'S STANDARD, or be looked upon as Traitors to His MAJESTY'S Crown
and Government, and thereby become liable to the Penalty the Law inflicts upon
such Offenses; such as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, &. &.
And I do hereby further declare all indented Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to
Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His
MAJESTY'S Troops as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this Colony
to a proper Sense of their Duty, to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Dignity.
— Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, November 7, 1775
There
are no further US records for this Joshua Peck.
They British Army lost the war, and thousands died.
The Continental Army
- Overview
The Continental
Army was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the former British
colonies that later
became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the
Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of
the Thirteen Colonies in their ultimately successful
revolt against British rule. The Continental Army was
supplemented by local militias and volunteer troops that remained
under control of the individual states or were otherwise independent.
General George Washington was the commander-in-chief of the
army throughout the war.
Most of the
Continental Army was disbanded in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war. The 1st
and 2nd Regiments went on to form the nucleus of the Legion of the United States in 1792 under General Anthony
Wayne. This became the
foundation of the United States Army in 1796.
Lee's Additional Continental Regiment was raised on January 12, 1777 with troops from Massachusetts at Cambridge, Massachusetts for service with the Continental Army. The regiment was commanded by Colonel William R. Lee, and saw action at the Battle of Monmouth and the Battle of Rhode Island. The Regiment was merged into the 16th Massachusetts Regiment on April 9, 1779. Its lineage is perpetuated by the 101st Engineer Battalion
The 3rd Regiment of the
Continental Army 1776
Joshua Peck was in the 3rd Regiment of the
Continental Army.
The 3rd Maryland Regiment was organized on 27 March 1776 of
eight companies from Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Talbot, Harford and Somerset counties of the colony of Maryland.
The regiment was authorized on 16 September 1776 for service
with the Continental Army and was assigned on 27 December 1776 to the main element
1st Maryland Brigade
On 22 May 1777 it was assigned to the 1st Maryland
Brigade. The regiment was re-organized to nine companies on 12 May 1779. On
5 April 1780 the 1st Maryland Brigade was reassigned to
the Southern Department. The regiment was
relieved from the 1st Maryland Brigade on 1 January 1781. It
was assigned to Gist's Brigade on 24 September 1781 in the
main Continental Army. Three days later (27 September 1781) Gist's Brigade was
reassigned to the Southern Department. On 4 January 1782
the regiment was reassigned from Gist's Brigade to the Maryland
Brigade in the Southern Department. The regiment
would see action during the Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, Battle of Monmouth, Battle of Camden, Battle of Guilford Court House, Battle of Eutaw Springs and the Battle of Yorktown. The regiment disbanded on 1 January 1783 at Charleston, South Carolina.
Under Gist's command
Gist became colonel in command of the 3rd Maryland on 10
December 1776. On 22 May 1777, George Washington assigned the
regiment to the 1st Maryland Brigade together with the 1st Delaware Regiment, and the 1st, 5th, 7th Maryland Regiments. During the Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777, both the popular brigade
commander William Smallwood and Gist were on detached duty recruiting the Maryland
militia. This left the disliked Frenchman Philippe Hubert Preudhomme de Borre as the senior
brigadier. The regiment was in John Sullivan's division on the right flank, guarding Brinton's Ford while
other elements of the division guarded three upstream fords. Finding that
the greater part of Sir William Howe's army had marched into the right rear of his division,
Sullivan had to march cross country in an attempt to block the move. Finding
his division in an awkward position, Sullivan rode off to confer with Adam Stephen and Lord Stirling and ordered De Borre to shift the division to the right.
The inept Frenchman botched the evolution, throwing the troops
into disorder just as they came under attack by the Brigade of Guards. According
to John Hoskins Stone, commander of the 1st Maryland, only his regiment and the 3rd
put up a creditable fight. As they tried to resist the oncoming British, the
confused 2nd Brigade mistakenly fired a volley into the two regiments from
behind. The badly mishandled Marylanders then fled.
Gist commanded the 3rd Maryland at the Battle of Germantown. He led the 3rd Maryland until 9 January 1779 when he was
promoted brigadier general in command of the 2nd Maryland Brigade.
Battle of Monmouth
At Monmouth, the regiment was commanded by Colonel Mordecai Gist while its
second-in-command was Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Ramsey. Ramsey was
detached to Colonel James Wesson's detachment under Brigadier General Anthony Wayne. Early in the
battle, Wesson was wounded and Ramsey assumed command of his
detachment. Surprised by a sudden British counterattack, the American
advance guard began to retreat.
Washington personally asked Ramsey and Colonel Walter Stewart to hold off the British while he arranged the main line of
defence. The two officers agreed and Wayne deployed their soldiers in a nearby
wood. As the Brigade of Guards came up to their hidden position, the
Americans opened fire into their flank. The Guards charged and cleared the wood
after a tough fight in which they lost 40 casualties including Colonel Henry
Trelawney wounded. Stewart was shot and carried off. The retreating Americans
were set upon in the open by a troop of the 16th Light Dragoons. A dragoon rode up to the unhorsed Ramsey and fired at him
with his pistol. The weapon misfired and Ramsey attacked the trooper with his
sword, dragged him from his horse, and tried to ride away.
Surrounded by dragoons, Ramsey was badly wounded and left for
dead. Later, the British picked him up as a prisoner. Impressed by his bravery,
the British commander Sir Henry Clinton paroled
Ramsey the next day. Ramsey was not exchanged until December 1780.
Gist commanded the 3rd Maryland at the Battle of Germantown. He led the 3rd Maryland until 9 January 1779 when he was
promoted brigadier general in command of the 2nd Maryland Brigade.[1]
Battle of Monmouth
At Monmouth, the regiment was commanded by Colonel Mordecai Gist while its
second-in-command was Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Ramsey. Ramsey was
detached to Colonel James Wesson's detachment under Brigadier General Anthony Wayne. Early in the
battle, Wesson was wounded and Ramsey assumed command of his
detachment. Surprised by a sudden British counterattack, the American
advance guard began to retreat.
Washington personally asked Ramsey and Colonel Walter Stewart to hold off the British while he arranged the main line of
defense. The two officers agreed and Wayne deployed their soldiers in a nearby
wood. As the Brigade of Guards came up to their hidden position, the
Americans opened fire into their flank. The Guards charged and cleared the wood
after a tough fight in which they lost 40 casualties including Colonel Henry
Trelawney wounded. Stewart was shot and carried off. The retreating Americans
were set upon in the open by a troop of the 16th Light Dragoons. A dragoon rode up to the unhorsed Ramsey and fired at
him with his pistol. The weapon misfired and Ramsey attacked the trooper with
his sword, dragged him from his horse, and tried to ride away.
Surrounded by dragoons, Ramsey was badly wounded and left for
dead. Later, the British picked him up as a prisoner. Impressed by his bravery,
the British commander Sir Henry Clinton paroled
Ramsey the next day. Ramsey was not exchanged until December 1780.
The Battle of Germantown was a major engagement
in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It was fought on October 4, 1777,
at Germantown, Pennsylvania, between the British Army led by
Sir William Howe, and the American Continental Army, with the 2nd Canadian Regiment, under George Washington.
After defeating the Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, and the Battle of Paoli on September
20, Howe outmaneuvered Washington, seizing Philadelphia, the capital of
the United States, on September 26.
Howe left a garrison of some 3,000 troops in Philadelphia, while
moving the bulk of his force to Germantown, then an outlying community to the
city. Learning of the division, Washington determined to engage the British.
His plan called for four separate columns to converge on the British position
at Germantown. The two flanking columns were composed of 3,000 militia, while the
center-left, under Nathanael Greene, the center-right
under John Sullivan, and the reserve under Lord Stirling were made up of regular troops. The ambition behind the
plan was to surprise and destroy the British force, much in the same way as
Washington had surprised and decisively defeated the Hessians at Trenton. In Germantown,
Howe had his light infantry and the 40th Foot spread across
his front as pickets. In the main camp, Wilhelm von Knyphausen commanded the British left, while Howe himself personally
led the British right.
A heavy fog caused a great deal of confusion among the
approaching Americans. After a sharp contest, Sullivan's column routed the
British pickets. Unseen in the fog, around 120 men of the British 40th Foot
barricaded the Chew Mansion. When the American reserve moved forward, Washington
made the erroneous decision to launch repeated assaults on the position, all of
which failed with heavy casualties. Penetrating several hundred yards beyond
the mansion, Sullivan's wing became dispirited, running low on ammunition and
hearing cannon fire behind them. As they withdrew, Anthony Wayne's division
collided with part of Greene's late-arriving wing in the fog. Mistaking each
other for the enemy, they opened fire, and both units retreated. Meanwhile,
Greene's left-center column threw back the British right. With Sullivan's
column repulsed, the British left outflanked Greene's column. The two militia
columns had only succeeded in diverting the attention of the British, and had
made no progress before they withdrew.
Despite the defeat, France, already impressed by the American
success at Saratoga, decided to lend greater aid to the Americans. Howe did not
vigorously pursue the defeated Americans, instead turning his attention to
clearing the Delaware River of obstacles at Red Bank and Fort Mifflin. After unsuccessfully attempting to draw Washington into combat at White Marsh, Howe withdrew to Philadelphia. Washington, his army intact,
withdrew to Valley Forge, where he wintered and re-trained his forces.
Prison labourers and other prisoners of the British
American
prisoners were housed in other parts of the British Empire. Over 100 prisoners
were employed as slave labourers in coal mines in Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia –
they later chose to join the British Navy to secure their freedom. Other
American prisoners were kept in England (Portsmouth, Plymouth, Liverpool, Deal,
and Weymouth), Ireland, and Antigua. By late 1782 England and Ireland housed
over 1,000 American prisoners, who, in 1783, were moved to France prior to
their eventual release.
Continental
Army prisoners of
war from Cherry
Valley were held
by Loyalists at Fort Niagara near Niagara
Falls, New York and
at Fort Chambly near Montreal
During the
war, at least 16 hulks, including the infamous HMS Jersey, were placed by British authorities in the waters of Wallabout Bay off the shores of Brooklyn,
New York as a
place of incarceration for many thousands of American soldiers and sailors from
about 1776 to about 1783. The prisoners of war were harassed and abused by
guards who, with little success, offered release to those who agreed to serve
in the British Navy. Over 10,000 American prisoners of war died from
neglect. Their corpses were often tossed overboard but sometimes were buried in
shallow graves along the eroding shoreline.
Many of the
remains became exposed or were washed up and recovered by local residents over
the years and later interred nearby in the Prison
Ship Martyrs' Monument at Fort Greene Park, once the scene of a portion of the Battle
of Long Island. Survivors
of the British Prison Ships include the poet Philip Freneau, Congressmen Robert Brown and George
Mathews. The latter was
involved in extensive advocacy efforts to improve the prison conditions on the
ships
The American Revolution was an expensive war,
and lack of money and resources led to the horrible conditions of British
prison ships. The climate of the South worsened the difficult conditions. The
primary cause of death in prison ships was diseases, as opposed to starvation.
The British lacked decent and plentiful medical supplies for their own soldiers
and had even less reserved for prisoners. Offshore in the North,
conditions on prison ships caused many prisoners to enlist in the British
military to save their lives. Most American POWs who survived incarceration
were held until late 1779, when they were exchanged for British POWs.[ Prisoners
who were extremely ill were often moved to hospital ships, but poor supplies
precluded any difference between prison and hospital ships.
The British Ship Jersey lists a Josh Peck in the 1779 Muster.
The dates of 1779, connect with the records of
service of Joshua Peck of 3rd Regiment.
Prisoners were returned to England, although
records are very rare. This report was
in Hereford Journal 19th June 1783
Maryland and the
Revolutionary War
The Province of Maryland had
been a British / English colony
since 1632, when Sir George Calvert, first Baron of Baltimore and Lord Baltimore (1579-1632), received a
charter and grant from King Charles I of
England and first created a haven for English Roman Catholics in the New World, with his son, Cecilius Calvert (1605-1675),
the second Lord Baltimore equipping and sending over the first colonists to
the Chesapeake Bay region
in March 1634. The first signs of rebellion against the mother country occurred
in 1765, when the tax collector Zachariah Hood was injured while landing
at the second provincial capital of Annapolis docks,
arguably the first violent resistance to British taxation in the colonies.
After a
decade of bitter argument and internal discord, Maryland declared itself a
sovereign state in
1776. The province was one of the Thirteen Colonies of British America to declare independence from Great Britain and joined the others in
signing a collective Declaration of Independence that summer in the Second Continental Congress in nearby Philadelphia. Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton signed on Maryland's behalf.
Although
no major Battles of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) occurred in Maryland itself
(although the British Royal Navy fleet passed through and up
the Bay to land troops at the "Head of Elk"), to attack the colonies'
capital city, this did not prevent the state's soldiers from distinguishing
themselves through their service. General George Washington counted the "Maryland Line" regiment who fought in the Continental Army especially the famed "Maryland 400" during the Battle of Brooklyn in
August 1776, outside New York Town as
among his finest soldiers, and Maryland is still known as "The Old Line
State" today.
During
the war itself, Baltimore Town served as the temporary capital of the colonies
when the Second Continental Congress met there during December 1776 to February
1777, after Philadelphia had
been threatened with occupation by the British "Redcoats". Towards
the end of the struggle, from November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784, the state's
capital Annapolis, briefly served as the capital of the fledgling confederation
government (1781-1789) of the United States of America, and it was in the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis that
General George Washington famously
resigned his commission as commander in chief of
the Continental Army on December 23, 1783. It was also there that the Treaty of Paris,
which ended the Revolutionary War, was ratified by the Confederation Congress on
January 14, 1784.
Like
other states, Maryland was bitterly divided by the war; many Loyalists refused to join the
Revolution, and saw their lands and estates confiscated as a consequence.
The Barons Baltimore,
who before the war had exercised almost feudal power in Maryland, were
among the biggest losers. Almost the entire political elite of the province was
overthrown, replaced by an entirely new political class, loyal to a new
national political structure.
The
State of Maryland began as the Province of Maryland,
an English settlement in North America founded in 1632 as a proprietary colony. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1580–1632), wished to
create a haven for his fellow English Catholics in the New World. After
founding a colony in the Newfoundland called
"Avalon",
he convinced the King to grant him a second territory in more southern
temperate climes. When George Calvert died in 1632 the grant was transferred to
his eldest son Cecil.
The
ships The Ark and The Dove sent by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675), landed on
March 25, 1634, at Blackistone Island,
thereafter known as St. Clement's Island.
Here at St. Clement's Island,
led by Father Andrew White,
they raised a large cross, and held a mass. In April 1634, Lord Baltimore's
younger brother Leonard Calvert, first colonial governor, made a
settlement at what was named "St. Mary's City".
Religious strife
Although
Maryland was an early pioneer of religious toleration in the British colonies,
religious strife among Anglicans, Puritans, Roman Catholics, and Quakers was common in the early
years, and in 1644 Puritan rebels briefly seized control of the province.
Economy
Diagram
of a slave ship from
the Atlantic slave trade.
From an Abstract of Evidence delivered before a select committee of
the House of Commons of Great Britain in 1790 and 1791.
See
also: History of slavery in Maryland
Despite
early competition with the colony of Virginia to its south, the Province
of Maryland developed along lines very similar to those of Virginia. Its early
settlements and populations centres tended to cluster around the rivers and
other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake Bay. Like Virginia, Maryland's
economy quickly became centered around the farming of tobacco for sale in Europe. The
need for cheap labour to help with the growth of tobacco, and later with the
mixed farming economy that developed when tobacco prices collapsed, led to a
rapid expansion of indentured servitude and,
later, forcible immigration and enslavement of
Africans.
In the
later colonial period, the southern and eastern portions of the Province
continued in their tobacco economy, heavily dependent on slave labour, but as
the revolution approached, northern and central Maryland increasingly became
centres of wheat production. This helped drive the expansion of interior
farming towns like Frederick and
Maryland's major port city of Baltimore.
Economic tensions
See
also: Tobacco Lords and Tobacco in the American Colonies
Among
the many tensions between Maryland and the mother country were economic
problems, focused around the sale of Maryland's principle cash crop, tobacco. A
handful of Glasgow tobacco merchants increasingly dominated the tobacco trade
between Britain and her colonies, manipulating prices and causing great
distress among Maryland and Virginia planters, who by the time of the outbreak
of war had accumulated debts of around £1,000,000, a huge sum at the time.
These debts, as much as the taxation imposed
by Westminster, were among the colonists' most bitter grievances.
Prior to
1740, Glasgow merchants were responsible for the import of less than 10% of
America's tobacco crop, but by the 1750s a handful of Glasgow Tobacco Lords handled more of the trade
than the rest of Britain's ports combined. Heavily capitalised, and taking
great personal risks, these men made immense fortunes from the "Clockwork
Operation" of fast ships coupled with ruthless dealmaking and the
manipulation of credit. Maryland planters were offered easy credit by the
Glaswegian merchants, enabling them to buy European consumer goods and other
luxuries before harvest time gave them the ready cash to do so. But, when the
time came to sell the crop, the indebted growers found themselves forced by the
canny traders to accept low prices for their harvest simply in order to stave
off bankruptcy.
In
neighbouring Virginia, tobacco planters experienced similar problems. At
his Mount Vernon plantation,
future President of the United States George Washington saw his liabilities swell
to nearly £2000 by the late 1760s. Thomas Jefferson, on the verge of losing his own
farm, accused British merchants of unfairly depressing tobacco prices and
forcing Virginia farmers to take on unsustainable debt loads.
In 1786,
he remarked:
A
powerful engine for this [mercantile profiting] was the giving of good prices
and credit to the planter till they got him more immersed in debt than he could
pay without selling lands or slaves. They then reduced the prices given for his
tobacco so that ... they never permitted him to clear off his debt.
Many
Marylanders sought to use the opportunity posed by war to repudiate their
debts. One of the "Resolves" later adopted by the citizens of
Annapolis on May 25, 1774, would read as follows:
Resolved,
that it is the opinion of the meeting, that the gentlemen of the law of this
province bring no suit for the recovery of any debt, due from any inhabitant of
this province to any inhabitant of Great Britain, until the said act [The Stamp
Act] be repealed
After
the war, few of the enormous debts owed by the colonists would ever be repaid.
There
were also serious tensions between the colonists and the British over land,
especially after the Crown effectively confirmed Indian land rights in 1763.
Washington himself was appalled by this decision to protect native property
rights, writing to his future partner William Crawford in
1767 that he: could never look upon that Proclamation in any other light ...
than as a temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians. It must fall,
of course, in a few years, especially when those Indians consent to our
occupying their lands.
In 1764
Britain imposed a tax on sugar,
the first of many ultimately unsuccessful attempts to make her North American
subjects bear a portion of the cost of the recent French and Indian war.
The first stirrings of revolution in Maryland came in the Fall of 1765, when
the speaker of the Lower House of the Maryland General Assembly received a
number of letters from Massachusetts, one proposing a meeting of delegates from
all the colonies, others objecting to British taxation without consent and
proposing that Marylanders should be "free of any impositions, but such as
they consent to by themselves or their representatives".
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Maryland
planter Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.
One of
the early voices for independence in Maryland was the wealthy Roman Catholic planter Charles Carroll of Carrollton. In 1772 he engaged in a debate conducted through
anonymous newspaper letters and maintained the right of the colonies to control
their own taxation. As a Roman Catholic, he was barred from entering politics,
from practicing law, and from voting.
In the
early 1770s, Carroll appears to have begun to embrace the idea that only
violence could break the impasse with Great Britain. According to legend,
Carroll and Samuel Chase (who
would also later sign the Declaration of Independence on Maryland's behalf) had
the following exchange:
Chase:
"We have the better of our opponents; we have completely written them
down."
Carroll: "And do you think that writing will settle the question between
us?"
Chase: "To be sure, what else can we resort to?"
Carroll: "The bayonet. Our arguments will only raise the feelings of the
people to that pitch, when open war will be looked to as the arbiter of the
dispute".
Writing
in the Maryland Gazette under
the pseudonym "First Citizen," Carroll became a prominent spokesman
against the governor's proclamation increasing legal fees to state officers and
Protestant clergy. Carroll also served on various Committees of Correspondence, promoting independence.
From
1774 to 1776, Carroll was a member of the Annapolis Convention.
He was commissioned with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and his cousin John Carroll in
February 1774 to seek aid from Canada. He was a member of
Annapolis' first Committee of Safety in 1775. In early 1776,
while not yet a member, the Congress sent him on a mission to Canada. When
Maryland decided to support the open revolution, he was elected to the
Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and remained a delegate until 1778. He
arrived too late to vote in favor of it, but was able to sign the Declaration of Independence.
It is
possible that the First Amendment to
the United States Constitution -
guaranteeing freedom of religion - was written in appreciation for Carroll's
considerable financial support during the Revolutionary War.
Carroll was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence,
and until his death in 1832 he was its last living signatory.
Samuel Chase
Samuel
Chase, firebrand revolutionary and later a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Samuel Chase (1741–1811),
was a "firebrand" states-righter and revolutionary, and was a
signatory to the United States Declaration of
Independence as
a representative of Maryland. He co-founded Anne Arundel County's Sons of Liberty chapter with his close
friend William Paca,
and led opposition to the 1765 Stamp Act. Later he became an Associate Justice
of the United States Supreme Court.
Loyalist opposition
Daniel
Dulaney the Younger proposed "a legal, orderly, and prudent
resentment" rather than war.
One
prominent Loyalist was Daniel Dulaney the Younger, Mayor of Annapolis,
and an influential lawyer in the period immediately before the Revolution.
Dulany was a noted opposer of the Stamp Act 1765, and wrote the noted
pamphlet Considerations on
the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies which argued against taxation without representation. The pamphlet has been described
as "the ablest effort of this kind produced in America". In the
pamphlet, Dulany summarized his position as follows: "There may be a time
when redress may not be obtained. Till then, I shall recommend a legal,
orderly, and prudent resentment".Eventually, as war became inevitable,
Dulany (like many others) found his essentially moderate position untenable and
he found himself forced to choose sides. Dulany was not able to rebel against
the Crown he and his family had served so long. He believed that protest rather
than force should furnish the solution to America's problems, and that legal
process, logic, and the "prudent" exercise of "agreements"
would eventually prevail upon the British to concede the colonists' demands.
Coming of Revolution
In
1774, committees of correspondence sprung up throughout the colonies, offering
support to Boston, Massachusetts,
after the British closed the port and increased the occupying military force.
Massachusetts had asked for a general meeting or Continental Congress to
consider joint action by all the colonies. To forestall any such action, the
royal governor of Maryland, Sir Robert Eden prorogued the
Maryland colonial assembly on April 19, 1774. This was the last session of the
colonial assembly ever held in Maryland.
Painting
by Francis Blackwell Mayer,
1896, depicting the burning of the Peggy Stewart at
the Annapolis Tea Party, October 19, 1774.
On
October 19, 1774, the Peggy Stewart,
a Maryland cargo vessel, was set alight and burned by an angry mob in
Annapolis, punishing the ship's captain for contravening the boycott on tea imports and mimicking the events of the more
famous Boston Tea Party in
December 1773. This event has since become known as the "Annapolis Tea
Party".
In May
1774, according to local legend, the Chestertown Tea Party took
place in Chestertown, Maryland,
during which Maryland patriots boarded the brigantine Geddes in broad daylight
and threw its cargo of tea into the Chester River, as a protest against taxes
imposed by the British Tea Act. The event is still celebrated
to this day each Memorial Day weekend with a festival and
historic re-enactment known as the Chestertown Tea Party Festival.
Governor
Eden returned to Maryland from England shortly after the Peggy Stewart was
burned. On December 30, 1774, he wrote:
The
spirit of resistance against the Tea Act, or any mode of internal
taxation, is as strong and universal here as ever. I firmly believe that they
will undergo any hardship sooner than acknowledge a right in the British Parliament in
that particular, and will persevere in their non-importation and
non-exportation experiments, in spite of every inconvenience that they must
consequently be exposed to, and the total loss of their trade.
Despite
such protests, and a growing sense that war was inevitable, Maryland still held
back from full independence from Great Britain, and gave instructions to that
effect to its delegates to the First Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in September 1774.
Assembly of Freemen
Thomas Johnson,
Maryland's first elected governor under its 1776 Constitution.
During
this initial phase of the Revolutionary period, Maryland was governed by
the Assembly of Freemen,
an Assembly of the state's counties.
The first convention lasted four days, from June 22 to June 25, 1774. All
sixteen counties then existing were represented by a total of 92 members; Matthew Tilghman was elected chairman.
The
eighth session decided that the continuation of an ad-hoc government by the
convention was not a good mechanism for all the concerns of the province. A
more permanent and structured government was needed. So, on July 3, 1776, they
resolved that a new convention be elected that would be responsible for drawing
up their first state constitution,
one that did not refer to parliament or the king, but would be a
government "...of the people only." After they set
dates and prepared notices to the counties they adjourned. On August 1, all
freemen with property elected delegates for the last convention. The ninth and
last convention was also known as the Constitutional
Convention of 1776.
They drafted a constitution, and when they adjourned on November 11, they would
not meet again. The Conventions were replaced by the new state government which
the Maryland Constitution of 1776 had established. Thomas Johnson became
the state's first elected governor.
Declaration of
Independence
Maryland declared independence
from Britain in
1776, with Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton signing the Declaration of Independence for the colony.
In 1777,
all Maryland voters were required to take the Oath of Fidelity and Support. This was an oath swearing allegiance to the state
of Maryland and denying allegiance and
obedience to Great Britain.
As enacted by the Maryland General Assembly in 1777, all persons holding any office of
profit or trust, including attorneys at law, and all voters were required to
take the oath no later than March 1, 1778. It was signed by 3,136
residents of Montgomery and Washington counties.
On March
1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation took effect with Maryland's ratification. The
articles had initially been submitted to the states on November 17, 1777, but
the ratification process dragged on for several years, stalled by an interstate
quarrel over claims to uncolonised land in the west. Maryland was the last
hold-out; it refused to ratify until Virginia and New York agreed to rescind
their claims to lands in what became the Northwest Territory.
Maryland
would later accept the United States Constitution more readily, ratifying it on April 28, 1788.
Although
no major Battles of the American Revolutionary
War occurred
in Maryland, this did not prevent the state's soldiers from distinguishing
themselves through their service. General George Washington was impressed with the
Maryland regulars (the "Maryland Line") who fought in the Continental Army and, according to one
tradition, this led him to bestow the name "Old Line State" on
Maryland.
The state also filled other roles during the
war. For instance, the Continental Congress met
briefly in Baltimore from December 20, 1776,
through March 4, 1777. Baltimore served as the temporary capital of the
colonies when the Second Continental Congress met there during December 1776 to February
1777, (when Philadelphia was occupied by the British, meeting at the old "Henry Fite House", a substantial
three-and-half story brick structure on the western edge of town (beyond the
possible cannon range of any British Royal Navy ships that might try to
force a passage upstream on the Patapsco River from the Chesapeake Bay to the Harbor),
The
building was later a tavern/hotel, then named "Congress Hall" after the sessions held
there at Market Street (previously Long Street and later West Baltimore Street)
and South Sharp-and later North Liberty Street.
Marylander John Hanson served as President of the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1782. Hanson
was the first person to serve a full term as President of the Congress under
the Articles of Confederation. From November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784,
Annapolis served as the United States capital and the Confederation Congress
met in the Maryland State House.
(Annapolis was a candidate to become the new nation's permanent capital
before Washington, D.C. was
built). It was in the old senate chamber[ that George Washington
resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783.
It was also there that the Treaty of Paris,
which ended the Revolutionary War, was ratified by Congress on January 14,
1784.
Loyalists and the war
Main
article: Loyalist (American Revolution)
Sir Robert Eden,
last colonial Governor of Maryland
During
the war many Marylanders, such as Benedict Swing
On May
13, 1777 Benedict Swingate Calvert was forced to resign his position as Judge
of the Land Office, and, as the conflict grew,
he became fearful of his family's safety, writing in late 1777 that his family
"has been made so uneasy by these frequent outrages" that he wished
to "remove my family and property where I can get protection".
Calvert
did not leave Maryland, nor did he involve himself in the fighting, though he
did on occasion supply the Continental Army with food and provisions. After the war, he
had to pay triple taxes as did other Loyalists, but he was never forced to sign
the loyalty oath and his lands and property
remained unconfiscated.
African Americans and
the war
The
principal cause of the American Revolution was liberty, but only on
behalf of white men, and certainly not slaves. The British, desperately short
of manpower, sought to enlist African American soldiers to fight on behalf of
the Crown, promising them liberty in exchange.
As a result
of the looming crisis in 1775 the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation that promised freedom to
servants and slaves who were able to bear arms
and join his Loyalist Ethiopian Regiment:
... I do
require every Person capable of bearing Arms, to resort to His MAJESTY'S
STANDARD, or be looked upon as Traitors to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Government,
and thereby become liable to the Penalty the Law inflicts upon such Offenses;
such as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, &. &. And I do
hereby further declare all indented Servants,
Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to
bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY'S Troops as soon as may be, for the more
speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty, to His MAJESTY'S
Crown and Dignity.
— Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, November 7, 1775
About
800 men joined up; some helped rout the Virginia militia at the Battle of Kemp's
Landing and
fought in the Battle of Great Bridge on the Elizabeth River, wearing the motto "Liberty
to Slaves", but this time they were defeated. The remains of their
regiment were then involved in the evacuation of Norfolk,
after which they served in the Chesapeake area. Unfortunately the
camp that they had set up there suffered an outbreak of smallpox and
other diseases. This took a heavy toll, putting many of them out of action for
some time. The survivors joined other British units and continued to serve
throughout the war.
Blacks
were often the first to come forward to volunteer and a total of 12,000 blacks
served with the British from 1775 to 1783. This factor had the effect of
forcing the rebels to also offer freedom to those who would serve in the
Continental army. Such promises were often reneged upon by both sides.
In
general though, the war left the institution of slavery largely unaffected, and
the prosperous life of Maryland planters continued.
After the war
The
Official flag of the State of Maryland still retains the arms of the Calvert family, the Barons Baltimore.
In
1783, Henry Harford, the last proprietarial governor
of Maryland and the illegitimate son of Frederick Calvert, 6th
Baron Baltimore,
attempted to recover his estates in Maryland which had been confiscated during
the American Revolution, where he was a witness to George Washington's resignation of command at Annapolis. He and
Governor Eden were
invited to stay at the home of Dr. Upton Scott and his nephew, Francis Scott Key. However, he had no success in retrieving his land,
in spite of the fact that Charles Carroll of
Carrollton and Samuel Chase argued
in his favour. In 1786, the case was decided by the Maryland General Assembly. Although it passed in the
House, the Senate unanimously rejected it. In their reasoning for this
rejection, the Senate cited Henry's absence during the war, and his father
Frederick's alienation of his subjects, as major factors.
Returning
to Britain, he claimed compensation through the English courts and was awarded
£100,000.
Some
trace of the Calvert family's proprietarial rule in Maryland
still remains. Frederick County,
Maryland, is
named after the last Baron Baltimore, and the official flag of the State of
Maryland, uniquely among the 50 states, bears witness to their family legacy.
1.
^ Presumably, part of the
regiment was detached with Ramsey, but this is not directly stated by the
source.
References[edit]
1.
^ Jump up to:a b Boatner,
Mark M. III (1994). Encyclopedia of the American Revolution.
Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books. p. 436. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1.
2.
^ Wright, Robert K. Jr. (1983). "Lineage". The Continental
Army. United States Army
Center of Military History.
pp. 277–280. CMH Pub 60-4. Retrieved 28
May 2006.
3.
^ McGuire, Thomas J. (2006). The Philadelphia
Campaign, Volume I. Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books. p. 217. ISBN 0-8117-0178-6.
4.
^ McGuire, Thomas J. (2006). The Philadelphia
Campaign, Volume I. Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books. p. 171. ISBN 0-8117-0178-6.
5.
^ McGuire, Thomas J. (2006). The Philadelphia
Campaign, Volume I. Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books.
pp. 220–223. ISBN 0-8117-0178-6.
6.
^ McGuire, Thomas J. (2006). The Philadelphia
Campaign, Volume I. Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books. p. 224. ISBN 0-8117-0178-6.
7.
^ Morrissey, Brendan (2008). Monmouth Courthouse
1778: The last great battle in the North. Long Island City, N.Y.: Osprey
Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-84176-772-7.
8.
^ Boatner, Mark M. III (1994). Encyclopedia of
the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books.
p. 912. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1.
9.
^ Morrissey, Brendan (2008). Monmouth Courthouse
1778: The last great battle in the North. Long Island City, N.Y.: Osprey
Publishing. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-84176-772-7.
10.
^ Morrissey, Brendan (2008). Monmouth Courthouse
1778: The last great battle in the North. Long Island City, N.Y.: Osprey
Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-84176-772-7.
11.
^ Morrissey, Brendan (2008). Monmouth Courthouse
1778: The last great battle in the North. Long Island City, N.Y.: Osprey
Publishing. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-84176-772-7.
12.
^ Morrissey, Brendan (2008). Monmouth Courthouse
1778: The last great battle in the North. Long Island City, N.Y.: Osprey Publishing.
p. 56. ISBN 978-1-84176-772-7.
Further reading[edit]
·
Balch, Thomas
(1857). Papers Relating Chiefly to the Maryland Line During the
Revolution. Philadelphia. p. 218 pgs.
·
Christian,
Bernard (1972) [1900]. Muster Rolls &
other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution
1775-1783 ((HTML)) (Reprint
ed.). Baltimore, Maryland: Lord Baltimore Press, Maryland Historical Society.
p. 736 pgs. Retrieved 29
May 2006.
·
McGuire,
Thomas J. (2007). The Philadelphia Campaign, Volume II. Mechanicsburg,
Penn.: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-0206-5.
·
Bibliography of the
Continental Army in Maryland compiled by the United States Army Center of Military
History
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